Richardson's engrossing second volume on Picasso lays bare the inceptions of Cubism, bringing to life the decadent milieu that surrounded the virile master who transformed the course of 20th- century painting. This installment in the author's monumental biography opens on the eve of Picasso's painting of the revolutionary Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, which, incidentally, wasn't publicly exhibited until 1916, nor was it hailed as revolutionary until the early '20s (by AndrÇ Breton). The painting was so radical that it shocked even the band of cronies who never left Picasso's side—including Max Jacob and Apollinaire—who, upon viewing it, ``took refuge in embarrassed silence.'' Although Picasso later denied it, the women's angular feature had been influenced by tribal masks—he was fascinated by these fetishes functioning as weapons to ward off evil spirits—but he was deeply affected by the work of El Greco and CÇzanne as well. Ironically, it was Braque who, having seen Demoiselles, painted and exhibited a series of ``cubist'' canvases that would subject him to the public's outrage. This was a brilliant move, Richardson points out, on the part of Picasso, who feared xenophobic hostility and allowed Braque to situate himself on the front lines while he sat back and watched. Living in Montmartre with the beautiful Fernande Olivier, whom he had once worshipped but who now served as a model for one of the whores, he was surrounded by talented acolytes who enjoyed opium, bisexual escapades, mean-spirited drunken shenanigans, and the swapping of mistresses. Poverty was held barely at bay thanks to the patronage of Gertrude and Leo Stein and the art dealer Kahnweiler. Richardson masterfully describes the inseparable life and art of his magnetic subject, whose love of women went hand in hand with his misogyny, and whose propensity to reject led painting forward more than any other painter in this century. (illustrations, not seen)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-394-55918-5
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1996
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor...
The excruciating story of a young man on a quest for knowledge and experience, a search that eventually cooked his goose, told with the flair of a seasoned investigative reporter by Outside magazine contributing editor Krakauer (Eiger Dreams, 1990).
Chris McCandless loved the road, the unadorned life, the Tolstoyan call to asceticism. After graduating college, he took off on another of his long destinationless journeys, this time cutting all contact with his family and changing his name to Alex Supertramp. He was a gent of strong opinions, and he shared them with those he met: "You must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life''; "be nomadic.'' Ultimately, in 1992, his terms got him into mortal trouble when he ran up against something—the Alaskan wild—that didn't give a hoot about Supertramp's worldview; his decomposed corpse was found 16 weeks after he entered the bush. Many people felt McCandless was just a hubris-laden jerk with a death wish (he had discarded his map before going into the wild and brought no food but a bag of rice). Krakauer thought not. Admitting an interest that bordered on obsession, he dug deep into McCandless's life. He found a willful, reckless, moody boyhood; an ugly little secret that sundered the relationship between father and son; a moral absolutism that agitated the young man's soul and drove him to extremes; but he was no more a nutcase than other pilgrims. Writing in supple, electric prose, Krakauer tries to make sense of McCandless (while scrupulously avoiding off-the-rack psychoanalysis): his risky behavior and the rites associated with it, his asceticism, his love of wide open spaces, the flights of his soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-42850-X
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995
SEEN & HEARD
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