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The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art by Sebastian Smee
jasoncomely's review against another edition
5.0
This was a page-turner. Smee is a magnetic writer. I found the Pollock / de Kooning "rivalry" (if we're to call it that) particularly compelling.
johndiconsiglio's review against another edition
3.0
Pulitzer-winning art critic dissects 4 friendships—Freud/Bacon, Manet/Degas, Matisse/Picasso, de Kooning/Pollock—& how they changed modern art. But let’s skip the high brow stuff & go right to the juicy gossip that makes this book fun. Freud declined a wedding invite because he’d not only slept with the bride but also the groom & the groom’s mother. Manet took a knife to a Degas painting of Mrs. M. Picasso’s lover sent their adopted preteen daughter back to the orphanage rather than risk her in the leering artist’s studio. Keep your phone handy to Google painting references.
alundeberg's review against another edition
3.0
Engaging look into how four sets of artists influenced each other's art and style. I give this three stars because while the author writes well, the structure jumps around and felt scattered. While others can do this to create a dramatic effect and sense of tension, Smee's use felt disjointed. Sometimes his argument felt forced-- like he was placing more of an impact between the artists than was actually there (I have no doubt the artists felt the influences, but there's a lot that shapes an artist, not just a "rival"). He often will state a blanket statement about art or humanity that is rather tenuous at best and assumes that the reader agrees. I often did not agree with these statements and was not as convinced by him. While it's always fun to get a look into the lives of artists, Smee is trying really hard to fit the evidence and the reader to his conclusions.
textpublishing's review
5.0
‘Vivid and exuberant writing about art…[brings] great works to life with love and appreciation.’
Pulitzer citation
‘Smee takes readers deep into the beginnings of modern art in a way that not only enlightens, but also builds a stronger appreciation of the influences that created the environment that fostered its development.’
Kirkus
‘This is magnificent book on the relationships at the roots of artistic genius. Smee offers a gripping tale of the fine line between friendship and competition, tracing how the ties that torment us most are often the ones that inspire us most.’
Adam Grant, author of Originals and Give and Take
‘The keynotes of Sebastian Smee’s criticism have always included a fine feeling for the what of art—he knows how to evoke the way pictures really strike the eye—and an equal sense of the how of art: how art emerges from the background of social history. To these he now adds a remarkable capacity for getting down the who of art—the enigma of artists’ personalities, and the way that, two at a time, they can often intersect to reshape each in the other’s image. With these gifts all on the page together, The Art of Rivalry gives us a remarkable and engrossing book on pretty much the whole of art.’
Adam Gopnik, author of Paris to the Moon
‘Modern art’s major pairs of frenemies are a subject so fascinating, it’s strange to have a book on it only now—and a stroke of luck, for us, that the author is Sebastian Smee. He brings the perfect combination of artistic taste and human understanding, and a prose style as clear as spring water, to the drama and occasional comedy of men who inspired and annoyed one another to otherwise inexplicable heights of greatness.’
Peter Schjeldahl, New Yorker art critic
‘Beautifully written…This ambitious and impressive work is an utterly absorbing read.’
STARRED Review, Publishers Weekly
‘Smee’s book is full of interest and elegance and compelling insights into formative moments in, not just art, but Western culture more broadly.’
Australian Book Review
‘Smee’s writing is vivid and engaging, informed by his artistic judgment and a warmth of human understanding. The Art of Rivalry is a cracker of a book.’
Spectator Australia
‘Absorbing, informed and provocative, Sebastian Smee’s The Art of Rivalry takes us to heart of each of these relationships. It offers revelatory insights into the ways in which these major artists influenced and changed each other.’
Australian Arts Review
‘Smee’s double portraits are deeply moving, even haunting in their investigations of artistic and emotional symbioses of incalculable intricacy and consequence.’
Booklist
‘A riveting study.’
Miriam Cosic, Australian Book Review, 2016 Books of the Year
‘A hybrid of art history and biography, The Art of Rivalry sparkles with originality and psychological insight, and is full of fascinating information.’
Best Books of 2016, Australian Financial Review
‘The way Smee connects the dots is revelatory, plus lots of art world gossip.’
Daily Review
‘A riveting study…the title of which says it all.’
