Pablo Picasso 1881-1973, complete in two volumes: Volume I: the works, 1890-1936; Volume II, The Works 1937-1973 by Warncke, Carsten-Peter; Ingo F. Walther, ed - 1994

Koln: Benedikt Taschen, 1994. Hardcover. As New/As New. 4to 11" - 13" tall. Pablo Picasso. A superior set, complete in two volumes, tight, bright and clean inside and out, two tall, heavy quarto volumes in hardcover, with unbruised tips, tight bindings, and clean internals, showing neither appreciable shelf- nor edge-wear; not ex-library, with neither underlining nor highlighting anywhere. Bright red cloth covers, with a line drawing of Picasso, by Picasso, in blue lettering and with a flourish. Bright and shiny dust jackets, illustrated, showing no appreciable wear, not price-clipped. Gift-quality condition inside and out. Housed in a simple but illustrated-in-paper-over-boards slip-case, bright blue and red, and featuring a likeness of Pablo Picasso in mid-career, photographed by Irving Penn! Volume I is titled "The Works 1890-1936," and Volume II, "The Works 1937-1973," and the set is edited by Ingo F. Walther. "Seated Harlequin," a painting held in a private collection, graces the front cover of Volume I. Volume II's dust jacket is graced by Picasso's painting, "Horse's Head," held in a public museum in Madrid. Pablo Ruiz Picasso, the Spaniard, was born in 1881 and lived until 1973, a master painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright, and who lived predominantly in France. The publisher's blurb has it that, "Regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), and Guernica (1937), a dramatic portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by the German and Italian air forces during the Spanish Civil War . . . This book attempts to map out Picasso s entire output, in paintings and drawings, etchings and lithographs, sculptures and ceramics from his precocious boyhood beginnings in Malaga to the late work by the old savage of Mougins." The 60-page appendices include a detailed chronology of his life-white. Nearly 1,000 illustrations in full, glorious color, and another nearly 500 in black-and-white. 740 pp. between the two. Massively heavy, oversized volumes, bespeaking the high-quality paper on which these arresting images are printed. This is among the finest compendia of Picasso's life and work you'll likely ever see. Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. Additional postage may be required for oversize or especially heavy volumes, and for sets.