Picasso and the Chess Player
ISBN: 9781611683493
Platform/Publisher: Project MUSE / University Press of New England
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapters; Download: Chapters
Subjects: Art Modern; Modernism (Art); Artists;

The brief meeting between Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp in Paris in 1913 was not particularly memorable or friendly: Picasso's French was poor and Duchamp did not consider Picasso a great painter. As journalist Larry Witham (Art Schooled) deftly argues, the two artists' distinct differences represent a central philosophical and aesthetic fissure in the history and development of modern art. While Picasso viewed modern art as a "visual experiment," Duchamp came to believe that art was about ideas and attitudes, "not about paintings or sculptures." Witham places his subjects in the context of both their own work and the aesthetic debates and movements of the early to late 20th century, with the aim of revealing how Picasso and Duchamp became "monuments and myths," after their deaths. While Picasso "democratized art" for the masses to appreciate, it is Duchamp who set the "intellectual horizon" for "postmodern" art professionals. A convincing and highly readable study whose juxtapositions create its originality. 21 illus. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

LARRY WITHAM is the author of Art Schooled and eight other works of nonfiction. He is a journalist and author living in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C.

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