Page 87 - Studio International - July/August 1967

Two new books on stripped down, is the best, the purest, the definitive
one; and in fact most of the time, It was the first. In
Picasso drawing, nothing is better than the first attempt.'
Brassai's great advantage as an Interlocutor arises
from his being an artistic personality in his own right,
Picasso & Co. by Brassai, with a preface by Henry and someone whose talents as a photographer
Miller and Introduction by Roland Penrose. Thames interest Picasso. The original introduction came be­
and Hudson 50s. 67 black and white plates. cause Brassai was asked to photograph Picasso's
Picasso: Graphic Works, Volume II (1955-M) by Kurt sculptures for Minotaure, the surrealist magazine.
Leonhard. Thames and Hudson 4 gns. 6 colour plates, Picasso was so pleased with the results that Brassai
120 black and white. has continued to photograph his statues (as the
translator sometimes quaintly terms them)-and no•
One starts reading with a certain reluctance-aren't body has taken such outstandingly beautiful pictures
there enough books about Picasso, and do we need of them. It's especially appropriate too, with the
another one that puts the emphasis on the man's exhibition now at the Tate, to read Picasso's own
personality rather than on his products? And then comments-how they were made, how he regards
the beginning Isn't too helpful-two introductions, by them, for in general Picasso has said remarkably
Roland Penrose and Henry Miller, though Innocuous little about this side of his work. And then he also
enough, make one rather suspicious; publishers graphs, particularly those in the book Gratr,ti, which Alfred
talks with Brassa'i about whether photography is an
ought not to oversell their books, and the additional art, and what its impact on painting has been; and
comment by Picasso himself on the jacket does rather there are comments about Brassai's own photo­
pile It on.
Are they trying to hide the evident scrappiness of bear on the role of abstraction in art.
Brassa'i's text? Based on notes made at the time of Of course much of the book is gossipy and tedious.
conversations with Picasso it jumps about chrono­ but occasionally something is said that makes one
logically, beginning in 1943, recalling a first meeting pause. Brassai also noted conversations with other Wallis
in 1932, getting off the _ground properly in 1939, very people, mostly those in Picasso'!. circle, like Kahn•
strong on the years 1943-6, ending with an epilogue weiler and Sabartes and his son Paulo. Or people
of 1960 and a postscript of 1962. At first there Is a lot who happen to be in the studio while they are talking,
of incidental information about surrealism, and semi­ like Michaux and Eluard and (briefly) Malraux. And
autobiographical material, Interesting in itself, but Brassai records a visit to Matisse, at the time of the CORNISH PRIMITIVE
not strictly relevant. And Brassai's photographs are 1946 V. and A. exhibition, when he found him as avid PAINTER
disappointingly presented'...they are often so good, for trivia about Picasso as anyone.
and more revealing than his words. One wishes the The second volume devoted to Picasso's graphic
book had a larger format so that one could savour work covers a very much shorter period than the by
them better. first, but It's a rich one, and in particular the series of
And then, as one reads, Picasso begins to take over, lino-cuts of 1959-63 demonstrates Picasso's unfail­ Edwin Mullins
and the criticisms and regrets are forgotten. There is ingly brilliant response to new technical demands.
no doubt that he is an extraordinary man, with much Somehow these late prints are so much more satis­
that is fascinating to say-candid and self-revealing at factory than the late paintings, which are spoiled by
every turn. For example: Picasso's impatience and his lack of concern for Edwin Mullins here sets down
'Every time I draw a man, It's my father I'm thinking corour and paint texture. The graphic media have
of, Involuntarily.' always shown Picasso's genius to advantage, and the most important features of
Or: 'Matisse makes a drawing, then he makes a copy turning these large and well printed pages one has to Alfred Wallis' paintings, based
of it. He recopies it five times, ten times, always clarl• admire the verve and imagination of this extraordinary on a close observation of the
fying the line. He's convinced that the last, the most man. Alan Bowness
pictures, relating those details
of his life which have some
bearing on them. Many of the
paintings have rarely, if ever,
the nineteenth century? What to say of a cartoonist,
M. Daumier painter, watercolourist, sculptor, politician, who is been publicly exhibited.
the caricaturist neither Realist, Classicist, Romantic, Allegorist, His• I 5 colour plates
torlcist? Moreover he cannot be spoken of in terms
of masters, maturity and influence. Self-taught, his 68 black and white illustrations
Daumier, Man of his Time by OliverW. Larkin, Weiden: sources are rarely obvious. Endowed with a natural
feld and Nicolson. 3 gns. 8 colour plates and 100 in and miraculous talent, his individuality found few
black and white. imitators and few disciples. It is not surprising that
his closest relatives, and then in the deepest sense,
'We know of only two men in Paris who draw as well are the Expressionists; and his pen and ink drawings
as M. Delacroix ... the first is M. Daumier the carica• are unnervingly close to some of Giacometti's work.
turist; the second M. lngres. Daumier draws better, The enormous contribution made by Daumier's sculp­
perhaps, than Delacroix ... ' (Baudelaire, Salon of ture to ihe sculptural revolution in the late nineteenth
1845). and early twentieth centuries is still largely unassess­
ed. Only his influence as a c'Brtoonlst Is clear.
That anyone should have had the temerity to talk of Books in English on Daumier are not numerous even
a mere caricaturist in the same breath as lngres, par­ though he has not been overlooked, td say the least,
ticularly at the time when a hierarchy of subject­ by writers in other languages. But Professor Larkln's
matter was still respected is further evidence, if study is welcome, and in stressing and describing the
further evidence Is needed, of Baudelaire's eye, development of historical events and in laying empha•
sharper than the toughest category. Daumier still has sis on certain aspects of Daumier's biography it goes
nothing whatever to do with cat�gories and this, I a long way towards putting his work into perspective.
suspect, is why he is not as widely discussed today It is not intended to be an exaustlve study of the
as his reputation merits. His greatness of course Is artist's ouevre, but it does attempt a revised chrono­
never disputed, but what to say of an artist who does logy which slightly adjusts the pattern of the artist's MACDONALD 75s
not fit into the frame-work which art-history has given development. The cartoons, often more enduring
71