Pablo Picasso -- Acrobat on Horseback from Toros y Toreros

Pablo Picasso
Acrobat on Horseback from Toros y Toreros, 1961
Lithograph 
Sheet size: 26.7 x 37 cm
Publisher: Éditions Cercle d'Art, Paris.
 
This lithograph by Pablo Picasso, dated July 10, 1959, and published in the 1961 volume Toros y Toreros, captures a moment of bold motion and abstraction. Rendered in expressive black lines over a gray wash, it depicts a dynamic acrobat balancing atop a rearing horse. The fluid contours and calligraphic energy convey immediacy and controlled spontaneity, characteristic of Picasso’s graphic works from the late 1950s. Despite its apparent simplicity, the image conveys power, tension, and grace. Published by Maeght Éditeur in Paris, alongside text by the renowned bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguín, the series explores spectacle, ritual, and human-animal interaction, blending Picasso’s lifelong interest in Spanish bullfighting with his late mastery of line and gesture