When the Nazis occupied Paris in 1940, Picasso chose to remain in the city despite the threat that his art would be confiscated. The bombing of Guernica in April 1937 would inspire Picassos vast masterwork of the same name, which he painted in just a few weeks for the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris Worlds Fair. Richardson shows us the artist being as prolific as ever, painting Walter, as well as the surrealist photographer Dora Maar, who became a muse, collaborator and lover. It was during this time that Picasso began writing surrealist poetry and became obsessed with the image of himself as the mythic Minotaur. Picasso was contributing to André Bretons Minotaur magazine and spending time with the likes of Man Ray, Salvador Dalí, Lee Miller, and the poet Paul Éluard, in Paris and the south of France. The Minotaur Years opens in 1933 with a visit by the Hungarian-French photographer Brassaï to Picassos château in Normandy, Boisgeloup, where he would take his iconic photographs of the celebrated plaster busts of Picassos lover Marie-Thérèse Walter. The beautifully illustrated, long-awaited final volume of John Richardsons magisterial Life of Picasso, drawing on original research from interviews and never-before-seen material in the Picasso family archives.
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