This rare lithographic poster Peace, Disarmament, For the Success of the Summit Conference, Paris belongs to Picasso’s celebrated Dove of Peace series, which began in 1949 when poet Louis Aragon selected his lithograph La Colombe for the first Paris Peace Conference. The image – both simple and distinctive – was instantly embraced, and Picasso went on to create further designs for peace congresses across Europe, including this 1960 edition.

The dove quickly became an international symbol, appearing in posters, prints and drawings for events in cities such as Wrocław, Stockholm, Sheffield, Vienna, Rome and Moscow. Widely distributed by the Peace Movement, these works helped cement Picasso’s global reputation, and this example is a particularly elegant iteration of the theme.

For Picasso, the dove held both political and personal meaning: he had drawn them since childhood in Málaga, encouraged by his father, who first taught him to paint.

Mourlot
1 of 2,500 Editions