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by: Brassai  List Price: $20.00 Amazon.com's Price: $15.60 You Save: $4.40 (22%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 709 EAN: 9780226071497 ISBN: 0226071499 Label: University Of Chicago Press Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 412 Publication Date: December 01, 2002 Publisher: University Of Chicago Press Studio: University Of Chicago Press Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: Henry Miller called Brassaï (born Gyula Halasz) "The Eye of Paris." As a photographer, journalist, and author of photographic monographs and literary criticism, he had an uncanny ability to capture the Paris art world of the mid-20th century. Conversations with Picasso, originally published in 1964, is a collection of Brassaï's memoirs, resurrected from scraps of paper he stored in a huge vase each night after his talks with the famous Spanish painter, whose work he photographed from 1932 to 1962. In keeping with the lively bohemian spirit that so characterized Pablo Picasso's milieu, Brassaï wrote these notes in a vivid, conversational style, and they are now vignettes, of a sort, from a theatrical time capsule. Presented alongside the actual photographs he took during his visits with Picasso, Brassaï's anecdotes of the artist and his most intimate associates paint an unforgettable portrait of Picasso the master artist and the man. Sly humor and telling details embellish these accounts--in one particularly well-rendered scene, Picasso throws a temper tantrum over a lost flashlight--that vividly depict many of the artist's creative revelations, his insatiable curiosity, and his views on the art of his time, including that of the surrealists. One very strong image depicts Picasso, with brush in hand, using a palette made of newspaper. Confiscated by military censors due to the mere presence of World War II headlines, this photo represents one of the many wartime frustrations Picasso endured, including using a bathroom for a studio and secretly casting sculptures in scarce bronze at night. Underneath the worshipful posturing so prevalent in writings of the time, in which an everyday shopping list of paint colors is hailed as a prose poem, Brassaï offers an intimate chronicle full of loving detail of the impossible yet delightful enfant terrible. Entertaining, charming, light but truly satisfying fare. --A.C. Smith Product Description: "Read this book if you want to understand me."—Pablo Picasso Conversations with Picasso offers a remarkable vision of both Picasso and the entire artistic and intellectual milieu of wartime Paris, a vision provided by the gifted photographer and prolific author who spent the early portion of the 1940s photographing Picasso's work. Brassaï carefully and affectionately records each of his meetings and appointments with the great artist, building along the way a work of remarkable depth, intimate perspective, and great importance to anyone who truly wishes to understand Picasso and his world. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - one of the best books written about 20th century artThis book allows us the remarkable opportunity of visiting Picasso in his studio (during the Nazi occupation of Paris).....no words can express the charm of Brassai's accomplishment......through these conversations an exciting presence of art in reality is experienced.... this book has been an important part of my library since it was first published over forty years ago (as "Picasso and Company").....now re-released with a new translation....it remains magical. Rating: - An all time favorite and reference...I love this book... I am a huge Picasso fan. Enough said. Rating: - A Revealing View of a Great GeniusTo dismiss this wonderfully acute book as light because it is anecdotal would be a serious error. Brassai not only knew Picasso when; he was also an artist whom Picasso admired. Brassai's is a privileged vision, and he notes Picasso's many foibles--some of them large--as well as many of his strengths as artist and person. Until I read this book, I was unaware of just how selfishly Picasso treated even those he considered friends and lovers. But, in reading Brassai, I also learned that Picasso was ... Read More Rating:  - The Inner Sanctum; not quite.This book is written as it has been culled from Brassai's personal journal and notes over a period of almost fifty years. It reads more like a compendium of valuable snippets and insights rather than as a continuous narrative. Brassai as a photographer met Picasso in Paris and was invited by the painter to take some photographs of his work. Most of these photographs were actually of Picasso's small (and not so small) recent sculptures. It was common practice for all sorts of artists ... Read More Rating: - A must for Picasso fansThis is quite simply a wonderful book, and a splendid new translation of a great classic about the Paris art world during the 30s and 40s. Brassai was a witty, wry observer of Paris life and an excellent writer as well as photographer. The episodes he captures of Picasso's life are irreplaceable, often hysterical--and not recounted in other, stuffier books on the great modern artist. Highly recommended for art lovers. A pleasure to read 
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