Picasso's Weeping Woman: The Life and Art of Dora Maar
first edition Hardcover
2000 · Boston
by Caws, Mary Ann
Boston: Bulfinch Press / Little, Brown and Company, 2000. First North American Edition. Hardcover. VG / VG. Black cloth over boards. BW pictorial dj. with red and yellow lettering. 224 pp. Profusely illustrated in bw and color. Often viewed merely as Picasso's tragic muse, Dora Maar produced a stunning array of work in her own right. This book details Maar's life and features her photography, poetry, and painting. "Dora Maar was a successful young photographer who produced some disturbingly powerful Surrealist images as well as reportage, portraits, and fashion photography. Dora Maar was also Picasso's lover and muse for seven years. In that time she photographed him at work and play. In the studio and on the beach, alone and with friends such as Man Ray, Andre Breton, Jacqueline Lamba, and Paul Eluard." "Maar and Picasso's stormy relationship reached a painful end in 1943. Maar was supported through the traumatic aftermath by her friend Jacques Lacan and went on to outlive Picasso by a quarter of a century. Almost nothing was known of her in those years, for she lived in religious seclusion, painting and writing poetry behind a veil of fiercely guarded privacy. "After Picasso, only God," she once said. As a result, her story acquired an almost mythic tone. She was seen as the tragic muse, a woman forever shattered by Picasso, the cruel genius. Mary Ann Caws tells a different story. This book places Maar's time with Picasso within the scope of a life of ninety years." "Between these pages you will view in its entirely a treasure trove of Maar's own photographs and paintings, along with little-known paintings and drawings by Picasso and objects collected by her throughout their life together. Much of the illustrative material was unknown before Maar's death and, consequently, sheds new light on both her and Picasso's work and life."--Jacket. (Inventory #: 147435)