Affiches originales des maîtres de l'ecole de Paris [Original Posters of the Masters of the School of Paris]

With the perfection of multi-stone, color lithography in the mid-to-late nineteenth century, poster art became a popular and inexpensive way to advertize in metropolises like Barcelona and Paris. Picasso entered his first poster contest in his late teens. Though he won the consolation prize, he was only interested in the monetary reward. Early in his career in Paris, he started receiving commissions for posters, but not all of his designs were accepted. Picasso then sporadically explored this art form, returning to it about every twenty years until 1948 when his interest truly revealed itself. This image was created for an exhibition of original posters in Paris in 1959.