The Art of Rivalry : Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art (Hardcover)

from sedelia

*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.* Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 One of my favorite things to learn about is how art is made — I mean art in a broad sense, in terms of writing, painting, filmmaking, etc. I find it incredibly s...

from vpfluke

This book takes four pairs of artists and shows how their paired friendships and struggles with each other affected their ability to create well-remembered art. These were the Londoners Lucian Freud vs Francis Bacon, the Parisians Manet vs Degas, the Matisse vs Picasso (in Paris), and Pollock vs ...

from Paul-the-well-read

Four pairs of renowned artists who were at the same time friends and rivals grew in their own skills and visions of art through the influence each had on the other. Smee's book does an excellent job of detailing the personal relationship each artist had with the other while also elaborating on th...

from jasoncomely

This was a page-turner. Smee is a magnetic writer. I found the Pollock / de Kooning "rivalry" (if we're to call it that) particularly compelling.

from drmaf

The story of the relationship and rivalry between 4 pairs of contemporary artists - Freud and Bacon, Degas and Manet, Picasso and Matisse, De Kooning and Pollock. Fascinating book, although for me it really didn't take off until the Matisse-Picasso story, which is spellbinding, it was real artist...