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A Life Of Picasso: The Minotaur Years: 1933-1943

A Life Of Picasso: The Minotaur Years: 1933-1943

by John Richardson

Knopf ·2021 ·320 pages ·Biography
Near the Top
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I Index
54/99
Near the Top

60/99

Critics

Maybe Someday

48/99

Readers

n/a

Scholars

27/99

Rating

92/99

Volume

90/99

Rating

7/99

Volume

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About This Book

The spectacular fourth volume of Picasso's life set in Paris, Normandy, and Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War and WWII. Based on original and exhaustive research from interviews and never-before-seen material in the Picasso family archives, Volume IV describes a wildly productive decade for Picasso: his ongoing involvement with the surrealists Man Ray, Dali, Paul Eluard and Andr� Breton on his Skira-backed magazine Minotaur; summers spent in the south of France at Juan-les-Pins and Mougins with the surrealists and their wives and girlfriends; the making of Minotauromachie; living in Nazi-occupied Paris, labeled a degenerate, prevented from exhibiting his work. During these years, Picasso, at long last, would legally separate from his wife Olga and their son Paulo would be sent to a Swiss clinic for therapy and rehab; Marie-Th�r�se would remain Picasso's mistress, but a stormy relationship with the photographer Dora Maar would be part of the mix, while Alice Paalen and Valentine Hugo would come and go. It is also the time in which Picasso would paint his masterwork, Guernica, unveiled at the 1937 World's Fair in Paris. Richardson tells Picasso's story through the art of this period, analyzing how it reflects the tenor of the artist's day-to-day life. The fascinating, accessible narrative immerses the reader in one of the most exciting artistic moments in twentieth century cultural history, and makes a groundbreaking contribution to the scholarship of the field.


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Reviews

"This granted him unique access to invaluable material, including diaries and magnetizing photographs, many documenting Picasso's key involvement with surrealist photographer Dora Maar ..."

Donna Seaman· Booklist Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"With this gripping, highly readable and thoughtfully illustrated volume, Richardson finally takes his leave of the artist in 1943."

Stephen Smith· Financial Times Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"It's mostly convincing, but it starts to feel reductive ..."

Sebastian Smee· The Washington Post Read review ↗ Near the Top

"this last volume, roughly half the size of the others, can be most usefully read alongside Josep Palau i Fabre's Picasso 1927–1939: From the Minotaur to Guernica (2011) ..."

Colm Tóibín· New York Review of Books Read review ↗ Near the Top

"no studiedly dry academic treatise, but a portrait of the artist by a longtime friend ..."

John Banville· The New Republic Read review ↗ Near the Top

"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."

Publishers Weekly Read review ↗ Near the Top

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