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Georges Braque, le défi silencieux

Alex Danchev

Who was Braque? Even though he was one of the sacred monsters of 20th century art, the question is worth asking given the way he contributed to keep a veil of mystery over his private life. We actually know very little about his love affairs, except for a love story with Marie Laurencin, and his family is incredibly transparent. As his dear friends Ponge, Leymarie or Paulhan pointed out, his life held spicy anecdotes, contrary to that of Picasso. It was already a miracle that his life did not end on his thirtieth birthday, 13 May 1915! It was then that he was abandoned on the battle field of the Somme, shelled, which made all consider him dead. He was born in Argenteuil, grew up in the Havre where his father had his business, but made Normandy his region of adoption. His seriousness and his silence allowed him to survive in face of the power of someone like Picasso, his exact contemporary. This fluid biography, written by an outsider of the art world (Danchev is a professor in international relations at the University of Nottingham), reminds us that Braque cannot be reduced to being the inventor –together with Picasso-of Cubism between 1907 and 1912, and later the pioneer of collages (before Picasso). Discreet, with true friends such as Malraux and Aimé Maeght, he went on to live for another half a century, up to his death in 1963, leaving a long trace with his numerous Oiseaux, the landscapes of his later years and the ceiling of the Louvre (1953).


Georges Braque, le défi silencieux, by Alex Danchev, Hazan, 2013, 366 p. €32

Georges Braque, le défi silencieux - Alex Danchev


Review published in the newsletter #343 - from 24 April 2014 to 30 April 2014

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