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mattshervheim's review against another edition
4.0
A solid introduction to the history and influences of modernist art. It's a little bit dry, tending towards facts and dates rather than storytelling, but it's extremely thorough and intelligently presented, the cast of characters could hardly have been more colorful, and there are a few wonderful sections — like when Derain and Matisse go to Collioure for the summer — that really caught my imagination.
Braque described modernist painting as capturing "not an anecdote, but a pictorial fact." I'm beginning to appreciate what he means.
Braque described modernist painting as capturing "not an anecdote, but a pictorial fact." I'm beginning to appreciate what he means.
aoosterwyk's review
3.0
I read this book before going to the Van Gogh in Nature exhibit at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA. In this book, Van Gogh has been accepted as a great artist, along with Cezanne, by the next generation of artists painting in the south of France.
Montmartre is described as a hill of hovels and rundown buildings. It was previously divided up into allotments and used to grow food. The artists moved in and rented or claimed buildings for studios. This book focused more on the interaction between artists/models and patrons than on the artists as individuals.
Montmartre is described as a hill of hovels and rundown buildings. It was previously divided up into allotments and used to grow food. The artists moved in and rented or claimed buildings for studios. This book focused more on the interaction between artists/models and patrons than on the artists as individuals.
jdintr's review
4.0
I picked up this book after a visit to Philadelphia's Barnes Foundation museum, which featured a lot of artworks by Picasso and Matisse. I have learned a lot about Picasso over the years, but Matisse always seemed an enigma to me, and I hoped this would get me into his works.
Let me focus first on what Sue Roe does very, very well in this book: the brings Montmartre to life--it's cafes, it's moulins, its studios. The reader walks the streets with Picasso, shimmies through narrow alleys with Georges Bracque, and experiences the nightlife at artist hangouts like the Lupin Agile.
One other strength of Roe's text is the way she features the women who were there at the birth of Modernism. I had never heard of Marie Laurencin before (see painting below of Picasso, Laurencin, the poet, Apollonaire, and Picasso's lover, Fernande Olivier).
Now I'm a big fan of hers. Other important female figures are Gertrude Stein, the American who championed Picasso and was an early collector, Alice Tokal, partner and muse of Stein, and the tempestuous Fernande, a model whom Picasso painted over 60 times and with whom he lived through the first ten years of his time in Paris.
Reading the book was a challenge. Colored plates illustrate ten of the key works that Roe mentions, but there are far many more that aren't included. I read with the book in one hand and a tablet in the other to look up some of these mentioned pictures for myself. I especially wish that several of the paintings that Matisse completed in Collioure had been available. Still, this is the challenge with most nonfiction books about art and culture.
I had also hoped to learn more about the cultural ideas behind Cubism, Fauvism and modernism. Roe stays with the artistic developments. Near the end of the book, the Wright Brothers' invention of flight and the Ballets Russe appear as key influences, but by this time Picasso was on his way to the Big Time. I found few non-technical influences mentioned for the key years when Matisse and Picasso were establishing themselves outside the yearly Salon d'Autonmne.
For those interested in a key era of art, this is a great read. I learned a lot.
Let me focus first on what Sue Roe does very, very well in this book: the brings Montmartre to life--it's cafes, it's moulins, its studios. The reader walks the streets with Picasso, shimmies through narrow alleys with Georges Bracque, and experiences the nightlife at artist hangouts like the Lupin Agile.
One other strength of Roe's text is the way she features the women who were there at the birth of Modernism. I had never heard of Marie Laurencin before (see painting below of Picasso, Laurencin, the poet, Apollonaire, and Picasso's lover, Fernande Olivier).
Now I'm a big fan of hers. Other important female figures are Gertrude Stein, the American who championed Picasso and was an early collector, Alice Tokal, partner and muse of Stein, and the tempestuous Fernande, a model whom Picasso painted over 60 times and with whom he lived through the first ten years of his time in Paris.
