An original poster created for the Congres des Ecrivains et Artistes Noirs (Congress of Black Writers and Artists) at the Sorbonne University in Paris, 1956, organised by the pan- African quarterly Présence Africane. The first in a number of gathering’s, the aim was to bring together leading black intellectuals for the purpose of addressing the issues of colonialism, slavery and Négritude. It was organised by Alioune Diop and included Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Jacques Rabemananjara, Cheikh Anta Diop, Richard Wright, Franz Fanon, and Jean Price-Mars. Picasso was asked to design a poster for the event and this is one of the original copies which was printed in a limited edition of 500 by Mourlot, Paris. The central portrait is of the poet Aimé Césaire whom Picasso met in 1948 at the Communist-led World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace, in Wroclaw, Poland. Picasso and Césaire shared a joint interest in Communist politics and African art, they shared Surrealism's interest in dreams, the power of the unconscious mind, and the irrational and fantastic.
