Picasso 1926-1939

Lavishly illustrated, extensively researched, and superbly written, this in-depth study of Picasso's work from 1926 to 1939 is an essential resource for all art-historians and students. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was without doubt the most prolific and influential artist of the 20th century. The various steps that critics and historians have managed to identify in his long career have been more helpful with regard to the classification of his works than in their analysis and interpretation. Abandoning the traditional use of subject matter to achieve variety and meaning, Picasso gradually reduced his options to a handful of standardized motifs but used a vast array of different styles as the principal means of communicating ideas and feelings. In short, style is meaning in Picasso's art; his notoriously mercurial nature found expression in stylistic variety and experimentation. In the course of his illuminating and in-depth essay, Fabre pinpoints the keys to understanding a period (1926-1939) and an artist who was fully aware of the complexity of his time and the timelessness of true art.