A near-complete series of prints showcasing the artist’s technical virtuosity and lifelong obsessions is on show for the first time in France in over 50 years.
In autumn 1968, at an age when most artists have long since laid down their tools, 87-year-old Pablo Picasso began what would become the most prolific printmaking marathon of his career. Over seven feverish months, he produced 347 etchings, a lifetime’s work for any other engraver. Then, between 1970 and 1972, he created his final series: 156 prints that would prove to be his last testament in the medium.
These late works were first exhibited at Galerie Louise Leiris in Paris in 1973, mere weeks before Picasso’s death that April. After a 1980 showing at the Bowles/Hopkins Gallery in San Francisco, and a 2016 exhibition at Barcelona’s Museu Picasso, the series appeared most recently at Museum Ludwig in Cologne in 2023-2024. Now it has arrived in Aix-en-Provence at the 21bis Mirabeau cultural space as only the fifth exhibition venue in over 50 years. “Les 156″ remains on view through January 4, 2026.
The “156 series” demonstrates his full mastery of intaglio techniques: etching, aquatint, drypoint, scraper, often layered on a single plate. Printed in editions of 68 proofs, the works bear not Picasso’s signature but the stamp of the gallery, applied after his death. The plates follow no specific order and carry no titles. Despite its original title for the series, only 155 prints are actually on display because plate 7 was lost decades ago.
The story of these works dates back to 1961, when Picasso retreated to his newly acquired Notre-Dame-de-Vie estate in Mougins, purchased from the Guinness family of Irish brewing fame. Here, master printmakers Piero and Aldo Crommelynck set up a workshop in a converted bakery near his estate in 1963, printing proofs each morning and preparing new plates for the next day. This proximity allowed Picasso to experiment freely, producing some 750 plates and nearly 30,000 impressions over the Mougins decade.
Video via Film for Change on YouTube
The series returns to subjects that had preoccupied Picasso throughout his career. Voyeuristic scenes of artists and models dominate, with painters gazing at voluptuous nudes. Degas appears repeatedly, a surrogate for the perpetual observer. Rembrandt’s characters parade through in costume. Raphael cavorts with La Fornarina while Michelangelo peers from beneath the bed. There are echoes of Les Demoiselles d’Avignon from sixty-five years earlier, sculptural women rendered in bold, simplified forms. The circus and acrobats from his youth return, along with African masks, fauns, and minotaurs.
The line work is spontaneous, nervous, sometimes jubilant, sometimes sneering, sometimes desperate. Co-curator Caroline Lemoine notes the range: “Some works are extremely clear, others on the contrary very dark. We also find several portraits and self-portraits of old age, with a certain distance and derision.” The thematic groupings (the studio, old age, the model) reveal the breadth of Picasso’s artistic vocabulary as he revisited and recombined his lifetime obsessions.
Photos courtesy and © Susan Gish
Yet these technical achievements cannot be separated from their troubling context. Modern scholarship has documented Picasso’s abusive treatment of his companions, several of whom suffered from depression or took their own lives. “We must not hide it,” Caroline Lemoine states plainly. “He was odious with women.” An exhibition placard addresses this directly, and three mediators are available to discuss the context with visitors. The curatorial approach aims to view art history with lucidity, acknowledging both the artist’s genius and his destructive behavior.
The prints now on display originally came from the collection of print dealer Henri Petiet (1894-1980). Carefully preserved by Petiet, the suite made only three public appearances until it appeared at the Ader auction house in Paris in June 2021. Auctioneer David Nordmann purchased the 155-print set and subsequently lent it to gallerist Baudoin Lebon, co-curator of the Aix exhibition. Sets of the 156 series are exceedingly rare; that these works are now on view represents a significant gesture by the Département des Bouches-du-Rhône.
The 21bis Mirabeau gallery proves an ideal venue for this exhibition. Housed in a seventeenth-century hôtel particulieron the Cours Mirabeau, the space opened in 2019 as part of the Département’s commitment to making culture accessible throughout the region. The building’s intimate scale suits work that demands close examination, where every mark and scratch reveals Picasso’s hand at work, where the energy of line and the layering of techniques become visible. For prints that have been rarely shown together, this combination of accessibility and educational programming makes the venue particularly well-suited to introduce contemporary audiences to Picasso’s late graphic work.
The “156″ series demonstrates the full range of Picasso’s thematic preoccupations. These are not easy works. They make no concessions to beauty or comfort. But they showcase an artist working with complete freedom and command of his medium, revisiting, recombining, and ultimately synthesizing the obsessions that drove seven decades of creative output.
VISITOR INFORMATION
Picasso: Les 156 Dernières Gravures
21 bis Mirabeau, Aix-en-Provence
Through January 4, 2026 | Wednesday–Sunday, 11:30 am–6:30 pm
Admission: Free
Daily guided tours at 5:30 pm (group reservations required)
Mediation workshops: Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, 2–4 pm
Wheelchair access via 15 rue Courteissade
Additional works on view at Parallax gallery, 3 rue des Epinaux (through November 22, 2025)
CONTACT DETAILS
Espace culturel départemental 21, bis Mirabeau
21 Cr Mirabeau
13100 Aix-en-Provence
Tel: +33 (0)4 13 31 68 36
galérie Parallax
3 Rue des Epinaux
13100 Aix-en-Provence
Tel: +33 (0)6 60 55 20 60
All images courtesy Département des Bouches-du-Rhône except lead image and slideshow images © and courtesy Susan Gish
Share article