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sprocketthecat's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, War, Misogyny, Drug use, Grief, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Alcohol, and Toxic friendship
labtracks's review against another edition
2.0
This didn't do it for me. This was long and at times quite interesting but at other times quite boring.
nguyen_vy's review against another edition
3.0
Ngược đãi phụ nữ, thói trăng hoa, phân biệt chủng tộc cùng một vài yếu tố khác là đặc điểm để nhận dạng Picasso - “Nghệ sĩ vĩ đại nhất của thế kỷ 20”
Dành cho những ai muốn tìm hiểu về các tác phẩm của Picasso thì cuốn sách này là một khởi đầu ổn. Không quá nghiêng về khen mà cũng không lệch nhiều về chê, cuốn sách chỉ đơn giản thuật lại cuộc đời Picasso cũng như những người bị ông ảnh hưởng và ảnh hưởng đến ông, cả tốt lẫn xấu. Tuy nhiên, trong đây, tác giả cũng có đề cập đến những mặt xấu trong tính cách của Picasso nên chí ít với một anti như mình thì điều này cũng khá thoả mãn :))
Dành cho những ai muốn tìm hiểu về các tác phẩm của Picasso thì cuốn sách này là một khởi đầu ổn. Không quá nghiêng về khen mà cũng không lệch nhiều về chê, cuốn sách chỉ đơn giản thuật lại cuộc đời Picasso cũng như những người bị ông ảnh hưởng và ảnh hưởng đến ông, cả tốt lẫn xấu. Tuy nhiên, trong đây, tác giả cũng có đề cập đến những mặt xấu trong tính cách của Picasso nên chí ít với một anti như mình thì điều này cũng khá thoả mãn :))
katiemhiggins's review
4.0
This book was a lot of work -- it's incredibly dense (though not in a negative way) -- and I'm actually proud that I read the whole thing. Unger's passion for art is evident in the pages where his own analysis and particular use of exclamation marks come through. To be honest, I didn't know a lot about Picasso, but I was determined to read this one after a blurb about it in The New Yorker .
I'm still undecided on how I feel about him as a person, but his story is truly fascinating. His own belief in his genius, his ability to capture and enrapture people his gaze, most certainly makes him worthy of fascination. He did have drawbacks (he was erratic, controlling, self-isolating) but it made him incredibly human. Unger doesn't ask you to worship at Picasso's feet, but he does want you to understand the impact that Picasso had, and continues to have, on the art world and greater society.
I appreciated how Unger took time to really outline the players in the production that was Picasso's life. It's not enough to know Picasso was this or that, but you have to know everything about his friends and his enemies and his art dealers and his lovers and his wives. They all culminate in this radical painting on which the books centers, Les Demoiselles D'Avignon and when you finally get there, you understand more fully how it came about than if the book had only focused on Picasso and his worldview.
The descriptions of women, especially Fernande, were a drawback for me. While Unger did once address that women in Montmartre had little means for advancing their own lives (often prostitutes or models for artists), he got a little repetitive. His descriptions of Fernande were often repetitive (I think he used the word "voluptuous" about twelve times) and I felt they were unnecessary and unfair. He blurred the lines between Picasso's perception and his own analysis in a way that took away from the book.
If you have little to know art knowledge (like me), this book will be difficult but not entirely inaccessible and that I appreciated. You can still learn a lot, whether or not you have an advanced art knowledge.
One aesthetic critique I want to make is that he often took time to painstakingly analyze many many paintings, not just Les Demoiselles, so I would have appreciated more of the paintings in the book to go along with these analyses.
The ending moves quickly and has a rather haunting yet hopeful tone to it that makes the entire journey seem worth it. In the end, the book is not about Picasso, so much as it is about his work and its incredible impact on the world, much of which carries on today as we continue to try harder and harder to hold on to the past.
I'm still undecided on how I feel about him as a person, but his story is truly fascinating. His own belief in his genius, his ability to capture and enrapture people his gaze, most certainly makes him worthy of fascination. He did have drawbacks (he was erratic, controlling, self-isolating) but it made him incredibly human. Unger doesn't ask you to worship at Picasso's feet, but he does want you to understand the impact that Picasso had, and continues to have, on the art world and greater society.
I appreciated how Unger took time to really outline the players in the production that was Picasso's life. It's not enough to know Picasso was this or that, but you have to know everything about his friends and his enemies and his art dealers and his lovers and his wives. They all culminate in this radical painting on which the books centers, Les Demoiselles D'Avignon and when you finally get there, you understand more fully how it came about than if the book had only focused on Picasso and his worldview.
The descriptions of women, especially Fernande, were a drawback for me. While Unger did once address that women in Montmartre had little means for advancing their own lives (often prostitutes or models for artists), he got a little repetitive. His descriptions of Fernande were often repetitive (I think he used the word "voluptuous" about twelve times) and I felt they were unnecessary and unfair. He blurred the lines between Picasso's perception and his own analysis in a way that took away from the book.
If you have little to know art knowledge (like me), this book will be difficult but not entirely inaccessible and that I appreciated. You can still learn a lot, whether or not you have an advanced art knowledge.
One aesthetic critique I want to make is that he often took time to painstakingly analyze many many paintings, not just Les Demoiselles, so I would have appreciated more of the paintings in the book to go along with these analyses.
The ending moves quickly and has a rather haunting yet hopeful tone to it that makes the entire journey seem worth it. In the end, the book is not about Picasso, so much as it is about his work and its incredible impact on the world, much of which carries on today as we continue to try harder and harder to hold on to the past.
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