A Life of Picasso, Volume II: 1907-1917 - The Painter of Modern Life
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism
A Life of Picasso, Volume II: 1907-1917 - The Painter of Modern Life Details
Amazon.com Review This second volume in Richardson's exhaustive and intense biography of the twentieth century's greatest artist covers the ten years from 1907, where volume one ended its epic story of youthful Bohemian struggle. Picasso was then 26; the decade covered here displays a journey to adulthood through astonishing artistic innovation, a growing renown, and the artist's turbulent sexual relations. Richardson details Picasso's public career, including the impact of Cubism, and his complex personal life, notably the artist's passionate and callous treatment of his wives and mistresses ("deification followed by a degrading process of psychosexual dissection"). Through perceptive analysis of Picasso's paintings, Richardson also offers a deep understanding of the inner demons that shaped his remarkable outer life. Read more From Publishers Weekly Richardson believes Picasso was "as much sinned against as sinning," at least during the period covered here. This abundantly illustrated second installment of a masterly, indispensable biography puts Picasso in a new light. Shattered by the death in 1913 of the father he loved and hated, the rebellious son concealed his grief but later would claim that the countless pigeons and doves in his pictures were a form of "repayment" to his pigeon-fancying parent. The messianic artist we meet here was misogynistic but also generous and loving. Sulking and bad-tempered (perhaps due to his stomach ulcers), he also displayed brightness of spirit and intelligence. He was a macho pacifist; a hypochondriac; an animal lover gifted with a rapport with dogs and birds. Picasso is often accused of betraying his friend, poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who was arrested in 1911 on charges of stealing Iberian sculptures from the Louvre?statues he and Picasso acquired from the thief, a Belgian drifter, but Richardson maintains that Picasso justifiably resented his friend for incriminating him in the theft. While Picasso escaped charges of receiving stolen goods, perhaps by pulling official strings, Apollinaire, released after days of interrogation and public humility, was devastated by the scandal. Currently a professor of art at Oxford, Richardson befriended Picasso and his circle in the 1950s while living in France, and the artist's friends?Max Jacob, Jean Cocteau, Georges Braque, Apollinaire, confidantes Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas?come vibrantly alive. In a tour de force of scholarship, sleuthing and critical empathy, Richardson charts Picasso's invention (with Braque) of cubism, his escape from it and his rebirth as a classicist. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more See all Editorial Reviews
Reviews
Interesting biography but black and whites of all his paintings in every volume!!!What is going on here?