The Picasso Project. Picasso's Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture: Spanish Civil War

摘要

During Picasso's lifetime, Christian Zer-vos produced the first and-for a long time-only catalogue raisonne of the works of this driven, prolific, brilliant artist. In the late 1990s, the late Herschel Chipp, a Picasso expert, and publisher Alan Wofsy began the Picasso Project-a new catalogue raisonne spanning the artist's lifetime. The multivolume, painstakingly assembled, comprehensive record of all Picasso's known output will incorporate the Zervos books as well as all new discoveries since its publication began in the 1950s. In total, there will be a set of 28 volumes covering all periods of the artist's work, including the sculptures and graphic arts. These three new titles by the Picasso Project follow historical events leading up to and including World War Ⅱ. A full bibliography is provided with references to prior known catalogues raisonnes and important historical background related to the works, such as auction catalogs. The Spanish Civil War includes Picasso's creation of Guernica as a mural for the Spanish pavilion at the Paris World's Fair in June 1937. Guernica was photographed in creation by Picasso's lover at the time, Dora Maar. Several stages, as well as the completed work, are provided here. This is the second edition, revised and enlarged since originally published in 1997, with 666 works described and reproduced and eight color plates. The second edition of Europe at War has also been expanded from the 1998 first edition from 248 pages to 272, with 850 works covered, and it includes those inadvertently omitted from the first edition that were formerly in the collection of Picasso's former lover Marie-Therese Walter and unknown to Zervos. Also updating the volume are the works owned by Maar, with records obtained from public sales at major auction houses since 1999. The Nazi Occupation, 1940-1944, also a second edition, is the largest of the three volumes and includes his paintings, watercolors, drawings, and sculptures of that time. It contains 40 more pages than when first published in 1999, for a total of 440 pages (plus eight new color plates), and describes 1,206 works. There are two to four black-and-white reproductions in the page layouts for the most part, throughout each volume, and titles are given in English and as titled in the original language. The date the work was produced is provided, along with the work's dimensions and medium. Cross-references to prior catalogues raisonnes and concordances are also listed. VERDICT This thoughtful, comprehensive, up-to-date record of Picasso's lifetime of work satisfies a great need for museums, galleries, students, art historians, art dealers, and collectors. The Wofsy Picasso Project is the best resource available-it is extraordinary and definitive and lives up to expectations and then some. As noted in a review of prior volumes (see LJ 10/15/12 & LJ 8/10), libraries are advised to purchase when these volumes are issued because, as time goes by, the books become more expensive. Highly recommended.