A quiet, satisfying ending to a masterful accomplishment.
The final chapter of a magisterial biography.
It has been 30 years since Richardson (1924-2019) published his first volume in this grand, highly detailed, and intimate four-volume biography of his close friend. Though this volume ends in 1943, Picasso would go on to create for another three decades. 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; his personal relationships with other artists, writers, and women; and his work habits. By the early 1930s, Picasso’s marriage with Olga was broken, and he was deeply enmeshed with a new, young mistress and model, Marie-Thérèse Walter. That year, he created one of his finest sculptures, Woman With a Lamp (aka Woman With Vase), which graces his gravesite. Richardson believes that sculpture represents Picasso’s long-dead sister, Conchita. The artist’s 1934 Blind Minotaur “commemorates Picasso’s lifelong obsession with his eyesight.” When the surrealists launched a new magazine, Minotaure, Picasso contributed an engraving of a minotaur for the magazine’s cover, thus securing his place within the controversial movement. During lengthy divorce proceedings, he turned to poetry, “painting with words.” Busy juggling multiple mistresses, he settled on a relationship with Dora Maar, “a striking and sophisticated twenty-nine-year-old surrealistic photographer.” During the Spanish Civil War, Richardson notes, Picasso’s works took on a “potent political symbolism” that would inspire one of his greatest paintings, Guernica, which vividly captures his loathing for fascism. He had already done some pieces indicting Franco, but the bombing of the Basque town inspired a massive mural. First exhibited at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris, “Guernica would establish Picasso as the world’s most celebrated modern artist.” Richardson notes that Picasso’s pieces during this period reflect the substantial influence of Vincent van Gogh, “enthroned in his visual memory.” This final, lavishly illustrated volume softly slips away with Richardson continuing to chronicle Picasso obsessively creating.
A quiet, satisfying ending to a masterful accomplishment.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-307-26666-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A beautifully produced, engaging homage.
Celebrating a beloved artist.
Published to coincide with a major exhibition of works by British-born artist David Hockney (b. 1937) at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, this lushly illustrated volume offers a detailed overview of the artist’s life and work, along with chapters focused on his various styles and subject matter, a chronology, and a glossary of the many techniques he employed in his art, including camera lucida, computer, and video. Contributors of essays include noted art historians and curators, such as Norman Rosenthal, who edited the volume; Simon Schama; Anne Lyles; James Cahill; and François Michaud. Growing up in the north of England, Hockney was drawn to the light and sparkle that he found in Hollywood movies. When he finally arrived in Los Angeles, the sunlit landscapes inspired him, and his new sense of artistic freedom concurred with sexual freedom: As a gay man, he felt liberated from the constraints that had weighed on him in Britain, even in the “relative Bohemia” of the Royal College of Art. Essayists reflect on his artistic interests, such as landscapes, portraiture, flowers, and the opera—for which he created boldly exuberant sets—as well as on his influences and experimentation. Michaud examines the impact on Hockney of a visit to Paris in the 1970s, where he became familiar with Henri Matisse and his contemporaries from museum exhibitions. In the 1990s, visiting his mother and friends in Yorkshire, Hockney painted both outdoors and in the studio, experimenting with various media—including the photocopier and fax machine—as he worked to render the woodsy landscape. As a companion to the exhibition, the volume offers stunning reproductions of Hockney’s prolific works. Enormously popular with museumgoers, Hockney, Rosenthal exults, “transforms the ordinary and the everyday into the remarkable.”
A beautifully produced, engaging homage.Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780500029527
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
