PICASSO PABLO: (1881-1973) Spanish Painter, a co-founder of the Cubist movement. A rare slim small 8vo colour ...

PICASSO PABLO: (1881-1973) Spanish Painter, a co-founder of the Cubist movement. A rare slim small 8vo colour printed admittance ticket to a bullfight signed by Picasso, the event taking place at the Plaza Toros de Nimes on Sunday, 24th May 1953 and the ticket (marked Premiere B, Rang 1) featuring a colour illustration to the centre of two toreros. Signed ('Picasso') by Picasso in blue ink to the upper border and dated 24th May 1953 in his hand. Very slightly irregularly torn to the lower edge. Together with a printed 4to souvenir programme issued for the centenary of the Feria de Nimes 1853-1953, featuring various images and printed text relating to bullfights and various toreros, including Antonio Ordonez, the blank inside front cover featuring a good, original bold black crayon drawing executed and signed by Edouard Pignon, the image depicting a bull. Signed and inscribed by Pignon at the base of the image. Some light overall age wear, about VG, 2 Signed souvenirs by Picasso related to his great passion for bullfighting are rare and desirable and, as Paloma Alarco of Madrid's Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional so accurately observed, 'The close relationship between the world of bullfighting and Picasso's oeuvre is unquestionable. From his childhood days in Malaga, where his father often took him to the bullring, he was greatly fascinated by the national sport. In addition to the artistic possibilities of the bullfight…..Picasso regarded it as an expression of Spanishness'. Picasso regularly attended the Plaza Toros at Nimes from the autumn of 1947 until 1955, quite often with the bullfighting chronicler Andre Castel, as well as Picasso's lover at the time, Francoise Gilot, the surrealist writer Michel Leiris, and his friend Jean Cocteau. Edouard Pignon (1905-1993) French artist, a friend of Picasso with whom he shared a workshop in Vallauris from 1951-52.