Matisse: Father and Son By John Russell

1987年Henri Matisse (1869~1954)的兒子Pierre Matisse (1900~89) 和孫女，特地去聖彼得堡的"冬宮博物館 Hermitage Museum "，去看父親/祖父為媽媽/嬤嬤的的畫像。

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John Russell


Matisse: Father and Son (English) Hardcover – 五月 1, 1999


An intriguing dual biography explores the relationship between famed Post-Impressionaist artist Henri Matisse, and his son Pierre, an influential art dealer, drawing on Pierre's unpublished archives and numerous letters between father and son to offer a fascinating portrait of twentieth-century art.

From Publishers Weekly

When Henri Matisse's wife, Am?lie, permanently walked out on him in 1939 in a jealous rage over Lydia Delectorskaya, his beautiful young model (and secretary and live-in nurse), the great French painter poured out his pain and his grievances only in his correspondence with his second son, New York art dealer Pierre Matisse (1900-1989). In a captivating dual portrait, Russell, former chief art critic for the New York Times, draws on thousands of unpublished letters in the Pierre Matisse archive to illuminate an intense, difficult father-son dyad, as well as the pioneering gallery owner's tumultuous relations with his artists. Proud, reserved Pierre Matisse made the work of Mir?, Giacometti and Dubuffet part of the cultural landscape of the United States; he gave Balthus his first one-man show in New York in 1938; he helped develop Americans' taste for Picasso, Braque, Modigliani, Bonnard, de Chirico, Tanguy, Utrillo, Rouault and Calder. And despite Matisse p?re's detestation of his son's chosen profession, and the legend that he refused to help it along, Russell shows that the painter gave his son shrewd business advice. The famous father was morbidly sensitive to every nuance, real or imagined, in his son's letters, but he also proffered fatherly counsel and comfort during family crises, such as Pierre's 1949 breakup with his second wife, and marriage to 25-year-old Patricia Echaurren, the fiery daughter of Chilean-born surrealist Matta. Furthermore, this dazzlingly illustrated biography offhandedly provides a roadmap of the evolution of Modernist art simply by charting the artists who wander into the frame and their interactions with the likes of Sartre, Rilke, Andr? Breton and Walter Gropius. Doubleday Reader's Subscription main selection.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Henri Matisse was an avid letter writer, and his correspondence with his son, Pierre, is the basis of Russell's narrative. The Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York was until the late 1980s a discreet, discriminating bastion of primarily European modern art. Through decades of letters and Pierre's correspondence with some of the artists he represented, including Dubuffet and Mir?, we see the father-son and artist-dealer relationship firsthand. The real interest here, however, is Henri Matisse and his art. He is compelling in his own words as a father who wants to keep his family intact through a rancorous divorce, the occupation of Paris, the capture of his daughter Marguerite, life as a French resister, and later ill health. Pierre Matisse emerges as a good son who looks after everything just as his father instructs. Amusing morsels of gossip make the book worth reading; there is enough material here for several volumes. A friend of Pierre for many years, former New York Times chief art critic Russell has made an admirable first rendering of these newly available archives.AEllen Bates, New York
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

It may surprise readers that Russell has focused this double biography not on the famous father, the artist Henri, but on the much less well known son, the art dealer Pierre. By mining a cache of unpublished letters, Russell explodes the myth that Henri refused to support his son's career choice. In three decades of revealing letters, we see Pierre's close collaboration with his father, from the opening of his New York gallery in 1931 until Henri's death in 1954. But Pierre was hardly his father's puppet, and Russell restores to the son the credit due to a pioneer who vastly enlarged America's aesthetic horizons by exhibiting the works of previously unknown artists, such as Miroand Giacometti. But even as he allied himself with avant-garde painters and sculptors, Pierre distanced himself from the new breed of profiteering dealers who rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s. This book will come as a long-overdue acknowledgement of the importance of an inspired dealer in giving artistic beauty its public life. Bryce Christensen

Review

"...Provides a roadmap of the evolution of Modernist art simply by charting the artists who wander into the frame..." -- Publisher's Weekly

"...engrossing new book...brings the past to life..." -- Town & Country

"...provides further insights into this great artist's vulnerability...This is a fascinating book..." -- The Sunday Times, London

"An extraordinary book...combines biography and art history in a colorful and lively narrative..." -- Associated Press

"It is doubtful that anyone could have written this better than John Russell." -- Antiques and the Arts Weekly

"What Russell brings to this narrative is the authoritative tone of the scholar with the delicious confidence of an insider..." -- Vogue

...an absorbing tale about the ordinary life of an extraordinary painter, sculptor, draftsman and printmaker. And he has advanced his narrative with an ingenious yet understated literary style. -- The New York Times, Phyllis Tuchman

With the privilege of an exclusive first look at so much unpublished material, there is much here to intrigue and delight. -- The New York Times Book Review, J. Carter Brown

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產品詳細資訊 Hardcover: 464 頁 出版商：Harry N. Abrams (1999年5月1日) 語言： English ISBN-10: 9780810943780 ISBN-13: 978-0810943780