For seventeen years, internationally acclaimed photographer David Douglas Duncan was a trusted friend of Pablo Picasso and his family. He took thousands of photographs of the artist, inside his studio-homes, and of his then-unknown canvases - "Picasso's Picassos."
Now, in Picasso Paints a Portrait, Duncan reveals his unprecedented photojournalistic coup: capturing the legendary Spanish master as he created a constantly changing oil-on-canvas portrait of Jacqueline, his companion and future wife.
These historic pictures were selected from hundreds taken in two days at Villa La Californie on the French Riviera, the center of Picasso's world in 1957. There, the 76-year-old Picasso and Duncan stood virtually shoulder-to-shoulder in the midsummer heat, surrounded by the artist's canvases, collages, and metal-flanged sculptures ... one man painting, the other photographing. They rarely exchanged a word.
Duncan presents his pictures without captions. The elegant preface and two pages of intimate "Memories" share the photographer's thoughts as he watched his genius neighbor at work. No museum curator, or art historian, was ever allowed closer to Picasso for such endless hours while he was painting. Page by page. David Douglas Duncan unfolds his extraordinary photo-biography of one portrait - with Pablo Picasso, himself, as its silent but most eloquent narrator.
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From Booklist:
A minimal amount of commentary is required for enjoying this remarkable book of lustrous black-and-white photographs; hence, little is presented. Duncan, a renowned photojournalist, was a close friend of Picasso's and took thousands of profoundly personal pictures of the artist and his family in Picasso's home on the French Riviera. This particular sequence was taken during two heady summer days in 1957 while Picasso worked on a portrait of Jacqueline, the woman he was soon to marry. Picasso is 76, at the height of his powers, and obviously comfortable around his friend with the camera. For his part, Duncan has captured the artist's tremendous physical strength and Herculean concentration. There's an amazing energy to these well-composed images of Picasso at work. As the bare-chested artist makes his first mark on the canvas, it's almost as though we, he, and the photographer are all holding our breath. Donna Seaman
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherHarry N Abrams Inc
- Publication date1996
- ISBN 10 0810937395
- ISBN 13 9780810937390
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages63
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