Picasso: Challenging the Past

by Elizabeth Cowling, Neil Cox, Simonetta Fraquelli

This thought-provoking book presents a lively introduction to the 20th century's most important artist, Pablo Picasso. Picasso was a passionate student of the European painting tradition, and his memory for images was voracious. Naturally drawn to Spanish masters Velázquez and Goya, he also engaged with such figures as Rembrandt, Delacroix, Ingres, Manet, and Cézanne. Picasso repeatedly pitted himself against these masters, taking up their signature themes, techniques, and artistic concerns in audacious paintings of his own. Sometimes his "quotations" were direct, other times highly allusive.
Always, Picasso made the implicit case that it was he in the 20th century who most forcefully reinvigorated the European tradition. This book showcases his extraordinary work, where we witness the daring transformation of the art of the past into, in Picasso's own words, "something else entirely."

Published by the National Gallery Company/Distributed by Yale University Press

Genres: Nonfiction, Art, Art Design

176 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2009