This is a wonderful book that documents one of Picasso's most creative periods, the years between 1946 and 1962, when he would move from one residence to another, from Vallauris to Vauvenargues (at the foot of the Sainte-Victoire) and Cannes, on the French Riviera,which, back in 1923, he had contributed to transform into a fashionable summer tourist destination along with the American dandy couple Gerald and Sara Murphy (the very couple presumably portrayed by Scott Fitzgerald in Tender is the Night). It is also the catalogue for the exhibition held in June 2010 at the Gagosian gallery in London.
The book starts with a biographical essay by John Richardson, which is a brilliant complement to the already published three volumes of his monumental Picasso biography. Then come the numerous color plates of the works in the exhibition (paintings, prints, sculptures, drawings...), all of which do justice to the incredible creative outburst that Picasso experimented during this period. A very interesting essay follows that tackles Picasso's sculptures and ceramics and the way he revolutionized both arts.
The book ends with an account of the complicated relationship he maintained with the "court-jester" laureate poet Jean Cocteau, who, admittedly, was in love with the great master ( a feeling obviously not reciprocated by the notoriously womanizing artist...). All throughout the book, many previously unpublished photographs of Picasso in his various Mediterranean surroundings add to the very high overall quality of this publication.
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