Werkkatalog picasso biography
The most detailed biography of Picasso
Interviews and notes
Richardson’s fascination with Picasso dates back to his teenage years, when he tried to persuade his mother to lend him £50 to buy a print by the artist. Later on, from the s onwards, Richardson coincided with Picasso when they were both living in the south of France and remained close to him for years.
Intending to write a biography, Richardson kept a diary of his meetings with Picasso and after the artist’s death his widow Jacqueline Roque agreed to collaborate with the author by allowing him access to the archives and documents she held. Richardson performed a mammoth task; he compiled and organised abundant documented details about the artist’s life with great narrative skill while also providing well-founded interpretations that give an insight into moments and situations.
The result is the four volumes that make up A Life of Picasso: The Prodigy, − (vol.
Werkkatalog picasso biography wikipedia Boston: Bullfinch Press, Finally, he was a famously charismatic personality; his many relationships with women not only filtered into his art but also may have directed its course, and his behavior has come to embody that of the bohemian modern artist in the popular imagination. Illustrated book published as a folder : etching and sugar-lift aquatint on copperplate, printed on paper, In the early s, he devised a unique variant of classicism using mythological images such as centaurs, minotaurs, nymphs, and fauns inspired by the classical world of Italy.1), ; The Cubist Rebel, − (vol. 2), ; The Triumphant Years, − (vol. 3), ; and The Minotaur Years, − (vol. 4), The first two volumes have been translated into Spanish and all of them are accompanied by numerous illustrations of works, people and places.
The Minotaur Years
Pablo Picasso, Minotaur Caressing the Hand of a Sleeping Woman with its Muzzle, Boisgeloup, 18 June Drypoint on copperplate, printed on paper, × cm.
Date don plate in reverse lower left: Boisgeloup. 18 juin XXXIII.
Werkkatalog picasso biography This was his introduction to a cultural avant-garde , in which young artists were encouraged to express themselves. Picasso remains renowned for endlessly reinventing himself, switching between styles so radically different that his life's work seems to be the product of five or six great artists rather than just one. At once destructive and creative, Cubism shocked, appalled and fascinated the art world. Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and stage designer considered one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century.Museo Picasso Málaga. Gift of Bernard Ruiz-Picasso. © FABA Photo: Hugard & Vanoverschelde Photography © Sucesión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid,
Volume 4 examines the decade from to , a period full of tensions, crises and aesthetic discoveries for the artist. The title chosen by Richardson refers to the prints depicting the human and animal figure which Picasso borrowed from Greek mythology for his iconographic repertoire and translated visually into an embodiment of desire, an expression of aggression or guilt, joyfully humanised or with the violence of a menacing animal.
Dali biography During World War II he stayed in Paris, and the German authorities left him sufficiently unmolested to allow him to continue his work. Early Training. Lonely and deeply depressed over the death of his close friend, Carlos Casagemas, he painted scenes of poverty, isolation and anguish, almost exclusively in shades of blue and green. Still Life with Chair Caning is celebrated for being modern art's first collage.It is undoubtedly a symbolic figure of an era fraught with tensions and ups and downs in Picasso’s life.
Social commitment
Richardson also stresses the importance of Picasso’s social and political commitment during this decade. Most biographers usually date this new awareness to the bombing of Guernica in , but Richardson proposes an alternative interpretation of the events, establishing his drawing The Death of Marat of – a free allusion to the exceptional painting by the French painter Jacques-Louis David – as a unique precedent for the repertoire surrounding Guernica.
Pablo Picasso, Dream and Lie of Franco (plate I), Paris, 8 January Illustrated book (published as a folder): etching and sugar-lift aquatint on copperplate, printed on paper, × 42 cm.
Dated on the plate, upper centre, reversed: 8 janvier Museo Picasso Málaga. Acquisition © Museo Picasso Málaga.
Photo: Marc Domage © Sucesión Pablo Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid,
This fourth and last volume ends here, in There will be no fifth volume as John Richardson died on 12 March at the age of His research assistants and editor, who completed the volume, made it possible to bring out the book. Never again will an author be able to combine personal familiarity with the artist with such a wealth of historical fact, perspicacity, hearsay, detail and thoroughness.
Although incomplete, it is a unique biography of unquestionable value.