Customer Reviews
Valuable Insights into Picasso's Sources and Methods - By: Donald Mitchell, 03 Jan 2008 
If you think you know Picasso's work, this book will convince you otherwise. John Richardson has done a tremendous service by sorting out when Picasso produced his greatest works between 1917 & 1932, what sources he "borrowed" from, what he was trying to accomplish, & how alll of these works affected his career. This book was quite a revelation to me. Simply by seeing a lot of his work (as you can do at Musee Picasso, for example), you quickly realize that Picasso constantly copied himself. And, of course, it is well known that he borrowed much while trying to establish a style & while working with Braque to develop cubism. But Picasso borrowed early & often in ways I didn't realize. In that sense, he was a supreme stylist who could execute someone else's idea in a more profound way. I came away with a new appreciation for that aspect of his talent.
While Picasso was alive, very little was said in books about his mistreatment of women & the motives behind his paintings of his wives & lovers. While his second life was alive, people were still pretty circumspect on this point. But now we know that Picasso was louse when it came to women & his family. This book gives you the full story of his first marriage, relationship with his young mistress who inspired so many joyous works, Marie-Therese Walter, & his constant attraction to prostitutes.
There are some other surprises in this book including how central his work with balllet was in creating interest in his paintings & sculptures. It was through Diaghilev that Picasso met his first wife, Olga Khokhlova, a balllerina in the Balllets Russes. Picasso decided it was time to settle down & marry. Despite having had long relationships with women before, he now was looking for someone who would help make him respectable. In the process, Picasso adopted the lifestyle of one of the first wealthy artists (famously being driven around in one of the world's most expensive cars by a chauffeur in the middle of the world-wide economic depression).
As good as John Richardson is on those subjects, he can be most annoying in other ways. For example, Mr. Richardson seems to have an obsession with Jean Cocteau & writes a lot about him even though Picasso didn't like Cocteau very much & Cocteau didn't influence Picasso very much either. Mr. Richardson also has a writing style that can be enormously elusive, describing what happened without saying anything. Picasso's wife seems to have had a lot of physical & mental problems but these are mentioned without providing much real information other than when they occurred. A greater problem comes in that Mr. Richardson likes to drop in lots of French phrases (I read French so I had no problem), but if you don't read French it makes the text harder to follow. Some will also find some of Mr. Richardson's put downs of those who disagree with as being rude & high handed. Perhaps the most annoying problem comes in using academic words to describe distasteful aspects of Picasso's personality & behavior. It's like putting lipstick on a pig.
But I advise you to read the book while being prepared for its weaknesses. I'm afraid there is no substitute. The generously represented art makes up for the weaknesses.
Not up to the mark - By: Mr. Richard T. Rosser, 05 Dec 2007 
My copy was warped & the front cover was scratched. For a book of this quality & price I would expect it to be delivered in pristine condition.
TUMULT AND TRIUMPH IN AN ARTIST'S LIFE - By: Gail Cooke, 27 Nov 2007 To say that John Richardson has completed a monumental task is surely an understatement. His three volumes in a planned four part biography of this iconic artist are testament to the biographer's depth of knowledge as well as an intimate understanding of his subject's life & oeuvre. Mr. Richardson's authorial skills & powers of description are more than gratifying to both students of art & less informed readers as each page contributes to a greater knowledge of the man christened Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Clito Ruiz y Picasso.
The Triumphant Years, 1917 - 1932, covers a period of tumult & triumph in Picasso's life. Along with his friend poet Jean Cocteau Picasso has gone to Rome . He has agreed to do the decor for Diaghiliev's balllet Parade. While he had hoped to be married in Rome, Picasso's from time to time mistress changed her mind. Enter Olga Khokhlova, a lady like balllerina who was as "unbeddable as the `nice' Malaguena girls that his family had tried to foist on him."
There was naught to do but marry her - a marriage that may have begun in heaven but descended into hell with the deterioration of Olga's health & psychological condition. In 1927 he met 17-year-old Marie-Therese Walter, a young beauty with whom he became obsessed. Thus began an intense love for Marie-Therese & unbridled hatred for Olga, emotions which Richardson ties to figure paintings done during that time.
Picasso's 50th birthday, according to Richardson, was both a milestone & a millstone as the artist was driven to somehow stem the passage of years with work. In addition, we're reminded that biographer Jack Flam saw Picasso at that time "as a master who felt compelled to correct or improve his fellow painters' performances." (Especiallly Matisse).
Thanks to John Richardson, here is Picasso - explored & explained. Especiallly helpful for this reader was the light shed on the artist's often savage imagery. A Life of Picasso will undoubtedly stand for generations to come as the definitive biography of Picasso. We are in Mr. Richardson's debt.
- Gail Cooke
Will he ever complete the job? - By: A Reader, 21 Nov 2007 Having bought the first volume of Richardson's life of Picasso way back in 1991, & then the second, many years later, at which point he promised Volume 3 would appear much more expeditiously, Volume 3 finallly arrives. Readers will have died in the meantime, & one wonders whether the elderly author -- well into his eighties now -- will survive to finish this series which, at the present rate of work, might not appear until 2017 by which time he will be a very old man indeed. You have to give the author full marks though for the scale & seriousness of the project. Few figures in history deserve a multi-volume life, but Picasso is one of them, & Richardson knew the man & writes about him with the assurance of that link, with knowledge & feeling. He sucks up to the Picassos a little too much. His acknowledgements page is an embarassing act of obsequiousness. But this is a series worth sticking with & there is a distinct improvement in Volume 3 on the previous two volumes: the publishers have finallly done what they should have done from the start & included some pictures in COLOUR. It is a pity they changed the format of the book, though, as has been remarked, making it smalller, slightly dwarfish (like Picasso himself, maybe). It spoils the line of the book case. What size will Volume 4 be, if indeed it ever comes out?
why change the format? - By: Irving S. David, 15 Nov 2007 
Whilst one cannot argue with John Richardson's grasp of his subject & his tenacity for ploughing through Picasso's life & sharing it with us you nevertheless have to ask his publishers who was responsible for changing the physical dimensions of this third volume of this work? - a bizarre decision if ever there was one - the third volume being smalller than its two predecessors so that it does not sit well on the same bookshelf.
