Picasso and Dora : A Memoir

Rating:
Summary: DECONSTRUCTING JAMES
Review: Analytical overkill is Picasso's greatest enemy. There are any number of odd perspective books available on him - more than on any modern artist, certainly - and we have long passed the point of diminishing returns and crossed the smoky borders into faux myth. Of the relatively recent biographical works only Richardson's and Huffington's argue imaginatively and are worth reflection. Norman Mailer's exemplifies the tendency of the rest: deconstructing genius to the point of vanishing act. Approaching James Lord's memoir, one hesitates. Ostensibly - judging title and blurb - this is about Picasso's relationship with one of his serial muses, the vulnerable, unstable Dora Maar. But from the preface we are immediately redirected into its real essence, which is James Lord's florid and highly subjective version of a tenuous relationship with Picasso over some years in the middle Forties. Serving with the Third Army in 1944 New Jersey-born Lord, inspired by nothing more than the determination to decorate his apartment with works of art, brazenly called to the rue des Grands-Augustins, leap-frogged Sabartes, and persuaded Picasso to sketch him. Once was not enough: Lord found Picasso's first scribble wanting and went back for more, thereby, by audacious perseverance, forging his place (of sorts) in history. Audacity is the keynote of Lord's subsequent fringe-arts career, and his writing. Friendships with Giacometti, Toklas, Stein - and of course Marr - were the fruits of this bullish energy and the sidebars of their lives and observations much enrich this fast-read book. Insight on Picasso is overshadowed by the sweep of Lord's vanity, but this is not all bad. Lord is literate, and full of the ironies of self-awareness, and at his best reads like a less-edited Truman Capote. There is a feeling of novelistic contrivance about his sustained friendship with Maar and the final showdown with Picasso (over politics), but the fascination of brazen vanity and self-revelation prevails. As the book closes Lord dreams of Dora Maar forty-five years after he first met her and wakes up to observe himself "alone, and on the walls of my room, I quickly realized, were portraits of me by her, by Picasso, Balthaus, Alberto (Giacometti), and a few others..." Here is the sharp poignancy of a dream quest that has proved more diversion than fulfillment, of a man who knows he has walked with kings and, maybe once too often, sacrificed the common touch.

Rating:
Summary: THAT Man!
Review: Grrrrrrrr! Picasso didn't know how to love anybody Dora stated. A compelling love story between a man who was an artist and a woman who was not only a photographer but a painter. She is very sensitive and grows very quiet in her later years, a recluse almost. And she said she never forgot about him.

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Summary: The story of a friendship
Review: Picasso & Dora is the story of a friendship, but not that of Picasso and Dora. Rather it is the story of the friendship of the author and the mysterious Dora Maar. Both these characters are fascinating personalities, as they move in close and then distance themselves. The fact that Lord is a gay man in love, in his own way, with Dora adds a complexity and richness to the story. It is reminsicent of Isherwood and Sally Bowles and Capote and Holly Golightly. There is a special poignancy to the story of a gay man who loves a woman, yet cannot offer her the love she really wants. Lord writes exceptionally well and Dora, who died just recently at an advanced age, lives on in his words.