VALENCIA.- "Picasso linocuts. Portraits of Jacqueline", which opened last week and can be visited until March 1, pretends to be a reflection of the relationship Picasso had with women, one of the most controversial facets of his work.

The show, which gathers just six linocuts – all of them from 1962 – and a documentary of the relationship of the creator with Jacqueline, is "a very close approximation, a zoom in" to a concrete series by the painter, the most calm that he dedicated to his lovers, according to the curator of the collection, Juan Carrete, during the presentation.

Picasso’s relationship with his women –which between wives and lovers amounted to thirteen- has marked not only his biography, but his own work, and all of them where a great creative stimulus for the painter.

The artist reflected his women in function to the state of mind that crossed in each phase of his relationships: from desire, to indifference, pain and even repugnancy towards someone that was once loved, whom he could paint as a pig, said Carrete.

But, all the portraits of Jacqueline, the "only woman with whom things did not end badly”, are without violence, and reflect “the calmness, balance and perfection” that the lover offered the artist during the last 20 years of his life.

Picasso saw in this young woman from Paris, almost 50 years younger than the artist, the beauty of Spanish women, while she, submissive and docile according to some biographers, gave him the tranquility and care that the painter needed until his death.

During two decades, Picasso painted Jacqueline on different occasions, even though his most prolific year, with 70 portraits, was 1962, the date of the six linoleums exhibited.

In them, the cubist face of the loved one fits two profiles, one feminine and another masculine, united by a kiss, and one perceives a serene look and expression, said the curator.

"This is a chamber exhibition", characterized by “the unity in the technique used", with which Bancaja Cultural Center pretends to give "an exquisite vision", away from other exhibitions.

These six images edited by the Louise Liris Gallery in Paris in 1963 where made by Hidalgo Arnera the year before, with the mold from the original linoleums and are part of the series of artist proofs signed by Picasso, only eight of the 35 made.

In collaboration with Arnera, Picasso used the linocut technique, even though he inverted the process: instead of using one block for each colored used in the portrait, according to the traditional process, using just one for all of them.

According to Carrete, Picasso “incorporated the technique to the creative process”, where he cut out and used the linoleums again and changed colors to create new linocuts, which allowed him to “break with the idea of the original proof”.

These linocuts had never before been exhibited to the public, according to the general manager of the Bancaja Foundation, Miguel Ángel Utrillas, who has said that the Collection will be travel to other venues just as other exhibitions have done so.