Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Art historian Cohen-Solal (Mark Rothko: Towards the Light in the Chapel) examines in this revelatory biography how Spanish artist Pablo Picasso rebelled against the repressive, anti-immigrant French government to become a world treasure. After moving to France as a young artist in 1900, Picasso was surveilled and harassed by police for "not being French" during rising political tensions. On a larger scale, the French state, Cohen-Solal writes, viewed Picasso with suspicion and disdain because he was a foreigner, political provocateur, and a Communist, and refused "out of a desire for 'purity'" to purchase or exhibit his work even as he became famous worldwide. Three years after creating Guernica in 1937 (a protest against fascism and brutality), Picasso was denied French citizenship, and never again applied. Meanwhile, as fascism spread across Spain and the French remained cold to the artist, Picasso transformed into "the archetype of the politically engaged artist." Though Cohen-Solal's meticulous research can be repetitive, her learned assessment of Picasso's artistic and political affairs lands as timely and deeply considered. Art and cultural history aficionados will find much to savor. Agent: Georges Borchardt, Georges Borchardt Agency. (Mar.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Nineteen-year-old Picasso arrived in Paris on his second visit in May 1901, this time to stay. Shortly after, the police suspected him of "wanting to harm the security of the State" and opened a dossier on him. It was a turbulent time in France with the Dreyfus affair and the 1894 assassination of a prime minister by a foreign anarchist. In the 1940s, under the Vichy regime, Picasso was also perceived to be suspect by authorities due to his known support for the Spanish Republic. The French art establishment was no friend of his either. As late as 1947, only two Picasso pieces were on display in French museums. Social historian Cohen-Solal (Bocconi Univ., Milan), who curated this book's corresponding exhibition Picasso l'étranger at the National Museum of the History of Immigration in Paris, has done scholars a service by doggedly working through the archives to see how this great artist responded to repeated threats to his stability as an outsider in France. VERDICT This hydra of a book, one head assessing Picasso's art, the other looking at how he negotiated his position in France in politically tense times, is strongly recommended to all Picasso enthusiasts.--David Keymer
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A portrait of the artist as a lifelong foreigner. Cohen-Solal, a professor at Bocconi University in Milan and author of Mark Rothko and Leo & His Circle, approaches the artist and his work through the lenses of history and sociology. She shows how Picasso's status as a foreigner during his years of residency in France marked him out for "exclusion [and] stigma." Her extensive research into French police files shows that Picasso was under constant Paris surveillance, suspected of belonging to an anarchist cult. The author makes explicit the link between the perceived threat of Picasso as an "alien suspect" and the fear of today's migratory caravans traversing Europe. A long survey of Picasso's allies, collectors, and dealers shows how their non-French identities influenced the guarded reception of his art. His "otherness in French society as an "avant-garde artist" made him a target of "waves of xenophobia." Picasso placed himself in a transnational geography and a worldwide history stretching back to antiquity. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, for example, put into dialogue European and African art, classical and contemporary idioms. This cosmopolitan instinct is what drew him to Paris, a "city of exiles," as a young man, but the mid-20th-century rise of totalitarianism in Europe and the fascist victory in the Spanish Civil War meant that he was constantly under threat. Cohen-Solal makes a strong case that Picasso's expatriate identity largely determined the trajectory of his life and oeuvre. She references specific works and exhibitions, including his masterpiece, Guernica, which signaled his "abrupt shift into political engagement." His later success and fame transformed him from pariah to patron of the arts. In his later years, he became a "protector-benefactor-advisor" to French provincial museums, choosing the "genuine interest of the workers" over the "blasé corruption of 'rich snobs' in Paris." By then, his role as a truly global artist was secure. A robust, prodigiously researched art history. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