Reading the book was a challenge. Colored plates illustrate ten of the key works that Roe mentions, but there are far many more that aren't included. I read with the book in one hand and a tablet in the other to look up some of these mentioned pictures for myself. I especially wish that several of the paintings that Matisse completed in Collioure had been available. Still, this is the challenge with most nonfiction books about art and culture.
I had also hoped to learn more about the cultural ideas behind Cubism, Fauvism and modernism. Roe stays with the artistic developments. Near the end of the book, the Wright Brothers' invention of flight and the Ballets Russe appear as key influences, but by this time Picasso was on his way to the Big Time. I found few non-technical influences mentioned for the key years when Matisse and Picasso were establishing themselves outside the yearly Salon d'Autonmne.
For those interested in a key era of art, this is a great read. I learned a lot.
cryo_guy's review
4.0
I enjoyed this a lot. As a biography, it's very readable. While it uses intricate details of primary sources--letters, journals, etc.--, it's never cumbersome. If anything, I thought it was a bit light on substance, but I can't judge a book too hard for being readable and this one still does a good job with its subject.
Its short chapters begin as snapshots of the times. In fact, at the beginning I was a bit bored because it didn't get to Picasso. However, shortly, it wasn't hard to get involved in how he and Matisse would emerge from the Paris art scene, tracking their various influences and the people in their circles. I particularly enjoyed quotations where the artists explained part of their approach to painting and there are representative snippets from Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, and some other artists I was less familiar with but I learned their significance to, as the book says, the birth of Modernist art, like the fauvists-Derain and Vlaminck. The lives of the artists are packaged in a neat narrative that has no particular tension except the squabbles and dramas that one person might have with another; Matisse was particularly sensitive. And some famous debates are touched on, like the origin of synthetic cubism (Braque or Picasso) or Matisse and Picasso's "feud."
So yeah, definitely worth a read if you're interested in Picasso and Matisse, not to mention the Fauvists, but Braque, Modigliani, among others. I love a good book that tracks the conceptual thread of some historical thing or another. While I would say in the realm of art I favor either the impressionists/post-impressionists or the abstract expressionists both before and after these modernists, but I still, having seen so many of these very famous early 20th century paintings, loved reading about them and doubly appreciated the sociohistorical context.
Its short chapters begin as snapshots of the times. In fact, at the beginning I was a bit bored because it didn't get to Picasso. However, shortly, it wasn't hard to get involved in how he and Matisse would emerge from the Paris art scene, tracking their various influences and the people in their circles. I particularly enjoyed quotations where the artists explained part of their approach to painting and there are representative snippets from Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, and some other artists I was less familiar with but I learned their significance to, as the book says, the birth of Modernist art, like the fauvists-Derain and Vlaminck. The lives of the artists are packaged in a neat narrative that has no particular tension except the squabbles and dramas that one person might have with another; Matisse was particularly sensitive. And some famous debates are touched on, like the origin of synthetic cubism (Braque or Picasso) or Matisse and Picasso's "feud."
So yeah, definitely worth a read if you're interested in Picasso and Matisse, not to mention the Fauvists, but Braque, Modigliani, among others. I love a good book that tracks the conceptual thread of some historical thing or another. While I would say in the realm of art I favor either the impressionists/post-impressionists or the abstract expressionists both before and after these modernists, but I still, having seen so many of these very famous early 20th century paintings, loved reading about them and doubly appreciated the sociohistorical context.
kiperoo's review
4.0
Jam-packed with well-researched information. Picasso and Matisse come to life on the pages, making it easy to imagine the Montmartre I've visited back in these amazing times a hundred years earlier. A bit too much head-jumping for me among the various artists (I sometimes had trouble keeping track), but someone more versed in the painters of the time wouldn't have that problem.
gregg_macdonald's review against another edition
1.0
At around a third of the way through this I just didn't want to read it anymore because there is such a thing as far too much mundane detail on someone's life.
sophronisba's review
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.0
I enjoyed this despite having not a huge amount of knowledge about modern art. Really made me want to read bios of both Picasso and Matisse.