Critical Lives
2 total works
This book provides a fresh, engaging view into Picasso's life and art. Mary Ann Caws describes the artist's life thematically and chronologically, and also takes as focal points Picasso's relationships with his close friends as they changed over the years.Pablo Picasso invokes central places and characters in various periods of the artist's long and active life: in Barcelona; his time at the Bâteau-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 Dalí, Eluard, and critic Roland Penrose. It traces his relationships with partners Dora Maar, Françoise Gilot and Jacqueline Roque. Caws provides biographical context to the artist'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 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 artistic figures.
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dali y Domenech, Marquis of Pubol, was born in Catalonia on May 11, 1904, and died on January 23, 1989. Best known as a surrealist painter, his artistic output also included film, sculpture, photography and writing. Dali is also notorious for his eccentric behaviour and his involvement with the Dada movement, which often drew more attention to himself than his art. In this new narrative exploration of Salvador Dali, highly respected art and literary historian Mary Ann Caws surveys the life and work of one of the most fascinating and colourful figures in the history of art. She recounts the influence of the Catalan region and dialect on his early life, as well as his expulsions from school and from the School of Fine Arts in Madrid; his involvement with the Surrealists, and his work with Bunuel and their films "Un chien andalou" and "L'Age d'or", and the impact and reception of both films at the time.
Dali's turbulent personal life brought him into contact with a rich assortment of intellectual figures and Caws considers his relationships with his family and his lovers, including Elena Diakonova (Gala), who was married to the poet Paul Eluard when they met, and friends such as poet Federico Garcia Lorca. Caws also closely examines Dali's work: his famous Surrealist paintings, 'hand-painted dream photographs' such as "The Persistence of Memory" and "Autumnal Cannibalism?", as well as his writing, photography, sculpture and film. Well-researched, and full of telling anecdotes, "Salvador Dali" will appeal to the large readership who are already familiar with this extraordinary artist, as well as to those who have heard much and wish to know more about the life and work of this pivotal figure in modern art.
Dali's turbulent personal life brought him into contact with a rich assortment of intellectual figures and Caws considers his relationships with his family and his lovers, including Elena Diakonova (Gala), who was married to the poet Paul Eluard when they met, and friends such as poet Federico Garcia Lorca. Caws also closely examines Dali's work: his famous Surrealist paintings, 'hand-painted dream photographs' such as "The Persistence of Memory" and "Autumnal Cannibalism?", as well as his writing, photography, sculpture and film. Well-researched, and full of telling anecdotes, "Salvador Dali" will appeal to the large readership who are already familiar with this extraordinary artist, as well as to those who have heard much and wish to know more about the life and work of this pivotal figure in modern art.