The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Picasso, Provence, and Douglas Cooper

By Picasso's most distinguished biographer, this memoir of life in Provence in the 1950s with art collector Douglas Cooper mesmerizes with its cast of quirky characters. The inside glimpses of Picasso at work and play are the book's highlight, but one can't underrate other protraits of the arts intelligentsia of the time. Many great candid photos enhance the superbly written text. Why did Richardson stay with Cooper for more than a decade if Cooper, the world's first huge cubist collector, was as horrid a person as portrayed? That's unanswered, and Cooper is long dead and unable to defend himself. Both men, not quite closeted gays in the '40s and '50s, were esteemed companions for some of the era's greatest creatives, so one must temper this acidic portrait with a bit of doubt. Well worth reading even if you haven't looked into the author's Picasso bio, still in progress.

Richardson's fine survey of Douglas Cooper, who assembled the world's most important private cubist collection, provides an excellent consideration of both the man and his involvement in the arts and Richardson's personal involvement with Cooper's works. Chapters offer new views of Picasso based on Richardson's friendship with the artist, plus many other unusual insights on artists and works of the times. Highly recommended.

john richardson gives us snippets of a fascinating period intertwining the lives of influential artists and personas. i only wish the book was longer and more descriptive of braque,guttoso and miro. if you collect or enjoy the cubists and their relatives,you will enjoy this book

Bill Owens captured the great American Migration to the suburbia of the early seventies. Amidst the conformity suggested by social critics and our owm memories of having lived there, he found that which was uniquely human and individual. This loving document, now published in an improved second edition, brings to us a classic in documentary photography. These are not the photographs of a cultural tourist. These views were secured through the trust reserved for the insider that he was. Lives of his friends and neighbors are captured in a time and place that no other photographer had the insight to document in such a dedicated and revealing fashion. Through these photographs we see and remember the awkward growth and construction of the sense of culture and neighborhood created from scratch. We are reminded that we were living life "in the local," free from the burden of ordained histories, in a place where everything was new and unused.See and remember the life you thought everyone might want to forget. From the sinister implications of conformity, to the humorous recollections of the rituals of the middle class, Bill saw and recorded it all....a classic not to be forgotten.

Readers looking for the third installment in the Picasso series should know that this wonderful book is not it -- we have another year or two to wait for that delightful experience. This is indeed an autobiographical journey with Richardson into the lives of some of the most fascinating people ever, not the least of whom is the delicious Mr. Richardson himself. Highly, highly recommended.