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Review: A life of Picasso

Avis de journaliste - Kirkus Reviews

The biography's long-awaited third volume finds the prolific artist at work in Italy, Spain and France. Richardson (Sacred Monsters, Sacred Masters: Beaton, Capote, Dal", Picasso, Freud, Warhol, and More, 2001, etc.) lives up to expectations, delivering another fastidious examination of the painter's life. He opens with Picasso and poet/filmmaker Jean Cocteau in Rome, working together on materials for Sergei Diaghilev's 1917 ballet, Parade. Richardson makes note of Picasso and Cocteau's dalliances with the dancers and documents the painter's flirtation with the Russian dancer Olga Khokhlova, which ultimately resulted in marriage. Their tumultuous relationship forms a generous portion of this weighty tome. The author spots early warning signs that their relationship was doomed. Picasso continued indulging his addiction to whorehouses, for example, while sequestering Olga in his Parisian villa in 1917 and '18. This period also saw the cementing of his friendship with musician Erik Satie. The most interesting sections contain Richardson's interpretations of Picasso's art in relation to his always-unstable personal life. The paintings of Olga in particular, the biographer notes, undergo a remarkable transformation from affectionate portraits to images "seething with ridicule and rage." The birth of their son Paulo in 1921 did nothing to halt Picasso's affairs with other women. In 1927, he began his famous liaison with teenage Marie-Thr'se Walter, chronicled in lurid detail that documents the artist's sadomasochistic tendencies. Asides on Cocteau's and Satie's lives provide a welcome diversion as this period unfolds. Richardson chronicles Cocteau's hopeless opium addiction and notes that Picasso was so close to Satie that he found it "too painful" to attend the composer's funeral. The author also makes some interesting points on latter-day bidding wars over Picasso's works, describing Dream, painted not long before the volume closes in 1932, as "sullied" by its $139 million price tag and its current resting place in a Las Vegas casino. Engrossing and revealing material, supplemented by innumerable reproductions of Picasso's paintings and many period photos.

Review: A life of Picasso

Avis de journaliste - Kirkus Reviews

Richardson's engrossing second volume on Picasso lays bare the inceptions of Cubism, bringing to life the decadent milieu that surrounded the virile master who transformed the course of 20th-century painting. This installment in the author's monumental biography opens on the eve of Picasso's painting of the revolutionary Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, which, incidentally, wasn't publicly exhibited until 1916, nor was it hailed as revolutionary until the early '20s Coy Andr‚ Breton). The painting was so radical that it shocked even the band of cronies who never left Picasso's side--including Max Jacob and Apollinaire--who, upon viewing it, ""took refuge in embarrassed silence."" Although Picasso later denied it, the women's angular feature had been influenced by tribal masks--he was fascinated by these fetishes functioning as weapons to ward off evil spirits--but he was deeply affected by the work of El Greco and C‚zanne as well. Ironically, it was Braque who, having seen Demoiselles, painted and exhibited a series of ""cubist"" canvases that would subject him to the public's outrage. This was a brilliant move, Richardson points out, on the part of Picasso, who feared xenophobic hostility and allowed Braque to situate himself on the front lines while he sat back and watched. Living in Montmartre with the beautiful Fernande Olivier, whom he had once worshipped but who now served as a model for one of the whores, he was surrounded by talented acolytes who enjoyed opium, bisexual escapades, meanspirited drunken shenanigans, and the swapping of mistresses. Poverty was held barely at bay thanks to the patronage of Gertrude and Leo Stein and the art dealer Kahnweiler. Richardson masterfully describes the inseparable life and art of his magnetic subject, whose love of women went hand in hand with his misogyny, and whose propensity to reject led painting forward more than any other painter in this century.

