'Magnificent.Richardson's book is intellectually thrilling and visually dazzling.an indispensable study of the unnatural, blasphemous, sometimes obscene and mostly glorious madness known as art.' - Peter Conrad, Observer 'This first volume of an amazing life is the finest biography of an artist I have read.the ultimate and irreplaceable biography, the biography which proves that Picasso's famous luck has held out.' - Waldemar Januszczak, Guardian The author's unique, extensive knowledge and insider information about Picasso - both the man and artist - informs insightful explications of the nuances and symbolism in Picasso's works. 'The final chapter of a magisterial biography.

Publisher: Vintage Publishing ISBN: 9780224031226 Number of pages: 320 Weight: 1121 g Dimensions: 240 x 190 x 31 mm MEDIA REVIEWS His fascinating and illuminating narrative immerses us in one of the most exciting moments in twentieth-century cultural history, and brings to a close the definitive and critically acclaimed biography of one of the world's most celebrated artists. In 1943, Picasso met Françoise Gilot who would replace Marr and inspire a brilliant new sequence of paintings.Īs always, Richardson tells Picasso's story through his work, analysing how it shows what the artist was feeling and thinking. When the Nazis occupied Paris in 1940, Picasso chose to remain in the city despite the threat that his art would be confiscated. The bombing of Guernica in April 1937 would inspire Picasso's vast masterwork of the same name, which he painted in just a few weeks for the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris World's Fair. Richardson shows us the artist being as prolific as ever, painting Walter, as well as the surrealist photographer Dora Maar, who became a muse, collaborator and lover. It was during this time that Picasso began writing surrealist poetry and became obsessed with the image of himself as the mythic Minotaur. Picasso was contributing to André Breton's Minotaur magazine and spending time with the likes of Man Ray, Salvador Dalí, Lee Miller, and the poet Paul Éluard, in Paris and the south of France. The Minotaur Years opens in 1933 with a visit by the Hungarian-French photographer Brassaï to Picasso's chateau in Normandy, Boisgeloup, where he would take his iconic photographs of the celebrated plaster busts of Picasso's lover Marie-Thérèse Walter.

The beautifully illustrated, long-awaited final volume of John Richardson's magisterial Life of Picasso, drawing on original research from interviews and never-before-seen material in the Picasso family archives.

A life of picasso volume 4