In the top left of this work the artist depicts Picasso in the studio where he painted 'Guernica' and beneath him Kitaj has mismatched the Spanish-born artist with the signature of fellow artist Braque. A reference towards the centre of the work, celebrating the latter as a 'Great French Innovator', provides a further wry instance of disjunction. Kitaj uses the Cubist palette of colours, deep muted greens, browns and greys, but instead of the ordered, fragmented forms of a Cubist collage he uses large uneven shapes and fancy papers and textures. Also rather than adopting the Cubist style of drawing motifs from cafe society, Kitaj uses a facsimile of a 19th century permit for prostitution coupled with a note publicising a booklet entitled 'What is an Original Print?' published by the Print Council of America. 'The Defects of its Qualities' won the Bradford Biennale of 1967, establishing Kitaj as a printmaker. It was editioned in September 1966.