Pablo Picasso

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Description

This book provides a fresh, engaging examination of Picasso's life and art. Mary Ann Caws describes the artist's life thematically and chronologically, and also takes as focal points Picasso's relationships with his close friends as they change over the years. The book invokes central places and characters in various periods of Picasso's long and active life: in Barcelona; his time at the Bateau Lavoir in Paris; his work and life in Provence; his friendships with Gertrude Stein, Max Jacob, Apollinaire and Pierre Reverdy, Jean Cocteau, Breton and the surrealists, and later Dali, Eluard, and critic Roland Penrose. It traces his relationships with partners Dora Maar, Francoise Gilot and Jacqueline Roque. Caws provides biographical context to the artist's work, focusing on the time around Les Demoiselles d'Avignon then Guernica, as well as the changes and consistencies in his oeuvre over the twentieth century. Throughout, the author examines Picasso's juggling of viewpoints, artistic strategies, loves and friends, which she interprets as part of the expansion of the artist's genius and personality, represented by the figures of the Harlequin, the clown and the acrobat. This book is a concise and lively study of the enormously productive and varied life and art of one of the twentieth century's most influential personalities.

Reviews

. . . a useful guide, although it does not shy away from difficulty and complication . . . It also casts an oddly angled new light on Picassos work. A fascinating volume. * The Art Newspaper *
This penetrating study shows how Picassos intense juggling of objects and loves and styles created an art that carries a perfect if strange coherence. * The Weekend Australian *

Author Bio

Mary Ann Caws is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature, English and French at the Graduate School of the City University of New York. She is the author of many books, including The Modern Art Cookbook and Creative Gatherings: Meeting Places of Modernism, both published by Reaktion Books.