The Embrace belongs to a series of five lithographs that Ediciones Polígrafa of Barcelona published in 1972 with work by Rafael Canogar, of which two out-of-commerce copies are preserved in the collection. The titles of the series —The Demonstration, The Game of War, The Soldier Musicians, The Embrace and Study for a Monument— clearly define its character: it is a set of social and political content created during the dictatorship. The edition consists of 75 numbered copies and a variant in different colors numbered from I to XXV.

The composition shows two embracing figures that merge into a single dark silhouette against a background of ochre and black tones. The inclined heads and intertwined arms are the only recognizable elements; the rest of the body dissolves into the dark mass. The combination of lithography and photolithography allows Canogar to work with a dense and textured tonal range, with flashes of light that emerge on the hands and faces. It is an image of solidarity and protection that, in the context of his production, acquires a clear political dimension.

Canogar had been one of the founders of the El Paso Group in 1957, the generation that renewed Spanish painting from informalism. In the early seventies, his work underwent a shift toward committed figuration, with images of bodies in tension, multitudes and collective gestures that directly responded to the political climate of the moment.