Picasso is included in “America’s Homage,” the sixth and final volume of prints comprising the portfolio Hommage à Picasso. It was published between 1973 and 1975 in celebration of Picasso’s ninetieth birthday, and the other prints in the portfolio are by Allan D’Arcangelo, Dan Flavin, Walter de Maria, Louise Nevelson, Claes Oldenburg, Peter Palermo, Larry Rivers, James Rosenquist, Ernest Trova, and Andy Warhol.
The print, which incorporates many references to the artist’s life, is dominated by a circle whose outer ring contains the names of towns in which Picasso lived and painted. Inside the circle are two back-to-back letter “P”s, which stand for Pablo Picasso and comprise the first letter for other references to the artist’s life. These include Paris, where he lived most of his adult life, Paulo, the name of his only legitimate child, and Pallarès (Manuel), an artist and close friend (Picasso painted his portrait in 1909). Ruiz, which runs diagonally across the two “P”s, was Picasso’s birth name, and 1881, which appears at the bottom of the circle, is the year he was born.
At the top of the circle is the French phrase “Ma Jolie.” Indiana references this phrase in his statement for his Decade: Autoportraits, Vinalhaven Suite (1980) print for the year 1974: ”On my fourth visit to the Caribbean I ate often a restaurant called Majolie, but it is also a word in my portrait of Picasso, recently painted at that time, for it was one of his favorite words, too.” Ma Jolie (1911-12) is also the title of a Picasso painting at Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Indiana translated this print into an oil painting that same year, reversing his usual procedure of following a painting with a print. The painting bears the same title as the print and repeats the composition, although much of the text has been removed.