John Richardson's final Picasso book arrives in November
ABC News
Few books have been more anticipated among art lovers
NEW YORK -- In the fall of 2018, art historian John Richardson fell critically ill and died the following March, at age 95. He left behind a distinguished record as a critic, curator and biographer and questions about the fate of one of the art world's longest awaited volumes, his fourth and final book on Pablo Picasso.
Shelley Wanger, his editor at Alfred A. Knopf, explained during a recent interview that she and Richardson had been working “on a typed manuscript” that they would review together when she came to see him each week. By the time he was hospitalized, they had what she calls “essentially a finished manuscript,” save for end notes, illustrations and some additional research.
Richardson's “A Life of Picasso: The Minotaur Years,” which comes out Nov. 16, completes a project he began more than 30 years ago with “The Prodigy” and continued with “The Cubist Rebel” and “The Triumphant Years.”
Like Robert Caro's Lyndon Johnson series, Richardson's books have been a story of testing and rewarding the patience of readers and critics. Each volume took years to complete — “The Triumphant Years” came out in 2007. Each was praised in every way a biographer could ask for — for his prose and for his knowledge, for his singular appreciation of Picasso's achievements and, despite a personal friendship with Picasso and family members, for his willingness to document the artist's most troubling flaws.
