The Spanish Masters: Picasso, Dalí and Miró

The Contessa Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio is proud to announce the opening of a world-class exhibition “The Spanish Masters”. A number of great artists have lived and worked in Spain. Among them some of the most prolific and famous artists of the 20^th century came from the Catalan region, including Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí, whose works will be on view and for sale in one exhibition at the Contessa Gallery.

The greatest painter and most innovative sculptor of the twentieth century, Pablo Picasso was also its foremost printer. His graphic oeuvre spans more than seven decades, from 1899 to 1972. His published prints total approximately 2,000 different images pulled from metal, stone, wood, linoleum and celluloid. Picasso spent most of his life in France but his work often used imagery from his native country.

A flamboyant painter and sometime writer, sculptor and experimental film-maker, Salvador Dalí is considered the greatest Surrealist artist, using bizarre dreamlike imagery to create unforgettable and unmistakable landscapes of his inner world. Dalí was a virtuoso master of drypoint, an Old Master technique used in most of his intaglio prints included in the exhibition. During his lifetime Dalí lived in Europe and the United States, but the scenes of his native Figueres, Spain can be found in many of his works.  

Of the modern Spanish painters who remained in Spain, the most illustrious was Joan Miró. He spent a good deal of time in Paris but lived mainly in and around his native Barcelona, and later on the island of Majorca. An immensely prolific and versatile artist, he created a distinctive and witty style blending Surrealism and abstraction. 

The printmaking techniques are often very complicated to perform, therefore the assistance of an expert printer is often required.  Fernand Mourlot has long been the acknowledged master printer of France, whose collaboration with Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró has resulted in hundreds of spectacular prints. The unfailing quality of his works commands the respect of museums, collectors, and most important of all, the artists themselves.  Joining us at the opening receptions is Eric Mourlot, the grandson of Fernand Mourlot, who will give a lecture on the art of printmaking and a perspective on his grandfather’s collaboration with these historic artists.