Artists' Lives

Engaging encounters, personal anecdotes, and jargon-free critical insights into some of the liveliest creative minds in modern art, by an international art-world insider.
Praised by The Art Newspaper as “the best art writer of his generation,” Michael Peppiatt has encountered many European modern artists over more than fifty years. This selection of some of his best biographical writing covers a wide spectrum of modern art, from Van Gogh and Pierre Bonnard, to conversations with painter Sonia Delaunay, artist and photographer Dora Maar, who was Picasso's lover in the 1930s and 1940s, and Francis Bacon, perhaps the most famous of the many artists with whom Peppiatt has formed personal friendships.
Michael Peppiatt's lively, engaging writing introduces us to many notable art-world personalities, such as the Catalan painter Antoni Tapies, whom he visits in his studio, and moments of disillusion, such as his meeting with the self-mythologizing artist Balthus.