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The Picasso Papers
Examines the issue of whether Picasso brought new life to the works of Old Masters through his use of pastiche, or whether his art is a counterfeit that copies the styles and themes of others
- GenresArtArt HistoryPhilosophy
Hardcover
First published February 1, 1998
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About the author
Rosalind E. Krauss
75 books125 followersAmerican art critic, professor, and theorist who is based at Columbia University, teaching Modern Art and Theory.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 15, 2018
Refreshingly free of the worst of the deconstructionist/POMO drivel that came out of the 1990's, the majority of "The Picasso Papers" analyzes the genesis of the collages that Picasso created in 1912-1915. Krauss's stance is that Picasso is a serial chameleon who adopts styles not only to reinvigorate his own art but to broaden modernism's ways of seeing and creating.
When Picasso adopts the collage it is not only to create a new language of painting, but a new way of looking at the picture plane and it's response to reality. Is it a mirror or a replica? This is the genius of Picasso in that we are never sure. Cezanne made us question whether it is apples or paint that is the subject of the painting, Picasso makes the question the subject of the painting - and voila - modernism!
Krauss ends the book with a digression on the relation of Picasso's biography to his art. Specifically the role of his mistresses and wives in his "dime novel" situations he relished creating in his personal life in the output in his studio. I think Krauss is trying to make a point that Picasso's pastiche compulsion informed his affairs (he is recapitulating the sordidness of dime novels in his love life). And that real-life pastiche carried over to the pastiches he created of the art he made from the women in his life. To me this section was a bit overworked, and not as illuminating as the collage/cubism section was.
As a whole, I enjoyed the analysis Krauss brought to the collages and early Cubism of Picasso. She freshened up the art school pieties that we all got and I actually was able to look at them in a new way. I can't ask much more than that.
When Picasso adopts the collage it is not only to create a new language of painting, but a new way of looking at the picture plane and it's response to reality. Is it a mirror or a replica? This is the genius of Picasso in that we are never sure. Cezanne made us question whether it is apples or paint that is the subject of the painting, Picasso makes the question the subject of the painting - and voila - modernism!
Krauss ends the book with a digression on the relation of Picasso's biography to his art. Specifically the role of his mistresses and wives in his "dime novel" situations he relished creating in his personal life in the output in his studio. I think Krauss is trying to make a point that Picasso's pastiche compulsion informed his affairs (he is recapitulating the sordidness of dime novels in his love life). And that real-life pastiche carried over to the pastiches he created of the art he made from the women in his life. To me this section was a bit overworked, and not as illuminating as the collage/cubism section was.
As a whole, I enjoyed the analysis Krauss brought to the collages and early Cubism of Picasso. She freshened up the art school pieties that we all got and I actually was able to look at them in a new way. I can't ask much more than that.
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July 28, 2010art,history
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews