Volume 27, Number 16 · October 23, 1980
Lust for Life
By Eugene Victor Thaw
Reading the reviews of the great Picasso exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, I was struck by the emphasis most critics gave to Picasso's private life and by their implication that only his biography would yield the true meaning of his work, John Richardson, a critic whom I respect and whose firsthand knowledge of the subject is formidable, even suggested, in a brilliant review in these pages, that a special effort be launched to gather every scrap of intimate detail while there are some with living memory so nothing would be lost that might provide clues to Picasso's leonography.[1] I was reminded of a curious essay by Gregory Battcock which served as the introduction to a little anthology of criticism he edited some years ago.[2] He said that in the new art environment, the critic is now 'a friend' of the artist who shares his style of life. Without intimate involvement of the critic in the artist's life, the new art cannot be understood.
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