Picasso and the Chess Player

January 28, 2013
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.

February 1, 2013

When discussing modern art, two names may dominate the conversation: Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp. While the two artists were never confidants or collaborators, both came to represent some of the biggest struggles of the modern art world--namely, what that movement actually was and who was its true leader. Here Witham (Art Schooled: A Year Among Prodigies, Rebels, and Visionaries at a World-Class Art College) dissects the life and work of the two artists and the fracture that exists in modern art because of their rivalry. The competition between the two mean began at the 1913 New York Armory Show art exhibition, where Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase was thought by Americans to be the definitive example of Cubism, while Picasso had the Parisian Cubists convinced that he was the true father of the style. Witham examines Picasso's enduring legacy as the Cubist forefather for the museum-going masses but positions Duchamp as the favored artist for gallerists and collectors. VERDICT This thoughtful overview of modern art as a whole, punctuated by the movement's two most enigmatic figures, will appeal to fans of art history, particularly modernism.--Alyssa Vincent, Univ. of Chicago

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