Picasso Theatre
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism
Picasso Theatre Details
From Publishers Weekly Picasso's interest in the theater animated his early pictures of harlequins and actors, symbolic presences on the stage of life. Then, in collaborations with Diaghilev and Massine, he designed sets and costumes for quirky ballets such as Parade, Mercure and Pulcinella. During World War II, he wrote an experimental six-act farce. Direct involvement in the theater gave the artist a chance to make his cubist inventions concrete; it also broadened his knowledge of the human body's expressive capacities. First published in 1968 and long out of print, this scrapbook with 500 illustrations includes an essay gauging the influence of the theater on Picasso's work. Drawing on material from circus and bull-ring, from cabaret and sideshow, Picasso created an illusory pictorial world, then thrust himself or his viewpoint into the spectacle. Cooper shows that even a painting such as Guernica draws its power from dramatic conventions. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more
Reviews
I saw a copy of this book in a used bookstore and decided I could get a cheaprer copy via an Amazon seller, that's turned out to be the case. The only flaw is that a section of the plastic dust jacket is missing. However this book does date back to 1967, when I was in junior high school! I learned about Picasso's involvement in the theater at a huge Ballets Russes exhibition in Washington DC, and was curious to learn more. This book is a relic of its time, and conveys a certain aura of the Picasso mystique, I look forward to reading as much of it as possible once I can find the time! Thanks very much.