Miriam Cosic, Australian Book Review
‘Sebastian Smee explores the ‘frenemy’ relationships between modern artists Freud and Bacon, Manet and Degas, Matisse and Picasso and Pollock and de Kooning—an amusing, intimate and human lens that textbooks are closed to.’
Art Almanac
‘It made me laugh and it made me think.’
Wendy Whiteley, Australian Financial Review
Pulitzer citation
‘Smee takes readers deep into the beginnings of modern art in a way that not only enlightens, but also builds a stronger appreciation of the influences that created the environment that fostered its development.’
Kirkus
‘This is magnificent book on the relationships at the roots of artistic genius. Smee offers a gripping tale of the fine line between friendship and competition, tracing how the ties that torment us most are often the ones that inspire us most.’
Adam Grant, author of Originals and Give and Take
‘The keynotes of Sebastian Smee’s criticism have always included a fine feeling for the what of art—he knows how to evoke the way pictures really strike the eye—and an equal sense of the how of art: how art emerges from the background of social history. To these he now adds a remarkable capacity for getting down the who of art—the enigma of artists’ personalities, and the way that, two at a time, they can often intersect to reshape each in the other’s image. With these gifts all on the page together, The Art of Rivalry gives us a remarkable and engrossing book on pretty much the whole of art.’
Adam Gopnik, author of Paris to the Moon
‘Modern art’s major pairs of frenemies are a subject so fascinating, it’s strange to have a book on it only now—and a stroke of luck, for us, that the author is Sebastian Smee. He brings the perfect combination of artistic taste and human understanding, and a prose style as clear as spring water, to the drama and occasional comedy of men who inspired and annoyed one another to otherwise inexplicable heights of greatness.’
Peter Schjeldahl, New Yorker art critic
‘Beautifully written…This ambitious and impressive work is an utterly absorbing read.’
STARRED Review, Publishers Weekly
‘Smee’s book is full of interest and elegance and compelling insights into formative moments in, not just art, but Western culture more broadly.’
Australian Book Review
‘Smee’s writing is vivid and engaging, informed by his artistic judgment and a warmth of human understanding. The Art of Rivalry is a cracker of a book.’
Spectator Australia
‘Absorbing, informed and provocative, Sebastian Smee’s The Art of Rivalry takes us to heart of each of these relationships. It offers revelatory insights into the ways in which these major artists influenced and changed each other.’
Australian Arts Review
‘Smee’s double portraits are deeply moving, even haunting in their investigations of artistic and emotional symbioses of incalculable intricacy and consequence.’
Booklist
‘A riveting study.’
Miriam Cosic, Australian Book Review, 2016 Books of the Year
‘A hybrid of art history and biography, The Art of Rivalry sparkles with originality and psychological insight, and is full of fascinating information.’
Best Books of 2016, Australian Financial Review
‘The way Smee connects the dots is revelatory, plus lots of art world gossip.’
Daily Review
‘A riveting study…the title of which says it all.’
Miriam Cosic, Australian Book Review
‘Sebastian Smee explores the ‘frenemy’ relationships between modern artists Freud and Bacon, Manet and Degas, Matisse and Picasso and Pollock and de Kooning—an amusing, intimate and human lens that textbooks are closed to.’
Art Almanac
‘It made me laugh and it made me think.’
Wendy Whiteley, Australian Financial Review
igormdemiranda's review against another edition
4.0
Há algo que sou constante lembrado conforme vivo: não há nada mais importante do que os relacionamentos em nossas vidas — algo que Art of Rivalry só veio confirmar. O olhar sobre as quatro duplas de pintores — Freud/Bacon, Manet/Degas, Matisse/Picasso e Pollock/De Kooning — passa pelo encontro entre eles, a amizade, os conflitos, as influências, os choques de personalidade, tudo que compõem um relacionamento, mas amplificado pelo estilo de vida de seus personagens.
'No início de 1906, dizendo para ele mesmo que não havia nada a perder, Henri Matisse fez a sua primeira visita ao estúdio de Pablo Picasso. Ele foi até lá na companhia de sua filha, Marguerite, e de Gertrude e Leo Stein, os famosos colecionadores americanos que haviam acabado de se mudar para Paris.'
