No comments about Picasso says.

No comments about Museo Picasso de Barcelona (Coleccion iberica).

4 comments about Picasso and Minou.

1. This glorious debut book by a talented children's author is filled with stunning artwork. More than that, the delightful story (based on true events) is masterful and evocative. The story of a special relationship between Picasso and Minou, a street-wise and loving feline, touched and intrigued me as both a cat lover and art lover. BRAVO, and may this book be the first of many successful works!
   
   --Amy D. Shojai, author 21 pet care books and a founder of the Cat Writers' Association



2. 
   Budding young artists and adults will be drawn to this touching story of Picasso. Set in Paris during Picasso's Blue Period when the artist struggled to sell his paintings, the tale is part fact, part fiction.
   
   It's true that these paintings were deemed sad by many and did not sell. It's also true that Picasso lived in a garret in Montmarte where he took in a street cat he called Minou (French for kitty). The rest comes from the artist's imagination.
   
   Our story opens with Picasso so poor that he cannot buy enough food for both Minou and himself. So he sadly returns Minou to the streets where the poor cat is booted from a restaurant and finds only stale bread in the trash.
   
   Minou's luck changes when he wanders into a part of Montmarte that is new to him and finds people dressed in colorful clothes. To his amazement these people jumped, twirled, juggled and did all manner of wonderful tricks. Soon, a little girl found him and brought him a plate of bread and stew. Minou made short work of that, so she brought him a sausage. However, "Instead of eating the sausage, Minou held it in his mouth and ran toward Pablo's studio."
   
   Of course, Picasso was delighted to have some food and also happy to see Minou. Eventually, Minou led the artist to the people who wore all colors of the rainbow and Picasso was so enchanted that he decided to paint them. He used colors of pink and rose, signaling the beginning of Picasso's Rose Period.
   
   The author's note includes a photo of the young Picasso and Minou. Artist Pau Estrada prepared well for illustrating "Picasso and Minou" by visiting the Museu Picasso in Barcelona and the Musee National Picasso in Paris. Estrada's watercolor illustrations are rich with the colors Picasso used during his Blue and Rose periods, adding authenticity and vivacity to this charming story.
   
   - Gail Cooke
   



3. The stunning illustrations make this book a must-have for both children and adult art-lovers.



4. My four-year-old daughter was fascinated by this story and wanted me to read it to her at least once a day while we had it from the library. I took the opportunity to check out a few other books of Picasso's art to show her that this was a story of someone real. The entree the book gave us into the world of Picasso's Blue Period was a genuinely enjoyable educational experience for her. It was a lot of fun to match the reproductions of Picasso's paintings with the pictures of the real thing in the books we brought home!
   
   The story also opens possible discussion for other topics--poverty, artistic pursuits, caring and friendship. This is a rich and well-told story.

No comments about A Companion to Modern and Contemporary Art: Van Abbemuseum.

4 comments about A Sum of Destructions: Picasso`s Cultures and the Creation of Cubism.

1. A marvelous book that is equally beautiful and well-written.



2. Dr. Staller combined resolute scholarship with poetic exposition. She produced an astonishing enlargement of Picasso's "world of veils and fragments."



3. As impossible as it seems to say something new about Picasso, Staller manages not only that, but to summon up the entire ethos that surrounded and created him. An astonishing and beautiful book.



4. The organization of this book is striking. Although it starts with Picasso's childhood in Malaga and ends a few years after his arrival in Paris, it's anything but a chronological biography of Picasso's early years. The theme of each chapter is some class of cultural artifacts or fads -- mainly from popular culture -- that influenced Picasso in the years through his Cubist period. As a result, the narrative skips around while also having a general sense of forward motion: very appropriately, a Cubist sense of time.
   
   The range of things described is incredibly broad. It includes popular religious objects, newspaper ads, academic history painting, fads for Esperanto and similar artifical languages, "the language of parasols" (which Spanish ladies learned from color trading cards enclosed in packages of chocolates), and numerous sorts of tchotchkes. I especially enjoyed looking at some of Picasso's guitar sculptures in the light of the paper cut-and-fold-up models that were popular when he was a child.
   
   All of this cultural material is fascinating. Still, I wasn't always convinced of strong connections between some items and Picasso's paintings, especially in the first couple of chapters. It seemed to me that there might be alternative explanations for some features of his paintings, or at least that the case presented was occasionally a bit sketchy.
   
   Nonetheless, the last several chapters are a great tour de force. Among the highlights are analyses of some of Picasso's collages. The bits of newspaper that Picasso used, and where he chose to snip them, weren't at all chosen at random. What's especially interesting is that some of them were chosen because of the stories or ads adjacent to, or on the reverse of, the cuttings he used, even though these aren't visible in the artwork.
   
   The scholarship necessary to track down all these connections is mind-boggling. It's easy to understand why this book was more than 20 years in the making. The writing style, though isn't at all academic --and at times is quite earthy in ways I'm sure Picasso would have approved.
   
   I was also impressed by the book's compassionate treatment (appropriately and unavoidably mixed with some bathos) of Picasso's father, a failed academic painter whose specialty was realistic paintings of pigeons. Most of all, the book is a great confirmation of Picasso's fundamentally comic sensibility. That makes the book a pleasure to read all the way through.

No comments about Pablo Picasso: The Lithographs.

No comments about Sunshine At Midnight: Memories Of Picasso And Cocteau.

1 comments about Pablo Picasso (Famous People Series).

1. Pablo Picasso by Ibi Lepscky conveys Pablito's artistic temperment very well, but does not tell much about his family life, details in which children find their commonalities. This is a very good biography of Picasso's genius, and I will use it in conjunction with Picasso by Tony Hart.

No comments about Picasso and Photography: The Dark Mirror.

2 comments about Picasso and the Invention of Cubism.

1. I picked up Karmel's book yesterday and found that I could not put it down. I am neither an artist, nor an art historian, but I found Karmel's explanation and analysis of Picasso's cubism both accessible and fascinating. I would highly recommend it not just for art buffs, but for anyone who is at all interested in Picasso's work. Setting aside the craft of Karmel's words, the book itself happens to be a work of art in its own right. It is beautifully bound with fantastic images.... This is the first book that I have felt the need to write a review of on amazon. Let me assure you that there is a reason...



2. I picked Karmel's book up yesterday and found that I could not put it down. I am neither an artist, nor an art historian, but I found Karmel's explanation and analysis of Picasso's cubism both accessible and fascinating. I would highly recommend it not just for art buffs, but for anyone who is at all interested in Picasso's work. Setting aside the craft of Karmel's words, the book itself happens to be a work of art in its own right. It is beautifully bound with fantastic images.... This is the first book that I have felt the need to write a review of on amazon. Let me assure you that there is a reason...