A Life of Picasso IV: The Minotaur Years: 1933-1943 by John Richardson (English)

Description: A Life of Picasso IV: The Minotaur Years by John Richardson "This is a Borzoi Book published by Alfred A. Knopf"--Title page verso. FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description The beautifully illustrated fourth volume of Picassos life—set in France and Spain during the Spanish Civil War and World War II—covers friendships with the surrealist painters; artistic inspiration around Guernica and the Minotaur; and his muses Marie-Thérèse, Dora Maar, and Françoise Gilot; and much more.Including 271 stunning illustrations and drawing on original and exhaustive research from interviews and never-before-seen material in the Picasso family archives, this book opens with a visit by the Hungarian-French photographer Brassaï to Picassos chateau in Normandy, Boisgeloup, where he would take his iconic photographs of the celebrated plaster busts of Marie-Thérèse, Picassos mistress and muse. Picasso was contributing to André Bretons Minotaur magazine and he was also spending more time with the likes of Man Ray, Salvador Dalí, Lee Miller, and the poet Paul Éluard, in Paris as well as in the south of France. It was during this time that Picasso began writing surrealist poetry and became obsessed with the image of himself as the mythic Minotaur—head of a bull, body of a man—and created his most famous etching, Minotauromachie. Richardson shows us the artist is as prolific as ever, painting Marie-Thérèse, but also painting the surrealist photographer Dora Maar who has become a muse, a collaborator and more. In April 1937, the bombing of the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War inspires Picassos vast masterwork of the same name, which he paints in just a few weeks for the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris Worlds Fair. When the Nazis occupy Paris in 1940, Picasso chooses to remain in the city despite the threat that his art would be confiscated. In 1943, Picasso meets Françoise Gilot who would replace Dora, and as Richardson writes, "rejuvenate his psyche, reawaken his imagery and inspire a brilliant sequence of paintings." As always, Richardson tells Picassos story through his work during this period, analyzing how it shows what the artist was feeling and thinking. His fascinating and accessible narrative immerses us in one of the most exciting moments in twentieth century cultural history, and brings to a close the definitive and critically acclaimed account of one of the worlds most celebrated artists. Author Biography JOHN RICHARDSON is the author of the memoir, The Sorcerers Apprentice; an essay collection, Sacred Monsters, Sacred Masters; and books on Manet and Braque. The first volume of his Life of Picasso won Englands prestigious Whitbread Award. He wrote for The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair. He was instrumental in setting up Christies in the United States; was made a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 1993; and served as the Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University from 1995 to 1996. In 2019, Rizzoli published John Richardson: At Home, featuring Richardsons art collection and interior design. He died in 2019. Review A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR from The Times (London) and The Washington Post"A worthy follow-up to its highly acclaimed predecessors. . . . Rich and astounding." –"50 Notable Works of Nonfiction," The Washington Post "No novelist could have made Picasso up. Fact is better than fiction. . . . Richardsons monumental biography—all 1,948 pages of it —comes bellowing at you. It is clever, amusing, flamboyant and outrageous. Just like its subject. Our star is now matador, now minotaur, now magician in ink and plaster and paint. The whole thing is like a bullfight or a circus show. . . . This is Richardsons masterpiece." —Laura Freeman, The Times (London)"Magisterial...What has always made Richardsons biographical work on Picasso so alive is the fact of his personal friendship with the artist. It is thrilling to read a narrative in which scholarly prose is regularly interrupted with the phrase "Picasso once told me ... " followed by an entirely fresh anecdote... How lucky we are...that Richardson lived long enough to get this far. -- Kathryn Hughes, Guardian"Terrifically enjoyable...For Picasso fanatics, as well as devotees of Richardsons distinctive voice (at once magisterial and indiscreet), The Minotaur Years...offers compulsive reading...The Minotaur Years remains, in many ways, irresistible" --Alastair Sooke, Daily Telegraph "Magnificent, unparalleled...How [Volume IV] manages to be as gripping as it is, as fresh as it is, only the gods of art can answer...No one will ever again be able to combine Richardsons personal familiarity with Picasso with such impressive levels of history, insight, detail, gossip and breezy writing. The greatest art biography ever written can never have a proper ending. Its an incomplete masterpiece. But a masterpiece nevertheless." --Waldemar Januszczak, Sunday Times "[Richardson] set the standard for modern artists biographies...The fourth and final volume...is a worthy follow-up to its predecessors...[and] is just as rich, just as astounding...