The Ultimate Picasso
If you had to choose just one book about Pablo Picasso, the most protean artist of the 20th century, what would you look for? Copious, good-quality reproductions; an authoritative account of the way his approach to painting was influenced by his personality, the women in his life and his contemporaneousness with other notables; an in-depth treatment of key works–like Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (his self-proclaimed “first exorcism painting”)–and recurrent themes, like the Minotaur. Then there’s the question of tone. Some books cast Picasso as a demigod or a destroyer. Others, like art historian John Richardson’s A Life of Picasso, offer a more responsible, psychologically penetrating portrait of the artist.
Hefty, elegant, and inclusive, The Ultimate Picasso hits most of these marks. It boasts more than 1,200 reproductions spanning the artist’s entire career. Smoothly translated from the French, the it weaves biographical detail and discussions of the art into a concise narrative. Visual sources are all confidently accounted for. Yet the text does seem rather skimpy. The 16-page section on Guernica, for example, has barely two pages of actual discussion. The authors maintain their extremely tight focus on their artist, which is admirable. But in their concentration, they seem to compulsively refrain, perhaps by default, from acknowledging the external world as anything but resource or dalliance for their subject.
The authors’ hyperbolic view of their subject–”Picasso did not paint nature, but the suffering of the men and women of his time, creating from it beauty and truth”–and the lack of any real psychological insight about, for instance, the continual hazard Picasso poses to the female form, may be considered a flaw. But in this old-fashioned portrait of the male artist as genius, so certain is it of the gulf between the common and the exalted, human flaw does not exist, unless it belongs to somebody else. –Cathy Curtis
Customer Review: The Ultimate art book
This is a book “that does exactly what it says on the tin”. I particularly liked the format, which is compact and easy to handle.
This is an accessible book with clear text, copiously illustrated. It contains everything you would ever want to know about Picasso and his life and art. I would highly recommend “The Ultimate Picasso”.
Customer Review: Truly the Ultimate!
This book stands out alone as a definitive reference dealing with Picasso’s working life. The text is both authoritative and comprehensive,yet gripping, in its unfolding of the thinking and creative energy that was Picasso. The greatest jewel of this wonderful work surely lies in the superb quality of the photography and printing, faithfully reproducing colour form and detail of all his major works. This book is a “must have” for people who are interested in art, but perhaps more important, in getting an insight into one of the greatest influences in the development of visual expression,thinking and communication ever.
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ceramic mug high quality photographic image ’sublimated’ into the coating of the mug giving a smooth and even surface. DISHWASHER PROOF approx 90mm tall and 230mm circumference
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Life?s tough when you?re the daughter of the world?s most famous painter. What?s a girl to do? We know, create exquisite jewellery for Tiffany?s and come up with a signature fragrance that?s as exotic and classy as you are. Do you know what? That?s exactly what Paloma?s done. She must be psychic. Palomas signature scent was launched in 1984 as a stylish mossy fragrance for women.
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Picasso’s War: The Destruction of Guernica and the Masterpiece That Changed the World Customer Review: Fascinating story of a masterpiece
As all the reviews have said, this is a fascinating story of a masterpiece. The Spanish Civil War and Picasso’s life are well explainedto put the story of the painting itself into both contexts.
I’ll justadd that the book is let down by a lack of illustrations (the only one isof the painting itself), and by the lack of an index.
Customer Review: Flawed masterpiece
As ‘Guernica’ was the painting that introduced me to the works of Picasso, I was really looking forward to this book.
And it’s a convincing tale well told - with such a work of art (still) inextricably linked to international politics and war (both world and civil) Russell Martin does a competent job of placing the work into the necessary socio-political context.
The illustrations don’t do the painting justice - but how can you adequately illustrate Guernica in a small book anyway? Even weighty art books about the painting stuggle with this.
It’s a history of ‘Guernica’ as symbolic art rather than an analysis of the painting per se, whereas some fans may want to know more about the creative processes behind the production of the painting.
More ‘art’ and a larger format may have made this a great book, but as it stands it’s certainly a good book about the trials and tribulations of a great painting.
