The first 100 years of modern art witnessed the popularization of photography and an increasing emphasis on abstraction in painting, which threatened the survival of portraiture as a genre. It continued to flourish, however, because modern painters--Picasso foremost among them--sought and found new ways to portray the human face. The hundreds of works reproduced here illustrate the multiple solutions Picasso invented to solve the "problem" of the modernist portrait. Illustrations, 230 in color.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Picasso's portraits display an astonishing range of moods, styles, personalities and approaches, whether abstract, surreal, cubist, classical or expressionist, as revealed by this resplendently illustrated catalogue of an exhibition at Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art. In the opening essay, Rubin, director emeritus of MOMA's painting and sculpture department, explores how Picasso's portraits served as a screen for his psychological projections and symbolic references to members of his ever-changing entourage. Eight essays by noted critics, including Pierre Daix, Robert Rosenblum, Brigitte Leal and Kirk Varnedoe, emphasize the central role of Picasso's women in his protean portraiture. Blonde muse Marie-Therese Walter, with whom he had a clandestine affair from the mid-1920s to 1933, underwent constant transformations, from instantly recognizable face to mythical goddess. Dora Maar inspired tragic grotesques, while mistress Fernande Olivier appears in many guises, and Francoise Gilot, the young painter whom he met in 1943, triggered images of dread and anxiety in his postwar canvases. Extraordinary self-portraits run the gamut from cocksure bravado to comedic apelike self-caricature. This album is a revelation.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One Picasso Exhibition Too Many? NOT!!!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Picasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transformation (Hardcover)
While some art buffs may find it hard to believe that anything new could be said about the unquestionably great and unquestionably over-publicized Pablo Picasso, this Museum of Modern Art catalogue actually manages to re-invigorate the discussion of an artist whom some might say the MOMA (having held four colossal exhibitions on Picasso within 15 years) should stop shoving down the public's throat. While the paintings are, for the most part, quite familiar to Picasso enthusiasts (with some delicious exceptions), the catalogue contains several excellent essays which approach the works of art from a personal, rather than art-historical perspective. Picasso's relationships with his various women, and the effect each wife/mistress had on his vision of reality, are thoughtfully and, for the most part, intelligently explored, despite some occasional descents into blatant "National Enquirer"-type celebrity gossip on the part of these supposedly "scientific" critics. Fortunately, Picasso's art stands above the possibly-too intimate concerns of the authors (a careful perusal of the gossip-filled footnotes will amuse you for hours). Page after page of excellent reproductions stun, startle, amuse and amaze the beholder through their sheer perversity. Nearly 30 years after Picasso's death, his art still shocks and challenges the public. My personal favorites are the paintings of the sad and sensual Dora Maar, which are unmatched anywhere in Picasso's oeuvre for sheer, brutal power. Their distortions haunt the mind, although the joyous and often semi-pornographic pictures of the teenage mistress, Marie-Therese, possess an equal charge. This book is a definite must in any art library.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Is every portrait a self-portrait?,
By Claude Reich (Florianopolis, Brazil and Paris, France) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Picasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transformation (Hardcover)
This book is the catalogue for a landmark exhibition held at MOMA in NYC and at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1996-1997. As such, it has become a collector's piece since such a large-scale gathering of portraits by Picasso is unlikely to take place again in the near future. The book benefits from brilliant contributions by two legendary museum curators, William Rubin (himself a friend of Picasso's, who reflects on the meaning of portraiture in his art) and Kirk Varnedoe (who writes on the artist's many self-portraits). These two essays are followed by a chronological study of Picasso's portraits, each period being defined by the presence of a new mistress at the side of the master (Olga Khokhlova, Dora Maar, Marie-Thérèse Walter, Françoise Gilot, Jacqueline Roque), with texts written by famous experts (Robert Rosenblum, Pierre Daix...). Lavish illustrations (a few in black and white, but most of them in color) accompany each text and make this publication the definitive bible on the subject and an indispensable item in the already well furnished literature on Picasso.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Masterpiece of Art Literature,
By Duke of Kansas City (Kansas) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Picasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transformation (Hardcover)
It is very seldom that a great artbook on a master of painting comes along, so many books are just a repetition of a general survey of the artist's best works with a little biography to go along with the images, this book is the exception! This book is so comprehensive and detailed that it compares to some of the greatest artbook ever published such as John Rewald's, History of Impressionism. If you are a serious student of Picasso and the visual arts you should buy this while it is still available. The book being a museum published book slip under the radar (publicity) that a lesser book of a high profile publisher would have received.
You might also buy the book, Picasso, The Early Years, as a companion piece, it covers his Blue and Rose periods extensively.
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