[Richardson] was a marvelous, no-nonsense prose stylist with a gift for bold character sketches, a fierce dedication to concrete facts, deep curiosity about images and a command of irony." --Sebastian Smee, The Washington Post"It was far from inevitable that Richardsons books would become definitive…The biographers gift lay in fusing the personal and impersonal, his experience as an art student and jobbing critic, the stoics sense with an epicurean sensibility." --Maxwell Carter, The Wall Street Journal"Richardsons youthful curiosity bore fruit in his multivolume Life of Picasso, the greatest biography of an artist ever written. The Minotaur Years, 1933-1945...marks the last installment in this heroic enterprise...packed...with improbable characters, astonishing revelations, and striking insights...The Minotaur Years represents the triumphant conclusion of a great biographers career." --Pepe Karmel, Gagosian"A fluent writer with a gift for narrative and a sensitive ability to read the artists work in relation to his life…The decade covered in this volume, which turns on Picassos identification with the part-beast, part-man mythical Minotaur, is a tumultuous one, both in public and in private life... [it is] deftly presented as Richardson moves from the man to his circle to his art to larger historical events." --Siri Hustvedt, The New York Times Book Review"In the immeasurably rich A Life of Picasso IV: The Minotaur Years 1933-1943, John Richardson resumes the artists story…[this] invaluable biographical portrait abounds with fresh insights."--Shelf Awareness"Clear and compelling, it carefully and fairly examines his life and art." --The Christian Science Monitor"Personal and political collide in lively fourth volume of detailed biography...The Minotaur Years retells what might be considered a familiar story, but carries it off with a liveliness generated by short chapters, sharp judgements and occasionally waspish dismissals, all dispatched at pace. It is the fruit of 60 years of thinking, conversing and speculating about the artist, underpinned by detailed looking, research and investigation of his movements moment by moment."--Matthew Gale, The Art Newspaper"Richardson not only captures Picassos genius in this work, but is brilliant himself in his observation and prose; reading his work can feel akin to standing in front of a great piece of art."--Town and Country"All the virtues of the first three volumes—the careful research and scrupulous deployment of information, and the often insightful discussion of works of art—are on display in volume IV." --Karen Wilkin, The New Criterion"A well-analyzed finale. ...Richardson is strongest in his intensely detailed examination of Picassos works, major and minor alike...Fans of the series will find this a satisfying conclusion." --Publishers Weekly "The authors unique, extensive knowledge and insider information about Picasso—both the man and artist—informs insightful explications of the nuances and symbolism in Picassos works....This final, lavishly illustrated volume softly slips away with Richardson continuing to chronicle Picasso obsessively creating. A quiet, satisfying ending to a masterful accomplishment." --Kirkus Reviews Review Quote "The authors unique, extensive knowledge and insider information about Picasso--both the man and artist--informs insightful explications of the nuances and symbolism in Picassos works....This final, lavishly illustrated volume softly slips away with Richardson continuing to chronicle Picasso obsessively creating. A quiet, satisfying ending to a masterful accomplishment." -- Kirkus Reviews Excerpt from Book 1 The Home Front Of all the problems besetting Picasso in late 1932, foremost was the misery of married life with his Russian wife, Olga. As recounted in volume III, the former ballerina, who had prided herself, to Picassos ever- increasing dismay, on being an impeccably ladylike consort and hostess, had become a termagant at home. The reasons were numerous, some dating back to the time of their wedding, in 1918. In April of that year, an injury and operation on her left leg had forced Olga to abandon her dream of balletic stardom. Never again would she dance in public. Nor would she ever again see her parents and siblings after her marriage to Picasso. The Soviet Revolution had torn Olgas tsarist family apart. The disappearance of her father in 1919 and the absence of her two brothers in the military put her mother and sister in dire circumstances, detailed in the troubling letters they sent to Olga in Paris. On December 24, 1919, Olgas sister, Nina, wrote that they were facing sickness, scarcity of food, risk of eviction, and the brutally cold Russian winter. Their elderly mother, Lydia, who would die in 1927, was reduced to peddling her belongings to survive. Olga and Picasso regularly sent money and other necessities to ease their suffering, but this did little to alleviate Olgas guilt at knowing that her loved ones lived in poverty. In 1922, Olga had to undergo yet another surgery, this time to treat a serious illness, the nature of which has never been divulged. Stabilizing her condition required years of painful procedures in hospital. Olgas delicate health further alienated her from the superstitious husband, who blamed her for her own misfortune. As the artist once told me, he believed "womens illnesses are womens fault." Picassos extramarital affair(s) and his violence contributed to Olgas physical and mental debacle. Since 1929, Olga had known of Picassos relationship with Marie-Th Details ISBN0307266664 Author John Richardson Language English ISBN-10 0307266664 ISBN-13 9780307266668 Format Hardcover DOI 10.1604/9780307266668 Pages 320 Year 2021 Publication Date 2021-11-16 Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2021-11-16 NZ Release Date 2021-11-16 US Release Date 2021-11-16 UK Release Date 2021-11-16 Publisher Alfred A. Knopf Imprint Alfred A. Knopf Place of Publication New York Series A Life of Picasso Illustrations 48 PP 4C PHOTO; 212 ILL IN TXT Subtitle 1933-1943 DEWEY B Series Number 4 Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:141686986;

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