The controversial, Pulitzer Prize-winning author offers a boldly original exploration, filled with reproductions of Picasso's works, of the artist's early life and career, particularly his first great love affair. 100,000 first printing. $100,000 ad/promo. Tour.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Although Mailer relies heavily on previous Picasso biographies and memoirs, from which he quotes extensively, this inspired, lavishly illustrated biography offers an uncanny psychological portrait of Picasso's inner development as man and artist. Commenting on 250 black-and-white and 55 color reproductions woven throughout the text, the prolific author presents Picasso as a painter who was wholly derivative until his Blue Period, and who then harnessed his inner terrors, his dread of mental and physical destruction, as a stimulus to his work. Mailer considers Cubism, and Picasso's related discoveries between 1907 and 1917, as his creative peak, from which he would beat a retreat by the late 1920s. This elegantly written portrait, which makes Picasso's erotic drawings and paintings an integral part of the story, mixes shrewd insights, wild psychosexual speculations, anecdotes and telling incidents. The narrative, which closes on the eve of WWI, pays special attention to Picasso's relationships with his mistress, Fernande Olivier (whose untranslated memoirs, written in her 70s, Mailer excerpts in chunks); and with Gertrude Stein, Guillaume Apollinaire and Picasso's sexually impotent friend, aesthete Carlos Casagemas, who committed suicide in 1901, dejected over unrequited love for a model.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Not just another book about Picasso or another book by Mailer but a book about Picasso by Mailer-worth a look at least. Alas, the end result of a work germinating since 1962 appears to be more a portrait of Picasso as a young Mailer than an examination of the innovative and enigmatic artist. The relationship of Picasso and Fernande Olivier is seen by Mailer as the definitive impetus of the artist's early period of incredible productivity and imagery. By quoting at great length from Olivier and Picasso's contemporaries Apollinaire and Gertrude Stein, Mailer offers a guide through what he sees as the crucial relationships and friendships of the period. The interpretive biography-claiming "no original scholarship"-may have its own virtues, but here little is added to the literature of art history, and the perspective, so filtered through the sensibility of the author, must be weighed as just that. "No man ever loved and hated women more"-Picasso or Mailer.
--Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum of Art Lib., New York
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum of Art Lib., New York
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Alas poor Ego, I knew him well.,
This review is from: Portrait of Picasso As a Young Man: An Interpretive Biography (Hardcover)
Much has been made of Pablo Picasso's huge ego, but never more so than here, where it would seem that only Norman Mailer's considerable esteem for himself could give Picasso's a run for his money. Yet, that having been said, I still give this book a 4 star rating ... after all, what could be more interesting than the self-absorbed genius writer presuming to reveal the inner thoughts of the equally self-absorbed artistic genius, Picasso?
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5,
By
This review is from: Portrait of Picasso As a Young Man: An Interpretive Biography (Hardcover)
A good read. Mailer brings Picasso to life. Hard to put down.
I am re-reading this after a couple of years and I am remembering why I enjoyed it so much. It is nice to read an interpretive biography that makes Picasso human as opposed reading dry, critical art history for a change.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Picasso!,
By Rexedog "Rexedog" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man (Paperback)
I found this book in an apartment in Florence, where i was staying for a couple days during a tour of Italy & Austria. The TV was broken, so i just picked up a random book that looked interesting. I hadn't read a book all the way through for a year or two, and wasn't planning on really reading this one either. After the first chapter, i could hardly put it down... The lady who owned the apartment let me borrow it for the rest of my trip, where i read the rest of it on trains and whatnot, and ended up thoroughly enjoying it. It is an extremely interesting and detailed book, which explores all of Picasso's adventures in Paris & Spain, his love life, and connects him to many interesting people, including some other popular artists of his time. Recommended reading for modern art fans..
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