Becoming Picasso: Paris 1901 – Book Review

In 1901 Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was an ambitious nineteen-year-old artist hoping to make a name for himself in the art world. He spent the first half of the year in Madrid before moving to Paris in May to participate in an exhibition with Ambroise Vollard, one of the city's most influential modern art dealers.

When Picasso left Madrid he took just a few paintings with him. Between his arrival in Paris and the opening of the exhibition, a period of about three weeks, he produced more than 60 works, often completing as many as three canvasses in a day. His output, truly prolific, demonstrated his ability to absorb the influences of many of the artists he admired including Van Gogh, Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec.

The Courtauld exhibition brought together many of Picasso's very first masterpieces. This 160-page catalogue is an enduring record of the exhibition featuring more than 100 excellent colour reproductions accompanied by fascinating texts from leading Picasso specialists. The authors outline the artist's many stylistic twists and turns looking specifically at how the death of his very close friend Casagemas affected his art as well as how his participation in the Vollard exhibition helped launch his very successful career.

The publication is set out in two main sections: the first features scholarly yet highly enjoyable texts as follows:

• Becoming Picasso: Paris 1901 An Introduction – Barnaby Wright
• Picasso's Artistic Practice in 1901 – Marilyn McCully
• Incipit Picasso: From The Birth of Tragedy to The Burial of Casagemas – Gavin Parkinson
• The Formation of Genius – C. F. B. Miller

The second part of the book catalogues all the works appearing in the exhibition. Each painting is accompanied by a detailed discussion and examination of Picasso's technique by Barnaby Wright with additional texts by Sandra Boks.