Eu não sei vocês, mas eu sinto algo muito forte quando leio coisas assim. Eles não tinham idéia como esse dia mudaria as suas vidas. Da mesma forma que o encontro casual de Manet e Degas no Louvre, ou mesmo, a amizade duradoura de Manet, líder para muitos outros pintores famosos, e Baudelaire. Fora o caso excepcional do Bateau-Lavoir, um lugar meio suspeito, mas que foi lar de Picasso, Erik Satie, Amedeo Modigliani, André Derain, Maurice Princet, entre outros, todos ao mesmo tempo. Imagine a efervescência desse lugar.
Ao ler a história de cada um desses pares, o que fica claro é que nenhum deles teria alcançado o patamar que alcançou se não tivesse o outro no encalço. Leitura para se fazer quase sem fôlego!
Uma recomendação especial para a história de Matisse e Picasso.
[O livro tem versão em português, 'A Arte da Rivalidade. Quatro Amizades que Mudaram a Arte Moderna' da editora Zahar]
'No início de 1906, dizendo para ele mesmo que não havia nada a perder, Henri Matisse fez a sua primeira visita ao estúdio de Pablo Picasso. Ele foi até lá na companhia de sua filha, Marguerite, e de Gertrude e Leo Stein, os famosos colecionadores americanos que haviam acabado de se mudar para Paris.'
Eu não sei vocês, mas eu sinto algo muito forte quando leio coisas assim. Eles não tinham idéia como esse dia mudaria as suas vidas. Da mesma forma que o encontro casual de Manet e Degas no Louvre, ou mesmo, a amizade duradoura de Manet, líder para muitos outros pintores famosos, e Baudelaire. Fora o caso excepcional do Bateau-Lavoir, um lugar meio suspeito, mas que foi lar de Picasso, Erik Satie, Amedeo Modigliani, André Derain, Maurice Princet, entre outros, todos ao mesmo tempo. Imagine a efervescência desse lugar.
Ao ler a história de cada um desses pares, o que fica claro é que nenhum deles teria alcançado o patamar que alcançou se não tivesse o outro no encalço. Leitura para se fazer quase sem fôlego!
Uma recomendação especial para a história de Matisse e Picasso.
[O livro tem versão em português, 'A Arte da Rivalidade. Quatro Amizades que Mudaram a Arte Moderna' da editora Zahar]
dillarhonda's review against another edition
Sebastian Smee's book The Art of Rivalry explores the historic friendships and rivalries between four sets of famous painters; Freud and Bacon, Manet and Degas, Matisse and Picasso, and Pollock and de Kooning. Smee suggests that the friction between these men was key to developing each's full potential. Sometimes focusing on the personal relationship between the two men, (Manet and Degas remained supporters of each other's work for their whole lives), he also emphasises professional competition (Pollock and de Kooning seem to have given each other a wide berth for the most part). Though Smee's prose shines in describing the paintings and capturing the shades of intensity particular to each artist, he comes off as rather stuffy when it comes to social matters. Overemphasis on what he deems scandalous (gay sex, affairs, and drug use) bely his essential discomfort with dissecting the private lives of these famously tormented men. So much the better then, when he returns to visceral depictions of their professional setbacks and triumphs. Though lacking in overarching analysis, The Art of Rivalry leaves the reader knowing more about the histories of these artists and with a renewed hunger for the drama and passion of painting.
knitdyeread's review against another edition
3.0
Honesty time. I skimmed most of this book. It's well written and interesting, just a little denser than I expected when I requested the arc. This book is packed with a ton of information about the artists and their lives. It reads more like a history book about the temperament and personalities of these 8 artists rather than a narrative exploring rivalry through the lens of famous artistic friends. That's not a bad thing. It's just not what I expected. That being said, I would buy this for the art history nerds in my family.
The author does address his reasons for choosing to only write about male friendships (patriarchal attitudes of the era in which he is writing), and why he chooses to leave out male/female rivalries (complex romantic interests, chauvinistic condescension), but I'd still like to see women artists and artists of color be part of the conversation.
ARC provided by NetGalley
The author does address his reasons for choosing to only write about male friendships (patriarchal attitudes of the era in which he is writing), and why he chooses to leave out male/female rivalries (complex romantic interests, chauvinistic condescension), but I'd still like to see women artists and artists of color be part of the conversation.
ARC provided by NetGalley
rhays40's review against another edition
3.0
I 'm not sure the content is linked adequately to the title.