"This exceptionally striking image was created by Picasso as a poster for the bullfighting at Vallauris in 1953. It is one of the earliest of the images that he drew for the bullring there. The treatment of the image, of the linked profiles of the spectators seen in the form of a cut-out silhouette, is a typical example of how Picasso could approach a new project and totally cast aside all the conventional treatments of the idea and create something totally new, both in concept and in technique... Conceived as an indian ink drawing it was then cut and printed as a lino block, using the sharp outline of the block to make all the definition of form and the separation of the figures from within the single flat surface of the silhouette" (Weston) "Picasso received commissions from the Vallauris Potters Association to make posters to promote the region and its products. That was when Picasso became a successful poster artist. From this date on, with his intuition of genius and the virtuosity which accompanied his artistic production, Picasso began to produce posters of great originality, some of them true masterpieces" (Picasso p.22)