THESE small ‘Interpreting’ series by Tate Publishing are rather good. Here, the author, one of the six curators of TM’s Matisse/Picasso exhibition, examines the prickly 50-year relationship between these two great artists – no photograph of them together has ever come to light – and within this book’s 80 pages the author gives her readers an analysis of two painters watching each other’s work and latest artistic moves with beady-eyed vigilance; there is always the sense that each somehow sought the other’s good opinion.
Well illustrated on the compare-and-contrast theme, and after an excellent and clear introduction, The Dialogue Commences, chapters include The Cubist Years, Creative Copies, Shared Themes and the War Years.
Very good value especially if you rid your mind of compare-and-contrast when looking at the pictures.
Interpreting Matisse/Picasso
Interpreting Matisse/Picasso by Elizabeth Cowling, published by Tate Publishing. ISBN 1854373935 £9.99 pbk
