Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man - Softcover

Norman Mailer

3.82

368 ratings by Goodreads

9780349108322: Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0349108323 ISBN 13: 9780349108322

Publisher: Abacus, 1997

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The author sets out to capture Picasso's early life in this biography, exploring the originality of his art and ambition. At the heart of the interpretation is Picasso's first great love, Fernande Olivier, with whom the artist lived for seven years - a period which included his most revolutionary works. Fernande is given her own voice by way of excerpts from her candid memoirs. Including the artist's friendships with Apollonaire and Gertrude Stein, the book evokes the atmosphere of bohemian life in Paris in the early 1900s.

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From Booklist:

Following hard on the heels of Oswald's Tale , this "personal interpretation" of the first third of Picasso's life finds Mailer in fine mettle, pleased as can be to complete a project he began but put aside some 30 years ago. It makes perfect sense that Mailer would identify so strongly and intuitively with Picasso: they share many traits, in terms of talent and personality. In fact, Mailer feels so connected to Picasso, he offers all kinds of daring theories about the sources of his revolutionary aesthetic and high-handed life. Freely admitting that he conducted no "original scholarship," Mailer makes liberal use of the work of his many predecessors, even, in the case of John Richardson, who's working on a magisterial multivolume biography of the artist, offering strong criticism of their analysis. His favorite source is not a scholar, but rather Fernande Olivier, with whom Picasso had his first serious relationship. Fernande's memoirs haven't yet been published in English, but Mailer quotes her at length, and these passages make for revelatory and intriguing reading. As his fascination with Fernande suggests, Mailer's main avenue of interpretation of Picasso's genius is a sexual one, and he has some striking things to say about Picasso's obsession with carnality and the awesome power of women. Donna Seaman

From Library Journal:

Not just another book about Picasso or another book by Mailer but a book about Picasso by Mailer-worth a look at least. Alas, the end result of a work germinating since 1962 appears to be more a portrait of Picasso as a young Mailer than an examination of the innovative and enigmatic artist. The relationship of Picasso and Fernande Olivier is seen by Mailer as the definitive impetus of the artist's early period of incredible productivity and imagery. By quoting at great length from Olivier and Picasso's contemporaries Apollinaire and Gertrude Stein, Mailer offers a guide through what he sees as the crucial relationships and friendships of the period. The interpretive biography-claiming "no original scholarship"-may have its own virtues, but here little is added to the literature of art history, and the perspective, so filtered through the sensibility of the author, must be weighed as just that. "No man ever loved and hated women more"-Picasso or Mailer.
--Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum of Art Lib., New York
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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