PARIS.- The New York Times reported that master printmaker Aldo Crommelynck, 77, died at his home in Paris. He collaborated with artists such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Jim Dine, and Jasper Johns. According to Pace Prints in Manhattan, he died of pneumonia. He produced all of Picasso’s prints done after 1961. Aldo Crommelynck partnered with Pace Prints in 1986 and worked with Chuck Close, Alex Katz, Jim Dine, and Ed Ruscha. The Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris featured a solo show on him titled “Aldo et Moi” in 2007.

Whitney Museum of American Art director Adam D. Weinberg stated, “He was one of the great printers of the 20th century, an alchemist as much as a master technician. He was a traditionalist, in the sense of having absolute command of his craft, but at the same time he would breathe life into things.”

Aldo Crommelynck was born in Monaco and apprenticed under Roger Lacourière, a French printmaker and family friend when he was 17. In 1953 he won the Chardin Prize. He mastered the intaglio printing method. He worked for artists such as Fernand Leger, Miró, Rouault and Masson. He also developed a special working relationship with Picasso.