Elizabeth Cowling

"After a history of some 450 years the cello--thanks to the achievement of virtuosi such as Casals, Piatigorski, Feuermann and Rostropovitch--now enjoys a greater musical prestige than ever before. That this is so is borne out both by the increasing number of concerts at which the cello today appears either in consort or as a solo instrument, and also by the proliferation of important works which twentieth-century composers have written for it. ... [For] this book, Professor Cowling has in mind a readership made up of amateurs as well as students and professional musicians. In an opening section she describes the instrument itself, its anatomy, physics, early makers, variants, development, and its bow. The early history of the cello is then outlined, starting from the sixteenth-century origins and continuing to the spread in popularity during the eighteenth century to countries outside Italy. The literature of the instrument is next described, from the earliest compositions to the work of such twentieth-century composers as Elgar, Bloch, Debussy, Rachrnaninov, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Britten. A final section discusses the qualities of some eminent modern cellists, and the book ends with the author's conclusions and reflections on her theme. Particularly useful are Professor Cowling's list of pieces for piano and cello and of effective transcriptions."--Jacket.

The Cello

Dawn Ades

David Sylvester

Hayward Gallery

Dada and Surrealism Reviewed

John Richardson

Diana Widmaier Picasso

Pablo Picasso’s endless fascination with his lover’s character and form led to radical shifts in his conception of portraiture and the mystical metamorphoses that the act of creation entails. Picasso’s secretive love affair with Marie-Therese Walter, which began in 1927, inspired a radical shift in his conception of portraiture. The exhibition and catalogue present Marie-Therese as a primary vehicle for his experimentation during the period, including several works never before seen in the United States as well as previously unpublished personal letters and photographs. Picasso and Marie-Therese sheds new light on the interpretation of one of the most creative relationships in Picasso’s rich and varied oeuvre.

L'Amour Fou

Pablo Picasso and Marie-Therese

Emily Braun

The age-old tradition of pictorial illusionism known as trompe l’oeil (“deceive the eye”) employs visual tricks that confound the viewer’s perception of reality and fiction, truth and falsehood. This radically new take on Cubism shows how Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Juan Gris both parodied and paid homage to classic trompe l’oeil themes and motifs. The authors connect Cubist works to trompe l’oeil specialists of earlier centuries by juxtaposing more than one hundred Cubist paintings, drawings, and collages with related compositions by old masters. The informed and engaging texts trace the changing status of trompe l’oeil over the centuries, reveal Braque’s training in artisanal trompe l’oeil techniques as an integral part of his Cubist practice, examine the material used in Gris’s collages, and discuss the previously unstudied trompe l’oeil iconography within Cubist still lifes.

Cubism and the Trompe l’Oeil Tradition

Pablo Picasso

Christopher Riopelle

Neil Cox

Simonetta Fraquelli

Anne Robbins

Susan Grace Galassi

This volume tells the story of Picasso's artistic development and his passionate relationship with the European art tradition.

Challenging the Past

Picasso

An award-winning study of Picasso by a prime authority on the artist.

Style and Meaning

John Elderfield

Tate Modern (Gallery)

Anne Baldassari

This work accompanies an exhibition organised, in partnership, by Tate Modern, the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, and the Museum of Modern Art. It examines the crucial relationship between Matisse and Picasso.

Matisse Picasso

Jennifer Mundy

Picasso, Léger, de Chirico and the New Classicism, 1910-1930

On Classic Ground

Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)

Galeries nationales du Grand Palais (France)

Annotation. Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso have long been seen as the twin giants of modern art, as polar opposites but also as complementary figures. Between them they are the originators of many of the most significant innovations of 20th-century painting and sculpture, but their relationship has rarely been explored in all of its closeness and complexity. In spite of their initial rivalry, the two masters eventually acknowledged one another as equals, becoming, in their old age, increasingly important to one another both artistically and personally. From the time of their initial encounters in 1906 in Gertrude and Leo Stein's Paris studio until 1917, they individually produced some of the greatest art of the 20th century and maintained an openly competitive relationship brimming with intense innovation. Matisse Picasso presents the artists' oeuvres in groupings that reveal the affinities but also the extreme contrasts of their artistic visions. Published to accompany the landmark exhibition (a joint effort of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Tate Modern, London; the Reunion des musees nationaux/Musee Picasso, and the Musee national d'art moderne/Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris), Matisse Picasso is the first major examination of the fascinating relationships between their art, their careers, and their lives. Thirty-four essays, each by a member of the exhibition's curatorial team, focus on a particular moment in the artists' evolving relationship. These texts are accompanied by an introductory history, commentary on the public perception of important artistic relationships, and an extensive chronology.

Elizabeth Cowling

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