Could they have made the type in this book any smaller? I get that it’s meant to be a condensed overview of Picasso’s work, but they shouldn’t make the type so small that it becomes difficult to read unless it’s meant to be a minimal amount and basically supplementary to the images (which in this case, it’s clearly not). That being said, the book did meet its goal in providing a brief and accessible overview of the artist; the author went into just enough detail that we gained a reasonable glimpse into Picasso’s life and development as an artist, and a reasonable range of imagery accompanied the text. I fully meant to get Taschen’s full publication on Picasso rather than this condensed version, but it’s still a good starter on the subject and it definitely convinced me to delve further into exploring this artist. ( )

A study of twentieth-century art is impossible without the inclusion of Pablo Ruiz, who began using his mother's name, Picasso, as his signature at the age of 13, when his art teacher father handed the young artist his palette and never again painted. The text in this volume of Benedikt Taschen's series on important artists is not gracefully executed. The reader feels distinctly that English is not the author's native tongue and certain elements of carelessness in the writing suggest that Walther was more concerned with the manuscript deadline than scholarship. Picasso's own words, appearing as blocked quotes in the margins, are not dated, nor sources given. The reader is not able to chronologically trace the change in philosophy reflected in his words. This was particularly irritating when the great artist contradicts himself, as was evident in three of the quotations:
"Paintings are nothing but research and experiment. I never paint
a picture as a work of art. Everything is research. I keep researching,
and in this constant enquiry there is a logical development" (p. 51) .
and
"I have never burdened myself with searching. I paint what I see,
sometimes in one form, sometimes in another. I do not brood, nor do
I experiment. When I feel I want to say something, I say it in such a
way as I feel I ought to" (p. 57) .
and
"The different styles I have been using in my art must not be seen as an
evolution . . . I have never had time for the idea of searching . . . I have
never made radically different experiments . . . Different themes
inevitably require different methods of expression. This does not imply
either evolution or progress, but it is a matter of following the idea one
wants to express and the way in which one wants to express it" (p. 72).

Walther's poorly disguised gut reaction of disgust and shock in describing some of Picasso's work is a monument to the reaction many must have felt (and apparently continue to feel) in viewing some of the artist's paintings. Walther uses words such as "horror," "grotesque," "misshapen," and "ugly," at one point writing, "Picasso wanted to destroy absolutely everything" (p. 37). Aside from the book's technical problems (including an inordinate number of typographical errors), the facts of biography are presented, and an abundance of full-color plates and numerous black-and-white photographs and reproductions of Picasso's drawings are made available to the viewer. (November 1994) ( )