The first comprehensive study of the work of one of the most significant abstract painters of his generation.
This timely entry in the Contemporary Artists series focuses on Mark Bradford, the Los Angeles-based artist best known for his large-scale abstract paintings that examine the class, race, and gender-based economies that structure urban society. His collages and installations, made of materials scavenged from the streets, have created a unique body of work that still stands as a strong response to the impromptu networks that emerge within a city. In this new title, his life and work are explored as never before.

Mark Bradford (Phaidon Contemporary Artists Series)

Smee, Sebastian

Hill, Anita

Butler, Cornelia H.

Humor & Entertainment

Phaidon Press

Pulitzer Prize–winning art critic Sebastian Smee tells the fascinating story of four pairs of artists—Manet and Degas, Picasso and Matisse, Pollock and de Kooning, Freud and Bacon—whose fraught, competitive friendships spurred them to new creative heights. Rivalry is at the heart of some of the most famous and fruitful relationships in history. The Art of Rivalry follows eight celebrated artists, each linked to a counterpart by friendship, admiration, envy, and ambition. All eight are household names today. But to achieve what they did, each needed the influence of a contemporary—one who was equally ambitious but possessed sharply contrasting strengths and weaknesses. Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas were close associates whose personal bond frayed after Degas painted a portrait of Manet and his wife. Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso swapped paintings, ideas, and influences as they jostled for the support of collectors like Leo and Gertrude Stein and vied for the leadership of a new avant-garde. Jackson Pollock’s uninhibited style of “action painting” triggered a breakthrough in the work of his older rival, Willem de Kooning. After Pollock’s sudden death in a car crash, de Kooning assumed Pollock's mantle and became romantically involved with his late friend’s mistress. Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon met in the early 1950s, when Bacon was being hailed as Britain’s most exciting new painter and Freud was working in relative obscurity. Their intense but asymmetrical friendship came to a head when Freud painted a portrait of Bacon, which was later stolen. Each of these relationships culminated in an early flashpoint, a rupture in a budding intimacy that was both a betrayal and a trigger for great innovation. Writing with the same exuberant wit and psychological insight that earned him a Pulitzer Prize for art criticism, Sebastian Smee explores here the way that coming into one’s own as an artist—finding one’s voice—almost always involves willfully breaking away from some intimate’s expectations of who you are or ought to be. Praise for The Art of Rivalry “Gripping . . . Mr. Smee’s skills as a critic are evident throughout. He is persuasive and vivid. . . .You leave this book both nourished and hungry for more about the art, its creators and patrons, and the relationships that seed the ground for moments spent at the canvas.”—The New York Times “With novella-like detail and incisiveness [Sebastian Smee] opens up the worlds of four pairs of renowned artists. . . . Each of his portraits is a biographical gem. . . . The Art of Rivalry is a pure, informative delight, written with canny authority.”—The Boston Globe

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

Random House Trade Paperbacks

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Random House]

From the summer of 1870 to the spring of 1871, Paris and its people were forced into surrender by Germans and imperiled as rebel republicans established a breakaway Commune, ultimately crushed by the French army after the burning of central Paris. As Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic Sebastian Smee shows, it was against the backdrop of these tumultuous times that the Impressionist movement was born--a reaction to violence, civil war, and political intrigue. Smee tells the story of Paris's "Terrible Year" through the eyes of the Impressionists, with a focus on the relationship between Edouard Manet, the father of the movement, and Berthe Morisot, the group's preeminent woman. With narrative sweep and vivid detail, Paris in Ruins captures the shifting passions and politics of the art world, revealing how the pressures of the Siege and the chaos of the Commune had a monumental effect on the development of modern art.

Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism

W.W.Norton&Company

Tantor Audio

Rivalry is at the heart of some of the most famous and fruitful relationships in history. The Art of Rivalry follows eight celebrated artists, each linked to a counterpart by friendship, admiration, envy, and ambition. All eight are household names today. But to achieve what they did, each needed the influence of a contemporary-one who was equally ambitious but possessed sharply contrasting strengths and weaknesses.Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas were close associates whose personal bond frayed after Degas painted a portrait of Manet and his wife. Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso swapped paintings, ideas, and influences as they jostled for the support of collectors like Leo and Gertrude Stein and vied for the leadership of a new avant-garde. Jackson Pollock's uninhibited style of "action painting" triggered a breakthrough in the work of his older rival, Willem de Kooning. Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon met in the early 1950s, when Bacon was being hailed as Britain's most exciting new painter and Freud was working in relative obscurity. Their intense but asymmetrical friendship came to a head when Freud painted a portrait of Bacon, which was later stolen.

Net Loss: The Inner Life in the Digital Age: Quarterly Essay 72

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Quarterly Essay

This is a story about rivalry among artists. Not the kind of rivalry that grows out of hatred and dislike, but rather, rivalry that emerges from admiration, friendship, love. The kind of rivalry that existed between Degas and Manet, Picasso and Matisse, Pollock and de Kooning, and Freud and Bacon. 
These were some of the most famous and creative relationships in the history of art, driving each individual to heights of creativity and inspiration - and provoking them to despair, jealousy and betrayal. Matisse's success threatened Picasso so much that his friends would throw darts at a portrait of his rival's beloved daughter Marguerite, shouting 'there's one in the eye for Matisse!' And Willem de Kooning's twisted friendship with Jackson Pollock didn't stop him taking up with his friend's lover barely a year after Pollock's fatal car crash.
In The Art of Rivalry, Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic Sebastian Smee explores how, as both artists struggled to come into their own, they each played vital roles in provoking the other's creative breakthroughs - ultimately determining the course of modern art itself.

Profile Books

This is a story about rivalry among artists. Not the kind of rivalry that grows out of hatred and dislike, but rather, rivalry that emerges from admiration, friendship, love. The kind of rivalry that existed between Degas and Manet, Picasso and Matisse, Pollock and de Kooning, and Freud and Bacon. 
These were some of the most famous and creative relationships in the history of art, driving each individual to heights of creativity and inspiration - and provoking them to despair, jealousy and betrayal. Matisse's success threatened Picasso so much that his friends would throw darts at a portrait of his rival's beloved daughter Marguerite, shouting 'there's one in the eye for Matisse!' And Willem de Kooning's twisted friendship with Jackson Pollock didn't stop him taking up with his friend's lover barely a year after Pollock's fatal car crash. 
In The Art of Rivalry, Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic Sebastian Smee explores how, as both artists struggled to come into their own, they each played vital roles in provoking the other's creative breakthroughs - ultimately determining the course of modern art itself.

'If only everything that Matisse and I did could be put side by side. Nobody ever looked at Matisse's work as thoroughly as I did. And he at mine.' - Pablo Picasso. These two painters of the Twentieth Century influenced each other from the start, and their relationship grew into one of the greatest creative rivalries the world has ever seen. This is the story of that relationship, from its beginnings in the salons of Paris and under the auspices of Gertrude Stein, through the rise of both their reputations. It looks at the forces and circumstances which shaped them, as well as the way in which each artist affected the other - artistically and personally. Picasso has been seen as the foremost artist of the century, but Matisse's work is being reappraised. Picasso might have been the cannier self-publicist, the one with an eye for changing fashions, in painting and politics, but was Matisse simply a better painter? SIDE BY SIDE is a fascinating and accessible narrative about the period encompassing the birth of modern art, through the eyes of two of its most interesting participants.

Side by side (Brief lives)

Distributed by Pan Macmillan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Smee, Sebastian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Smee, Sebastian

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Smee, Sebastian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Mark Bradford (Phaidon Contemporary Artists Series)

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

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

Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism

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

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

Net Loss: The Inner Life in the Digital Age: Quarterly Essay 72

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

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

Side by side (Brief lives)