Georges Braque. The Silent Challenge.
Hazan| N° d'inventaire | 17415 |
| Format | 16.7 x 24.2 |
| Détails | 363 p., color illustrations, hardcover. |
| Publication | Paris, 2013 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | |
A pioneer of modern art and discoverer of Cubism with Picasso, Georges Braque (1882-1963) was undoubtedly a creative genius and a tireless innovator. And yet, even today, the history of this decisive player in the adventure of 20th-century art is lacking, while dozens of works have painted the portrait of his friend and rival Picasso. In this first comprehensive monograph devoted to the artist, Alexandre Danchev attempts to take us to the heart of this personality, silent, reserved, if not introverted, and yet extraordinarily audacious in his artistic research: the first Cubist landscapes, the first papier-mâchés, they are all his work! Braque is the enemy of power struggles, of the spirit of rivalry and networks, of the effects of announcements and publicity - the opposite of Picasso, with whom he would undertake one of the most radical artistic revolutions since the Renaissance. Aided in this by the interlude of the war at the front and a head injury, contemporaries and posterity have only too much respected this reserve, as has historiography. Today, the work and its discoveries are recognized at their true extent - especially with regard to the pre-war period - but the man remains in the shadows. Alexandre Danchev traces the painter, his friendships, Giacometti, Miro, Beckett, personalities and critics who served him more or less well, Apollinaire, Malraux, or admired him like Paulhan or Heidegger. Relations with the artistic community, workshops and salons, contracts with dealers, supported by archival sources but also the testimony of contemporaries, are all revealing clues to Braque's atypical behavior. In the aftermath of the Second World War, fame will obviously change practices but not the man who will never be brought out of his reserve.
A pioneer of modern art and discoverer of Cubism with Picasso, Georges Braque (1882-1963) was undoubtedly a creative genius and a tireless innovator. And yet, even today, the history of this decisive player in the adventure of 20th-century art is lacking, while dozens of works have painted the portrait of his friend and rival Picasso. In this first comprehensive monograph devoted to the artist, Alexandre Danchev attempts to take us to the heart of this personality, silent, reserved, if not introverted, and yet extraordinarily audacious in his artistic research: the first Cubist landscapes, the first papier-mâchés, they are all his work! Braque is the enemy of power struggles, of the spirit of rivalry and networks, of the effects of announcements and publicity - the opposite of Picasso, with whom he would undertake one of the most radical artistic revolutions since the Renaissance. Aided in this by the interlude of the war at the front and a head injury, contemporaries and posterity have only too much respected this reserve, as has historiography. Today, the work and its discoveries are recognized at their true extent - especially with regard to the pre-war period - but the man remains in the shadows. Alexandre Danchev traces the painter, his friendships, Giacometti, Miro, Beckett, personalities and critics who served him more or less well, Apollinaire, Malraux, or admired him like Paulhan or Heidegger. Relations with the artistic community, workshops and salons, contracts with dealers, supported by archival sources but also the testimony of contemporaries, are all revealing clues to Braque's atypical behavior. In the aftermath of the Second World War, fame will obviously change practices but not the man who will never be brought out of his reserve.