Customer Reviews

Bohemian Paris: Picasso, Modigliani, Matisse, and the Birth of Modern Art

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Part fiction, part art history, Bohemian Paris is a fascinating read. How can it be otherwise when the pages are inhabited by such colorful figures as Picasso. Modigliani, Jean Cocteau, Henri Matisse, Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein?

Franck, the author of 15 books, escorts readers on a wide-screen tour of magical Paris during a period of 30 years, 1900 - 1930. That was a time of new birth in the world of artistic creation when painters, sculptors, writers, and versifiers struggled to covey revolutionary ideas and images. Some of these creators were feted at opulent, devil-may care galas while others worked in the direst poverty.

Learned and repressed poet Guillaume Apollinaire hovered on the periphery of this circle; Jean Cocteau might trip a friend to advance himself but how brilliant he was! Amedeo Modigliani gave to others when he had naught for himself; Gertrude Stein presided over her unparalleled salons.

And from these minds and from that time sprang cubism, Fauvism, dadaism and surrealism. Paris, both public and private, sizzled with creativity.

With Bohemian Paris author Franck has painted vivid word pictures of that significant era and collected numerous vignettes about the private lives of those who dramatically influenced art as we now know it.

- Gail Cooke

They are all in here - Picasso, Modigliani, Rousseau, Gertrude Stein, Duchamp, Man Ray with a sprinkling of Hemingway. The book is a series of short vignettes on the daily life in Montmartre and Montparnasse with the drugs, the poverty the sex...
Sometimes I feel the author is too dismissive of the emotional toll on the lives of the women who were used/abused/discarded with regularity by these artists and some make-believe artists. And the vignettes become repetitive, but entertaining nonetheless.
What is intriguing is that Paris was the centre for art, culture and experimentation from 1900 thru the 1930's, but was gradually replaced by New York (the occupation during the war accomplished the final transfer).

What a subject! What a terrible book!

At first I thought it was a bad translation. But no, the French version is just as disjointed, poorly edited and nearly unreadable as the English version.

just two examples from among the many:
1: Franck recounts an auction, noting that Picasso kept his silence throughout the auction. We later learn that Picasso wasn't there... so, did he keep quiet? or did he stay away?

2: We get a detailed account of Arthur Cravan's boxing exhibition with Jack Johnson, after which, Mr. Frank notes: "Jack Johnson never stepped into the ring again." Of course, he meant Cravan, but that"s not what he said. In fact, the entire book is like that.

An author, by the way, is responsible for reading own proofs, so the faults of editing are the faults of the author.....

As I said the topic is fantatic, and when I could sift through the author's drivel, I found it interesting, though he probably provides more information about Solomon and Max Jacob than I would like and not enough about some of Picasso's mistresses, which I think would have been interesting...

Ah, Franck est francais... what else can i say??