Pablo Picasso

Picasso the Spaniard -- Paris : the Bateau-Lavoir -- Les demoiselles d'Avignon and the beginnings of Cubism -- Poetic Cubism -- The ballets russes -- Surrealism -- Guernica and the party -- The south of France. "What is a face, really? Its own photo? Its make-up? Or is it a face as painted by such or such painter? That which is in front? Inside? Behind? And the rest? Doesn't everyone look at himself in his own particular way?" With these words, Pablo Picasso described the revolutionary methods of painting and artistic perspective with which he challenged the ways people and the world were defined. His life was a similarly complex prism of people, places, and ideologies that spanned most of the twentieth century. Acclaimed scholar Mary Ann Caws provides in Pablo Picasso a fresh and concise examination of Picasso's life and art, revisiting the themes that occupied him throughout his life and weaving these themes through his crucial close relationships. Caws embarks on a global journey to retrace the footsteps of Picasso, giving biographical context to his work from Les Demoiselles d'Avignon through Guernica and analyzing the changes and inconsistencies in his oeuvre over the course of the twentieth century. She examines Picasso's attempts to balance various viewpoints, artistic strategies, lovers, and friends, positing the central figures of the Harlequin, the clown, and the acrobat in his art as emblematic of his actions. Gertrude Stein, Max Jacob, Apollinaire, Jean Cocteau, André Breton, Salvador Dalí, Paul Eluard, and Roland Penrose all make appearances in these pages as Caws examines their influence on Picasso. Caws also delves into Picasso's tumultuous relationships with his lovers Dora Maar, Françoise Gilot, and Jacqueline Roque to understand their effects on his art. A compelling and original portrait, Pablo Picasso offers a lively exploration into the personal networks that both challenged and sustained Picasso. "This engaging examination of Picasso's life and art takes as focal points Picasso's shifting relationships with his close friends. Mary Ann Caws describes the artist's life thematically and chronologically, invoking central places and characters in various periods of Picasso's long and active life: in Barcelona; his time at the centre of the 'bande a Picasso' at the Bateau-Lavoir in Paris; his work and life in Provence; his friendships with Gertrude Stein, Max Jacob, Apollinaire and Pierre Reverdy. Jean Cocteau, Breton and the Surrealists, and later Dali, Eluard and critic Roland Penrose. The book also traces his relationships with women, notably his partners Dora Maar, Francoise Gilot and Jacqueline Roque." "Caws provides biographical context for Picasso's work, focusing on the time around Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and then Guernica, as well as the changes and consistencies in his oeuvre over the twentieth century. Throughout, the author examines Picasso's juggling of viewpoints, artistic strategies, loves and friends, which she interprets as part of the expansion of the artist's genius and magnetic personality, represented by the figures of the harlequin, the clown and the acrobat." "This book is a concise and lively study of the enormously productive and varied life and art of one of the twentieth century's most influential figures."--Jacket