The Art of Rivalry - by Sebastian Smee (Paperback)
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"Gripping . . . Mr. Smee's skills as a critic are evident throughout. He is persuasive and vivid. . . . <i>The Art of Rivalry</i> is rooted in a closely observed theory, but it roams in a way geared to nonspecialist readers, part mini-biographies, part broader art history. . . . 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."<b>--<i>The New York Times</i></b> <p/>"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, deftly taking social milieus, family backgrounds, and the art controversies of the day into account. . . . Smee's vivid, agile prose is especially good at evoking the temperaments of the personalities involved. . . . <i>The Art of Rivalry</i> is a pure, informative delight, written with canny authority."<b>--<i>The Boston Globe</i></b> <p/>"Bacon liked to say his portraiture aimed to capture 'the pulsations of a person.' Revealing these rare creators as the invaluable catalysts they also were, Smee conveys exactly that on page after page. . . . His brilliant group biography is one of a kind."<b><i>--The Atlantic</i></b> <p/> "Perceptive . . . [Sebastian Smee showcases] the crucial painter-vs.-painter passions that spurred eight brilliant modern artists toward their greatest work. . . . Smee is onto something important. His book may bring us as close as we'll ever get to understanding the connections between these bristly bonds and brilliance."<b>--<i>The Christian Science Monitor</i></b> <p/> "In this intriguing work of art history and psychology, <i>The Boston Globe</i>'s art critic looks at the competitive friendships of Matisse and Picasso, Manet and Degas, Pollock and de Kooning, and Freud and Bacon. All four relationships illuminate the creative process--both its imaginative breakthroughs and its frustrating blocks."<b>--<i>Newsday</i></b> <p/>"A fresh and fruitful approach to art history . . . [Sebastian] Smee's double portraits are deeply moving, even haunting in their investigations of artistic and emotional symbioses of incalculable intricacy and consequence."<b>--<i>Booklist</i> (starred review)</b> <p/>"Beautifully written . . . This ambitious and impressive work is an utterly absorbing read about four important relationships in modern art."<b><i>--Publishers Weekly </i>(starred review)</b> <p/> "The keynotes of Sebastian Smee's criticism have always included a fine feeling for the <i>what </i>of art--he knows how to evoke the way pictures really strike the eye--and an equal sense of the <i>how</i> of art: how art emerges from the background of social history. To these he now adds a remarkable capacity for getting down the <i>who</i> of art--the enigma of artists' personalities, and the way that, two at a time, they can often intersect to reshape each in the other's image. With these gifts all on the page together, <i>The Art of Rivalry</i> gives us a remarkable and engrossing book on pretty much the whole of art."<b>--Adam Gopnik, author of <i>Paris to the Moon </i>and <i>The Table Comes First</i></b> <p/> "Modern art's major pairs of frenemies are a subject so fascinating, it's strange to have a book on it only now--and a stroke of luck, for us, that the author is Sebastian Smee. He brings the perfect combination of artistic taste and human understanding, and a prose style as clear as spring water, to the drama and occasional comedy of men who inspired and annoyed one another to otherwise inexplicable heights of greatness."<b>--Peter Schjeldahl, art critic for <i>The New Yorker</i></b> <p/> "This is a magnificent book on the relationships at the roots of artistic genius. Smee offers a gripping tale of the fine line between friendship and competition, tracing how the ties that torment us most are often the ones that inspire us most."<b>--Adam Grant, Wharton professor and <i>New York Times </i>bestselling author of <i>Originals</i> and <i>Give and Take</i></b>
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