Picasso: His Life and Work

Rating:
Summary: FORGOTTEN CLASSIC
Review: I recently revisited Roland Penrose's tasteful and pacy biography of Picasso and was jolted anew by its incisiveness and lasting value. Penrose himself was an artist, of course, but he had a diarist nature and a keen ear and these traits brilliantly conspire to give us the quotidian and flesh-and-blood Picasso. This book was written while Picasso was alive and it is energized by association with the vortex. How curious and satisfying to find a biography written in the subject's autumn years that speaks so lustily of his future hopes! [Footnote: Penrose's role in delivering Picasso iconography is sometimes forgotten. It was he who purchased the legendary Dora Maar "Weeping Woman" from the master and moved it ultimately to the Tate: for the rest of the century it remained, with "Les Desmoiselles d'Avignon", the most widely disseminated image of art innovation.] The reader sated on contemporary hyper-analysis will find a great, novelistic read, and much stimulation, in these pages.

Rating:
Summary: FORGOTTEN CLASSIC
Review: I recently revisited Roland Penrose's tasteful and pacy biography of Picasso and was jolted anew by its incisiveness and lasting value. Penrose himself was an artist, of course, but he had a diarist nature and a keen ear and these traits brilliantly conspire to give us the quotidian and flesh-and-blood Picasso. This book was written while Picasso was alive and it is energized by association with the vortex. How curious and satisfying to find a biography written in the subject's autumn years that speaks so lustily of his future hopes! [Footnote: Penrose's role in delivering Picasso iconography is sometimes forgotten. It was he who purchased the legendary Dora Maar "Weeping Woman" from the master and moved it ultimately to the Tate: for the rest of the century it remained, with "Les Desmoiselles d'Avignon", the most widely disseminated image of art innovation.] The reader sated on contemporary hyper-analysis will find a great, novelistic read, and much stimulation, in these pages.

Rating:
Summary: The best picassian review of all times.
Review: Not only because they were good friends but because they shared an astonishing good life in the Còte d'azur in the best of moments for Picasso's creative activity. And he contacted all of his best friends. For he was a surrealistic painter as well and he knew about all the art intrigues at the time. You can get every detail on Picasso's life and his way of living, all of his tips, even the cars he had, his life with his relatives who came to visit him. A very personal and human aspect of a great genius is what this book gives you...