A Life of Picasso IV

June 1, 2021

Having issued three acclaimed volumes, Picasso expert Richardson completed this fourth volume on Picasso's life shortly before his death in 2019. It covers a crucial decade in Picasso's life, starting with the creation of his masterpiece, Guernica, first shown at the 1937 World's Fair in Paris. He also deepened his involvement with the surrealists Man Ray, Salvador Dal�, Paul �luard, and Andr� Breton on the magazine Minotaur and survived Nazi-occupied Paris and prohibitions against exhibiting because he was classed as a degenerate artist by the Nazis. With 213 illustrations and 24 pages of four-color art.

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September 13, 2021
Art historian Richardson closes out his series of Pablo Picasso biographies with this posthumously published volume (after A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years), a well-analyzed finale. His account opens as Picasso’s marriage to Olga disintegrates and the political situation in Spain becomes increasingly troubled; Picasso responded with a series of works featuring the Minotaur, a symbol he often used self-referentially in his paintings. He also began a long-term affair with fellow artist Dora Maar that reinvigorated his creativity as seen in his paintings from the era and experimental poetry. The Civil War in Spain, meanwhile, politicized Picasso, which resulted in Guernica, created for the Paris World’s Fair in 1937. Richardson is strongest in his intensely detailed examination of Picasso’s works, major and minor alike. Richardson spends less time analyzing Picasso as a person, though he does make connections between Picasso’s life and art (as with the symbolism in Guernica that represented Maar, himself, and his sister Conchita who died in childhood). While the final chapters, which detail the end of Picasso’s marriage, his survival through Nazi Occupation, and the creation of his major wartime work L’Aubade, feel less polished than earlier sections, they still provide plenty of insight. Fans of the series will find this a satisfying conclusion.

October 1, 2021
The final chapter of a magisterial biography. It has been 30 years since Richardson (1924-2019) published his first volume in this grand, highly detailed, and intimate four-volume biography of his close friend. Though this volume ends in 1943, Picasso would go on to create for another three decades. The author's unique, extensive knowledge and insider information about Picasso--both the man and artist--informs insightful explications of the nuances and symbolism in Picasso's works; his personal relationships with other artists, writers, and women; and his work habits. By the early 1930s, Picasso's marriage with Olga was broken, and he was deeply enmeshed with a new, young mistress and model, Marie-Th�r�se Walter. That year, he created one of his finest sculptures, Woman With a Lamp (aka Woman With Vase), which graces his gravesite. Richardson believes that sculpture represents Picasso's long-dead sister, Conchita. The artist's 1934 Blind Minotaur "commemorates Picasso's lifelong obsession with his eyesight." When the surrealists launched a new magazine, Minotaure, Picasso contributed an engraving of a minotaur for the magazine's cover, thus securing his place within the controversial movement. During lengthy divorce proceedings, he turned to poetry, "painting with words." Busy juggling multiple mistresses, he settled on a relationship with Dora Maar, "a striking and sophisticated twenty-nine-year-old surrealistic photographer." During the Spanish Civil War, Richardson notes, Picasso's works took on a "potent political symbolism" that would inspire one of his greatest paintings, Guernica, which vividly captures his loathing for fascism. He had already done some pieces indicting Franco, but the bombing of the Basque town inspired a massive mural. First exhibited at the 1937 World's Fair in Paris, "Guernica would establish Picasso as the world's most celebrated modern artist." Richardson notes that Picasso's pieces during this period reflect the substantial influence of Vincent van Gogh, "enthroned in his visual memory." This final, lavishly illustrated volume softly slips away with Richardson continuing to chronicle Picasso obsessively creating. A quiet, satisfying ending to a masterful accomplishment.

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October 15, 2021
No time frame in Picasso's colossal, ever-evolving body of work holds more "baffling" and jarringly monstrous creations than that encompassing the Spanish Civil War and WWII. The epically fecund artist's countless drawings, prints, paintings, and sculptures also reflect the women in his life as each fraught relationship inspired torrents of dramatic, erotic, even violent portraits and scenarios embodying personal torment and geopolitical catastrophes. This is the fourth volume in art historian Richardson's phenomenally detailed and unfailingly perceptive biography of a protean artist he knew personally. This granted him unique access to invaluable material, including diaries and magnetizing photographs, many documenting Picasso's key involvement with surrealist photographer Dora Maar. Richards recounts Picasso's struggle to end his wretched marriage, obsession with the mythological minotaur, fascination with the ancient Roman Mithraic mysteries, creation of his feverish poetry and his "harrowing" antiwar masterpiece, Guernica, and his courage and generosity during the Nazi occupation of Paris. Richardson, who died in 2019, has given the world a magnificently illuminating, vital, and invaluable biography covering two-thirds of the complex life of a perpetually rejuvenating titan of art.

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