Picasso

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Among Picasso's oils, watercolors, gouaches and drawings at the Hermitage in Leningrad and the Pushkin Museum in Moscow are some of his most famous early masterpieces ( Family of Saltimbanques ; Still Life with Violin ). Covering his Blue, Rose, ``circus,'' African-inspired and cubist phases, this oeuvre takes us from his arrival in Paris in 1900 at age 19 to the outbreak of WW I. In a beautifully produced, oversized album, Soviet art critic Podoksik weaves a penetrating, very readable essay around this body of work, highlighting the deep humanism which made it so appealing to Russia's pre-revolutionary avant-garde. Along with 56 large color plates, a special section includes 490 miniature reproductions of paintings, sculptures, engravings and drawings, so each of the 56 major works can be fitted into the context of Picasso's artistic evolution. (Sept.)