In this context, The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao approached long-standing Durst customer Estudios Durero, a company that “imagines, creates and develops new forms of graphic production”, to print the reworked Picasso on a unique, hand-woven linen material with special white coating supplied by the museum, especially for the assignment. It had a total dimension of 3.5 x 7.8 meters.
Estudios Durero and Mr. Ballester spent a day in the Customer Experience Center at the Durst headquarters in Brixen, Italy, with the goal to print the Picasso Guernica interpretation on a Durst Rho 512 six-color machine. And they only had one chance – the available material was sufficient for only one print run, which meant no test print on the final material was possible.
“It has been a true honor for us and for Durst to develop this special project together with José Manuel Ballester and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao,” said the owner of Estudios Durero, Ander Soriano. “No other company could have done it. In Picasso’s original work and in Ballester’s reinterpretation, the painting only uses a very wide range of grays and a very high resolution in all its shades, so the print quality must be exceptionally high to offer a true value to its reproduction. And that would have been impossible without the Durst Rho 512 6 C ”.
With reference to Durst, Mr. Ballester said: “In order to launch this project, in this context, we have had many collaborators. Having the best technology to make this possible was a privilege.”
Rafael Carbonell, Managing Director, Durst Iberica, said: “Estudios Durero has been a loyal customer and it was a real honor for Durst to support the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in this special project. When you are printing only black, gray, and white the quality needs to be exceptionally high to give arts its true value.”
Christian Harder, Durst Group’s Head of Graphics, said: “In conjunction with Durst Iberica, we were extremely proud and delighted to welcome Mr. Ballester and Mr. Soriano to our global headquarters where they were able to witness first hand our world-class facilities and technology. The unique linen materials were specially prepared for this art print. In reality that meant one chance, no test printing. And the results speak for themselves. The visitors to the museum exhibition have been amazed at the outstanding print quality.”