Plausible Portraits of James Lord: With Commentary by the Model
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Overview
Incisive reflections on more than twenty portraits of the author by some of the greatest artists of the last century
Over the course of his life as a friend and confidant of artists and collectors, and as a lover of art himself, James Lord has written some of the best accounts we have of modern aesthetic genius; his biography of Giacometti was widely acclaimed for succeeding, in the words of one reviewer, “in every way as one of the most readable, fascinating and informative documents, not just on an artist, but on art and artists in general” (The Washington Times). And yet through his connection with the great artists of his day, it was inevitable that Lord would himself become the object of the artist’s gaze. In fact, from the time he was a young man, Lord sat for many of the major and minor painters and photographers of his day, including Balthus, Cocteau, Cartier-Bresson, Freud, Giacometti, and Picasso—in all but one case at the artist’s request. In Plausible Portraits, Lord gathers, alongside these images, his reflections, penetrating the mind of artist and model alike in a sequence of illuminating double portraits of two masters at work.
Synopsis
Incisive reflections on more than twenty portraits of the author by some of the greatest artists of the last century
Over the course of his life as a friend and confidant of artists and collectors, and as a lover of art himself, James Lord has written some of the best accounts we have of modern aesthetic genius; his biography of Giacometti was widely acclaimed for succeeding, in the words of one reviewer, “in every way as one of the most readable, fascinating and informative documents, not just on an artist, but on art and artists in general” (The Washington Times). And yet through his connection with the great artists of his day, it was inevitable that Lord would himself become the object of the artist’s gaze. In fact, from the time he was a young man, Lord sat for many of the major and minor painters and photographers of his day, including Balthus, Cocteau, Cartier-Bresson, Freud, Giacometti, and Picasso—in all but one case at the artist’s request. In Plausible Portraits, Lord gathers, alongside these images, his reflections, penetrating the mind of artist and model alike in a sequence of illuminating double portraits of two masters at work.
The New York Times
In more than a half-century of writing about and mingling with Europe's artistic and intellectual elite, the art critic James Lord has amassed a rare collection of portraits, rendered by the likes of Picasso and Balthus. In Plausible Portraits of James Lord, he pairs these pictures with short, reflective essays in which he explores the dynamic between himself and each artist and offers his perspectives on portraiture and aesthetic truth. — Roxana Popescu