Je Suis Le Cahier: The Sketchbooks Of Picasso

The Atlantic Monthly Press, Boston/ New York, 1986; First Edition; Quarto (9 3/4" x 12 3/8") 349 pages; red cloth; black titles; illustrated end papers. Extraordinary collection of Pablo Picasso’s private sketchbooks, begun in 1891 and continued throughout his lifetime, never before seen or studied by the public until publication of this book and the accompanying exhibition at the Pace Gallery in New York in 1986. An inside look at the creative process of the artist widely regarded as the greatest of the 20th century. Preface by Arnold Glimcher and foreword by Claude Picasso, the artist’s son, are followed with authoritative chapters by E.A. Carmean, director of The Fort Worth Art Museum; Sam Hunter, professor of art history at Princeton University; critic and art historian Rosalind F. Krauss; Theodore Reff, professor of art history at Columbia University; Robert Rosenblum, professor of art history at NYU; and Gert Schiff, professor at NYU’s Institute Of Fine Arts. Profusely illustrated in color and black & white. Title is taken from a Picasso sketchbook of 1906 upon which he had written, "Je suis le cahier appartenant a Monsieur Picasso, peinture" (I am the notebook belonging to Mr. Picasso, painter). Fine, in a Near Fine dust jacket. Absolutely clean, crisp, bright, corners sharp, no chips or tears, no ownership signatures or any other markings of any kind. A handsome copy.