ŷ������

Life with Picasso Françoise Gilot, Carlton Lake, Lisa Alther (Introduction)

Here is the discussion topic for the April/May group read. Spoilers are okay.

Françoise Gilot’s candid memoir remains “one of the most illuminating [books] we’ve had on the mind and spirit of Picasso”—and gives fascinating insight into the intense and creative life shared by two modern artists (Los Angeles Times).Françoise Gilot was in her early twenties when she met the sixty-one-year-old Pablo Picasso in 1943. Brought up in a well-to-do upper-middle-class family, who had sent her to Cambridge and the Sorbonne and hoped that she would go into law, the young woman defied their wishes and set her sights on being an artist. Her introduction to Picasso led to a friendship, a love affair, and a relationship of ten years, during which Gilot gave birth to Picasso’s two children, Paloma and Claude. Gilot was one of Picasso’s muses; she was also very much her own woman, determined to make herself into the remarkable painter she did indeed become.Life with Picasso is about Picasso the artist and Picasso the man. We hear him talking about painting and sculpture, his life, his career, as well as other artists, both contemporaries and old masters. We glimpse Picasso in his many and volatile moods, dismissing his work, exultant over his work, entertaining his various superstitions, being an anxious father. But Life with Picasso is not only a portrait of a great artist at the height of his fame; it is also a picture of a talented young woman of exacting intelligence at the outset of her own notable career.

I am about 25% into the book and finding it quite interesting. Here are some Youtube links to accompany the book.

Pablo Picasso et Françoise Gilot is a television documentary by Sylvie Blum. It is in German but you can engage an autotranslate to English if you feel it necessary:



These next two videos are television interviews with the author conducted by Charlie Rose:





This last is a slideshow of different works by the author with a music soundtrack:

I blew through this fairly quickly. I loved Françoise's voice narrating the book. There is a confidence, a vulnerability, a tendency to hide herself in the events and yet an inarguable strength of presence that I admired and which made the ending so much more poignant. I gave the book four stars, not wanting to overrate it, but it was a five star reading experience for me.

I'm reading at present. About half way through. I really like it - its a lovely read and a lovely narration. I think I would really like this lady if I met her.

I just finished this interesting and very candid book about Picasso. I did wonder how Francoise could recall their conversations about his methods, his politics and his exact interactions with other artists so vividly.
This was a great choice and I am so glad I read it - even if I missed the deadline by a week!

Melody wrote: "I just finished this interesting and very candid book about Picasso. I did wonder how Francoise could recall their conversations about his methods, his politics and his exact interactions with othe..."

It is my feeling that Carlton Lake as co-author probably was responsible for prompting much of the detail concerning what you mentioned, especially art theory but I didn't feel it distracted me from Francoise's story.