FIRST IMPRESSIONS - PABLO PICASSO

As readers follow Picasso's many moves as he seeks institutions in which to study and then places to work out his evolving aesthetic vision, they also follow the art movements that influenced him and those that he helped generate. Although the focus of the narrative is on the objects Picasso created, they are presented in the setting of his personal life: the people he befriended and worked with, the women who were his `"companions". Indeed, the pages are crowded with names of the painters and poets and patrons who form the pantheon of pre-World War II modern art. Picasso's evolution as an artist is readily understood as readers come to comprehend the potency of his creative energies. The clarity of the exposition is greatly enhanced by numbers of reproductions integrated with the text. Either as full-page (even foldouts) color plates or as vignettes, they give texture to the telling, fleshing out the occasional analyses. Brilliantly colored renderings convey the nuances as well as much of the original intensity of pigments.