Picasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transformation

This book is the catalogue for a landmark exhibition held at MOMA in NYC and at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1996-1997. As such, it has become a collector's piece since such a large-scale gathering of portraits by Picasso is unlikely to take place again in the near future. The book benefits from brilliant contributions by two legendary museum curators, William Rubin (himself a friend of Picasso's, who reflects on the meaning of portraiture in his art) and Kirk Varnedoe (who writes on the artist's many self-portraits). These two essays are followed by a chronological study of Picasso's portraits, each period being defined by the presence of a new mistress at the side of the master (Olga Khokhlova, Dora Maar, Marie-Thérèse Walter, Françoise Gilot, Jacqueline Roque), with texts written by famous experts (Robert Rosenblum, Pierre Daix...). Lavish illustrations (a few in black and white, but most of them in color) accompany each text and make this publication the definitive bible on the subject and an indispensable item in the already well furnished literature on Picasso.

While some art buffs may find it hard to believe that anything new could be said about the unquestionably great and unquestionably over-publicized Pablo Picasso, this Museum of Modern Art catalogue actually manages to re-invigorate the discussion of an artist whom some might say the MOMA (having held four colossal exhibitions on Picasso within 15 years) should stop shoving down the public's throat. While the paintings are, for the most part, quite familiar to Picasso enthusiasts (with some delicious exceptions), the catalogue contains several excellent essays which approach the works of art from a personal, rather than art-historical perspective. Picasso's relationships with his various women, and the effect each wife/mistress had on his vision of reality, are thoughtfully and, for the most part, intelligently explored, despite some occasional descents into blatant "National Enquirer"-type celebrity gossip on the part of these supposedly "scientific" critics. Fortunately, Picasso's art stands above the possibly-too intimate concerns of the authors (a careful perusal of the gossip-filled footnotes will amuse you for hours). Page after page of excellent reproductions stun, startle, amuse and amaze the beholder through their sheer perversity. Nearly 30 years after Picasso's death, his art still shocks and challenges the public. My personal favorites are the paintings of the sad and sensual Dora Maar, which are unmatched anywhere in Picasso's oeuvre for sheer, brutal power. Their distortions haunt the mind, although the joyous and often semi-pornographic pictures of the teenage mistress, Marie-Therese, possess an equal charge. This book is a definite must in any art library.