by Pierre Daix ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 27, 1993
At the end of this once-over-lightly biography, French art- historian Daix quotes Picasso as saying, ``It isn't what the artist does which counts, it's what he is.'' Unfortunately, it's what Picasso was that Daix fails to illuminate in his unremittingly respectful depiction of a highly complex, highly controversial life. Daix's original research is minimal; the material on Picasso's early life, for instance, is drawn almost exclusively from Jaime Sabartes's sycophantic Picasso (1947). Yet Daix's portrait of a near-saintly Spanish genius fails to jibe with the reminiscences of wives, mistresses, dealers, and fellow artists who knew Picasso. This tendency is particularly noticeable in the author's rendering of the relationships between Picasso and the many women with whom he was involved from 1904 until his death in 1973. Today, it's almost universally acknowledged that the artist's treatment of the other sex was often brutally opportunistic; yet Daix portrays these women as vaguely irrational and unnecessarily vindictive. In depicting the break-up of Picasso and Francoise Gilot, for example, he soft-pedals the artist's unfeeling treatment of the mother of his children. ``Picasso,'' Daix writes, ``was too much of a different generation to understand.'' (For an opposing view, see Arianna Huffington's scathing Picasso, 1988.) Daix is more straightforward in his treatment of Picasso's involvement with the Communist Party, admitting that the artist was naive in allowing himself to be cynically used by the Stalinists. Hagiography that fails to convince. Stick with John Richardson's better-written and far more reliable A Life of Picasso (1990). (Twenty-four pages of b&w photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Jan. 27, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-430976-2
Page Count: 460
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1992
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by William Strunk & E.B. White ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 1972
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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