{"id":5055,"date":"2022-03-03T18:54:48","date_gmt":"2022-03-03T18:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=5055"},"modified":"2024-02-08T09:31:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T09:31:08","slug":"art-media-book-review-picasso-from-the-ballets-to-drama-1917-1926-josep-palau-i-fabre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=5055","title":{"rendered":"BOOK REViEW: Picasso, From the Ballets to Drama, 1917-1926, Josep Palau i Fabre"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This arrived today. It\u2019s the third instalment in what may have been intended to be a complete history of Picasso\u2019s prodigious output. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Josep Palau i Fabre, poet, author and Picasso nut, lived to the ripe old age of 90, he didn\u2019t get much further than this (there might be a final follow up), which ends relatively early in Picasso\u2019s lengthy career, in 1926. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A few spreads, showing the rich diversity\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
and wide range of styles\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
\u2026 Picasso favoured in this era. From Cubism to neo-Classicism.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The choice of cover image is not my favourite, from the many potential alternatives in this, as ever, very voluminous selection. There are 1800 images, 700 in colour! But the overall quality of the book is in keeping with the first two instalments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I love most about Picasso, in addition to that portion of the work that meets my own personal aesthetic preferences, is Picasso\u2019s sheer artistic fecundity. It\u2019s truly astonishing how he not only works through ideas in whole series of variants, but how freely he moves between different styles and approaches, even mediums. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
I love his colour choices, and his design abstractions. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
I like some of these still lives.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Such strong colour and graphic design!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This aspect of his volcanic output makes him almost unique, in my experience, both in modern art and, indeed, art of all the ages. The only other artist that comes close – as far as I\u2019m aware? – might be David Hockney. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the three volumes I now have, I\u2019m inclined to think that, perhaps, the first two have more art I really like. But there\u2019s still an immense amount I love. But, as I already said, as much as the qualities of individual works themselves, it\u2019s the sheer life energy manifested in Picasso\u2019s massively multifaceted output that is, in and of itself, very compelling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Throughout the book there are a few sections of hands\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
in themselves both quite varied and quite similar\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
\u2026 quite sculptural!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve included a number of images of artworks I like. I did think about including some of the stuff I don\u2019t<\/em> like. There\u2019s plenty of it! The only thing in that line that I\u2019ve included pictorially is the photo of bizarre theatrical costumes, including a kind of \u2018pantomime horse\u2019!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bonkers!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t a review of the text of this book (which I\u2019ve only dipped into thus far). As I\u2019ve said elsewhere, about the other two books i Fabre wrote, about earlier phases of Picasso\u2019s life and work, my primary interest is predominantly visual. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as with those two former titles, I do love this one. I feel a bit mean giving this four and a half and not five stars. But I decided to do so, on the grounds that I slightly prefer more of the art works in the first two instalments of this very detailed and comprehensive series of large plush art books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This arrived today. It\u2019s the third instalment in what may have been intended to be a complete history of Picasso\u2019s prodigious output. Although Josep Palau i Fabre, poet, author and Picasso nut, lived to the ripe old age of 90, he didn\u2019t get much further than this (there might be a final follow up), which … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “BOOK REViEW: Picasso, From the Ballets to Drama, 1917-1926, Josep Palau i Fabre”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-1jx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5055"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5055"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11503,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5055\/revisions\/11503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}