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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 709
EAN num: 9780500512937
ISBN number: 0500512930
Label: Thames & Hudson
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 400
Printing Date: May 29, 2006
Publishing house: Thames & Hudson
Sale Popularity Level: 1033017
Studio: Thames & Hudson
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Product Description:
Drawn from the private notebooks and correspondence of Roland Penrose, an intriguing firsthand account of the life and personality of Pablo Picasso.
Published here for the very first time, these lively writings bring to life with a rare vividness the work, ideas, and milieu of Roland Penrose's friend—and the subject of his much-acclaimed 1958 biography—Pablo Picasso.
What makes the notebooks and correspondence so important is also what makes them so exhilarating and fresh. They are not reconstructions after the event, filtered through memory or rephrased with an eye to literary style. The immediacy of the jottings gives the reader the uncanny sensation of actually being present during Penrose's frequent encounters with Picasso and his circle—at home with the artist, at bullfights, at the beach, in the studio.
The book is filled with anecdotes, incidents, sharp details, and actual conversations that are unconstrained by deference, objectivity, or the need for discretion. Confidential, off-the-record remarks made by the artist's family, associates, and former lovers are all here, as are Penrose's own candid observations of Picasso's behavior. Fascinating descriptions of Picasso at work afford rare insights into the making of his masterpieces, including Guernica and other great works up to the time of his death.
Some sixty photographs—mostly taken by Penrose or his wife, Lee Miller—show the colorful cast of characters, from Gary Cooper to Françoise Gilot, from Alfred Barr to Dora Maar, as well as the events and art described, and add to the record of a remarkable relationship. 60 illustrations.
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Penrose was a central figure of the Surrealist movement and a gifted writer as well as a minor artist. In the mid-1930s, as a friend of the Bloomsbury group and an intellectual advocate of Surrealism, he had the opportunity to meet Picasso. He joined the long list of those who regarded the master with awe and over the subsequent forty years the two carried on an increasingly involved correspondence, albeit one which was to some extent one-sided when it came to actually writing letters. Elizabeth Cowling, the editor, does an excellent job of organizing a correspondence which lasted some forty years during which Penrose wrote numerous articles and a major biography of Picasso and organized exhibits of his work. Her excellent notes make the entire book highly readable and provides a wonderful flow to the text.
Penrose was married to famed photographer Lee Miller, whose beauty and intelligence virtually guaranteed his easy acess to the painter when others were turned away at the gate. Most of the 72 photographs interspersed among the 400 pages are by Miller. Her status as a war correspondent (and her extraordinary courage) allowed her to visit Picasso in Paris on Liberation Day in August, 1944, when German snipers were still active in the city.
One of the benefits of writing an "authorized" biography (at least one to which the artist did not object) was Penrose's ability to finance frequent travel to contact anyone and everyone who knew Picasso. Penrose's close friendships with such key figures of Surrealism as Paul Eulard and his advocacy of the style in Britain gave him credibility and contact with virtually all major figures in the art world at the time.
Cowling does an excellent job of presenting his original letters to and from the artist, edited only for clarification, and also Penrose's original notes of a vast number of interviews of artists, scholars, dealers, friends, former mistresses and others among the extended family of Picasso. Cowling's text at appropriate points allows us to understand the context and significance of each letter, interview note, anecdote, etc. She also includes Penrose's letters and notes of conversations with figures such as Jacqueline and Francoise after Picasso's death, and she provides some 50 pages of footnotes and indexes to make this a very informative text. There are so many books on Picasso; this one is unique and provides a new perspective.
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