Review: A life of Picasso

Avis de journaliste - Kirkus Reviews

The first installment of a proposed four-volume, richly illustrated biography of the Spanish master, by a writer who was a Riviera neighbor and friend of the artist for a dozen years. What Richardson has produced is a work of distinguished scholarship, notable for its clearsighted evaluation of Picasso's strengths and weaknesses and leavened by personal reminiscences--in short, biographical art of the highest quality, almost certain to become a classic of the genre. Considering his long involvement with Picasso, it is much to Richardson's credit that he maintains a scrupulously objective viewpoint, producing a work that combines a subtly shaded portrait of an enormously complex personality with perceptive analyses of his oeuvre. In the past, many Picasso biographers have seemingly been unable to deal with the artist so evenhandedly, preferring to either canonize or condemn. Jaime Sabarte in his Picasso: An Intimate Portrait (1949), for example, opted for hagiography, perpetuating without question the many myths Picasso spun around himself. Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington, on the other hand, was intent on revealing her subject's monumental failings--cruelty, megalomania, chauvinism--in her Picasso: Creator and Destroyer (1988). The present volume traces Picasso's life from his birth in 1881 in the city of Malaga to the year 1906, when the artist was on the brink of creating the tradition-shattering Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Richardson's treatment of the complexities of the young Picasso's family life is revelatory. The author convincingly argues that, contrary to long-held belief, Picasso's father did not give up painting when he recognized his son's genius. As for Picasso's insistence that ""at the age of twelve, I drew like Raphael,"" Richardson finds the early drawings ""far from Raphaelesque."" On larger matters, he is equally perceptive. Of the Blue Period, he says, ""[These] paintings make sorrow acceptable to bourgeois taste by sentimentalizing and sanitizing it."" Turning his attention to the artist's use of color, he states, ""Picasso's sense of color was not instinctive; it was calculated."" He then backs up his statement by tracing the painter's erratic course ""from dark sickrooms to sunlit bullfights. . .from cubist monochrome to the local color of labels and posters, from the grisaille of Guernica to the Day-Glo maquillage of certain Dora Maars."" A monumental and immensely enjoyable work, superbly enhanced by 675 well-chosen b&w photos.

Commentaires des utilisateurs

Great Book

Avis d'utilisateur - janseattle - Overstock.com

I bought this book for my husband who wanted to read it after seeing the Picasso exhibit at Seattle Art Museum. He loved the book and looking forward to the future volumes. Consulter l'avis complet

amazing read

Avis d'utilisateur - vonzi - Overstock.com

you have to be interested in art,the time period and culture of the day. This biography is extraordinary but it helps to know a little french and names of the famous during the first half of the last ... Consulter l'avis complet

Review: A Life of Picasso, Vol. 2: The Painter of Modern Life, 1907-1917 (A Life of Picasso #2)

Avis d'utilisateur - Eric Huettenmueller - Goodreads

The second book's as great as the first. The sketches and paintings are great. I found myself, in each volume, staring at the pictures then reading. Another great book that should be read for all Picasso fans. Consulter l'avis complet

Review: A Life of Picasso, Vol. 1: The Prodigy, 1881-1906 (A Life of Picasso #1)

Avis d'utilisateur - Eric Huettenmueller - Goodreads

One of the greatest books son Picasso's early life and career. Richardson knows what he's talking about and is in depth when writing. Great book that I recommend to everyone. Consulter l'avis complet

Review: A Life of Picasso, Vol. 2: The Painter of Modern Life, 1907-1917 (A Life of Picasso #2)

Avis d'utilisateur - Tandra Jorgensen - Goodreads

The second fantastic volume by Richardson detailing the years Picasso (and Braque), developed Cubism, the mind blowing artistic achievement that changed art forever and all the important artistic people surrounding him like Apollinaire, Max Jacobs, Matisse, and Cocteau, among others. Consulter l'avis complet

Review: A Life of Picasso, Vol. 1: The Prodigy, 1881-1906 (A Life of Picasso #1)

Avis d'utilisateur - AC - Goodreads

Let me try to be a bit more coherent. First, there is a nice on-line collection of Picasso's complete works (and much, much more) at this site: http://picasso.tamu.edu/ The first volume of this ... Consulter l'avis complet