Brassai: Conversations with Picasso (1999)

Since the early days of his career, Brassai has been a guide to avant-garde Paris. Not only was Brassai a noted photographer – nicknamed “the eye of Paris” by Henry Miller – he was also a prolific author and journalist whose “Letters to My Parents” was named “a small classic in the history of the medium” by Jed Perl in the “New Republic”. In that book, as well as many others, Brassai described the many important artists and writers with whom he developed close personal and professional relationships. Not the least among these was Picasso. Brassai recorded his many meetings and appointments with the great Spanish artist from 1943 to 1946, resulting in this book. While the two artists shared the same milieu in the 1930s, it wasn’t until the 1940s that they saw each other on a regular basis, when Brassai was asked to photograph Picasso’s works. Brassai’s recollections of these visits offer an intimate portrait of one of the greatest artists of the 20th century: a Picasso who described Cezanne as his “one and only master”; a Picasso who throws a tantrum because he lost a flashlight; a Picasso who remained in Paris during the German Occupation. At the same time, these conversations are not only about Picasso. They also treat everyone who comes into his life, the artistic and intellectual debates of the time, and the events of World War II.

Condition: very good.