Jack Flam provides the key to an in-depth understanding of Picasso and Matisse, their persons, the influences on them, their art and how they played off against each other. With clarity and insight, he compares and contrasts their well known and lesser known paintings by tying each to the tradition of the "pictorial rhetoric and conventional literary and biblical subjects of" Delacroix, the "unorthodox compositional modes" of Courbet and the techniques of the palette of Cezanne. In the end, these two giants of twentieth century modernism "reopened the dialogue with the past and changed its terms" after "Cezanne and the Post Impressionists had blocked the way; it was as if everything had already been done." This fascinating truth about the evolution of nineteenth century art directly impacting early twentieth century art, applies, one would think, not only to Post Impressionism but to Impressionism as well. It is this precise point that underscores the emergence of modernism. Flam is a fine writer of clarity who omits the usual adjectival praise and tropes in place of a controlled study of the line, the interpretation, the color, the subject and timeline for each painting he presents in the book.
Matisse and Picasso were highly sensitive, subjective and complex artists unusually reactive to moods, people and events, thus rendering themselves and their feelings onto the canvas. Picasso, an artist of "ruthless egotism" whose art was highly derivative of others, comes off as more dependent on Matisse than Matisse on Picasso, yet Picasso far more recognized and celebrated than Matisse. As elegant as Flam is in his presentation, he seems to inch towards a preference to Matisse while cleverly observing that the public often judges paintings with its ears rather than its eyes. The book is well organized with black and white copies of each referenced painting, keyed to a reference guide to each painting and where they are located and a thorough bibliography. This is a book to keep and savor and highlight for the future and to take with you as one roams the world examining artistic genius.
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