Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man: An Interpretive Biography
Category: Books,Biographies & Memoirs,Arts & Literature
Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man: An Interpretive Biography Details
From Publishers Weekly Although Mailer relies heavily on previous Picasso biographies and memoirs, from which he quotes extensively, this inspired, lavishly illustrated biography offers an uncanny psychological portrait of Picasso's inner development as man and artist. Commenting on 250 black-and-white and 55 color reproductions woven throughout the text, the prolific author presents Picasso as a painter who was wholly derivative until his Blue Period, and who then harnessed his inner terrors, his dread of mental and physical destruction, as a stimulus to his work. Mailer considers Cubism, and Picasso's related discoveries between 1907 and 1917, as his creative peak, from which he would beat a retreat by the late 1920s. This elegantly written portrait, which makes Picasso's erotic drawings and paintings an integral part of the story, mixes shrewd insights, wild psychosexual speculations, anecdotes and telling incidents. The narrative, which closes on the eve of WWI, pays special attention to Picasso's relationships with his mistress, Fernande Olivier (whose untranslated memoirs, written in her 70s, Mailer excerpts in chunks); and with Gertrude Stein, Guillaume Apollinaire and Picasso's sexually impotent friend, aesthete Carlos Casagemas, who committed suicide in 1901, dejected over unrequited love for a model. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more From Library Journal Not just another book about Picasso or another book by Mailer but a book about Picasso by Mailer-worth a look at least. Alas, the end result of a work germinating since 1962 appears to be more a portrait of Picasso as a young Mailer than an examination of the innovative and enigmatic artist. The relationship of Picasso and Fernande Olivier is seen by Mailer as the definitive impetus of the artist's early period of incredible productivity and imagery. By quoting at great length from Olivier and Picasso's contemporaries Apollinaire and Gertrude Stein, Mailer offers a guide through what he sees as the crucial relationships and friendships of the period. The interpretive biography-claiming "no original scholarship"-may have its own virtues, but here little is added to the literature of art history, and the perspective, so filtered through the sensibility of the author, must be weighed as just that. "No man ever loved and hated women more"-Picasso or Mailer.--Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum of Art Lib., New YorkCopyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more See all Editorial Reviews
Reviews
An insightful and engrossing book on Picasso. Uses a lot of research and fantastic source material which form the bones of the story but Mailer takes this material and brings it to life unlike so much dry academic writing on Picasso. Really enjoyed this. Very insightful!