{"product_id":"the-art-of-rivalry-four-friendships-betrayals-and-breakthroughs-in-modern-art-9780812994803","title":"The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships  Betrayals  and Breakthroughs in Modern Art","description":"\u003cp\u003ePulitzer Prizewinning art critic Sebastian Smee tells the fascinating story of four pairs of artistsManet and Degas  Picasso and Matisse  Pollock and de Kooning  Freud and Baconwhose 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 contemporaryone 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 Pollocks uninhibited style of action painting triggered a breakthrough in the work of his older rival  Willem de Kooning. After Pollocks sudden death in a car crash  de Kooning assumed Pollocks mantle and became romantically involved with his late friends mistress. Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon met in the early 1950s  when Bacon was being hailed as Britains 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 ones own as an artistfinding ones voicealmost always involves willfully breaking away from some intimates expectations of who you are or ought to be.  Praise for The Art of Rivalry  Gripping . . . Mr. Smees 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\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45495969022005,"sku":"ByrdShop_0812994809","price":26.38,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780812994803.jpg?v=1780904719","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-art-of-rivalry-four-friendships-betrayals-and-breakthroughs-in-modern-art-9780812994803","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}