Artists in Love: From Picasso & Gilot to Christo & Jeanne-Claude, A Century of Creative and Romantic Partnerships
IPPY 2012 Gold Award in the Fine Arts category (Independent Publisher Book Awards)ForeWord Reviews 2012 Book of the Year Award Finalist--Artists in Love was a"Hot Type"pick in the November 2012Vanity Fair.People Magazinepick (one of only three books chosen),Books: Holiday Gift Guide, December 17, 2012Staff Pick by Karen Hayes at Nashville's nationally reveredParnassusbookstore."I love this book. Veronica Kavass beautifully untangles the twisted strands of love and work in the lives of  twenty-nine fascinating couples. It's part celebration, part elegy—every illustration  perfectly chosen, every page exquisitely written."— Susan Larson, The Reading Life, WWNO (NPR), New Orleans Susan interviews Veronica on The Reading Life:  Tues Feb 26 @ 1:30 p.m., Friday, Mar 1 @ 7:30 p.m, and Sun Mar 3 @  noon. Stream live and listen to the archived show at www.wwno.org"Not surprisingly, there is often a dominant male figure and tales of infidelity and turbulence abound, but even if there weren’t any tabloid-worthy details, Kavass’ tone is captivating and engaging enough for any reader. She writes on Dorothea Tanning: “Reading her story is to imagine a woman wrapped in velvet, resting supine on the grass, taking drags from a long ivory cigarette holder, letting the smoke shape the words.” As I read these love stories, my only disappointment was that I couldn’t read more."— Taylor Murrow, Press Street: Room 220, New Orleans, March 1, 2013"A well-researched book (with notes, bibliography, and index) with a unique and revelatory  perspective that will especially appeal to lovers of modern art."— Marcia G. Welsh, Dartmouth College Librarian, Hanover, NH, Library Journal, February 1, 2013"The cover image—a red-lipped femme wrapped in smothering plastic—feels a bit off-putting, but since  this lovely book deals with artists under the covers, among other places, it can be forgiven. We  really have here a light look at the influence of passion, romance and sensuality on the work of  artists. The passion often shows dramatically, visually documented in 150 full-color illustrations  that make up the palette of the book. The relationship of romance to artwork can shock—one of the  book's first photographs (by William Seabrook) gives us Man Ray fondling Lee Miller's tumbling locks ... while a steel collar locks her throat. The relationships can smolder—check out the Alfred  Stieglitz/Georgia O'Keefe pages. Mostly, author Kavass shows us that talent and ardor often  go ... well, hand-in-hand among many anatomical combinations."— Charles McNair, The 10 Best Books of 2012, Paste Magazine, December 12, 2012"Here's a book, startlingly simple in its concept, that surveys the love  relationships of some precious icons of modern art, from Frida Kahlo and  Diego Rivera, Lee Miller and Man Ray, and Alfred Stieglitz and  Georgia O'Keeffe to Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg,  Bruce Naiman and Susan Rothenberg, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude.  Editor Veronica Kavass probes the romances of these artists for some  understanding and insight into the artistic process. Whether or not you  come away enlightened, the artists are sufficiently captivating and  irresistibly portrayed in 140 images."— Robert Birnbaum, Best Coffee Table Books of 2012, TheDailyBeast.com, December 9, 2012"Mixing Love and Art makes for an insanely volatile cocktail of madness, masochism and mayhem.  And once in a while they live happily ever after."— Simon Doonan, Creative Ambassador Barneys New York."According to the Symbolist poet Remy de Gourmont, "art is the  accomplice of love." In his essay, "Decadence," he wrote: "Take love  away and there is no longer art." If only that were true! For proof that  it isn't, leaf through Veronica Kavass' gorgeous new coffee-table book,  Artists in Love, where you'll find scant evidence of the creative flame  dying when passion cools or the loved one departs... the work of both  sexes gets equally beautiful reproductions, many of them full page and  in color, and expansively captioned."— Helen A. Harrison, Sag Harbor Express, January 11, 2013"The combustible natures of love and art twine through curator Kavass' lush, sexy  look at 29 artistic partners, from the legendary — Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe,  Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock, Frieda Kahlo and Diego Rivera — to the less renowned but  still intriguing: Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg,  Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt. Lavish, full-color reproductions illuminate the topic, and the  couple portraits mesmerize. Kavass documents jealousy, rivalry and bitter divorce, but also love  kindled and occasionally maintained in the kiln of artistic genius."— Allison Carey, Holiday Gift Guide, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 25, 2012"This casebook fills a need that had not seemed to be there before its publication.  From Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe to Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt, Robert  Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns to Bernd and Hilla Becher, it tells of the intimate partnerships  that supported and occasionally thwarted some of the 20th century's great creative careers."— Kenneth Baker, Art Critic, San Francisco Chronicle, Holiday Gift Guide: Art Books, December 1, 2012"Being in love and making art are both creative acts that require ingenuity, the ability to capitalize on failures, sense of humor and all sorts of other things. "Artists in Love" is a transfixing account of the way that artist lovers create their worlds of work and love." — Laurie Anderson, composer, musician, performance artist"For a long time, the academic world looked down its nose at topics like artists' love lives,  for reasons I can only imagine have to do with a fear of not being taken seriously. As a result,  the rich and storied history of the interconnectedness between artists has largely been untapped.  With Artists in Love, Veronica Kavass applies her deep knowledge and understanding of art to an area that is a kind of academic undiscovered country. There's a lot to learn about, and Kavass is a  hell of a guide."— Laura Hutson, Nashville Scene, 12 Gift-Worthy Art Books Available at Parnassus, December 4, 2012"The cover alone makes it worth giving to the art lover in your life."— M.J. Rose, Buzz, Balls & Hype, December 4, 2012"The purpose of Artists in Love, Veronica Kavass writes, is "to revitalize these artists and their works,  to present the way they, as partners, collaborated, influenced one another, or guarded their art from a  lover's influences." Kavass's fascination with Lee Miller, "a seductive, ghostly beauty," drew her to  the starting point of this project, the story of Miller's relationship with Man Ray. From there, Kavass  went to Frida Kahlo, a woman with significant physical problems who could still laugh at her infirmities  and forgive Diego Rivera for his many infidelities.The other couples in Artists in Love—29 in all—include Wassily Kandinsky and Gabrielle Munter,  Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe, Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight, Helen Frankenthaler and  Robert Motherwell and Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Lush, stunning illustrations of their art  accompany Kavass's revealing essays, along with documentary photographs of the couples by Irving Penn, Robert Capa and others. Discover: A lushly illustrated book for those who love art and believe in love." — Valerie Ryan, Cannon Beach Book Company, Cannon Beach, Oregon for Tattered Cover Book Store Issue (Shelf Awareness), December 7, 2012"Artists in Love is a large format, thick, heavy, well produced, compassionately well researched  and well written, and peopled with pairs of love-driven (obsessed, troubled, inspired) artists,  both famous...and relatively obscure. Be kind to yourself, and do not ignore this book.— Marshall Fallwell, Jr., Nashville Arts, November 2012"This is tops on my personal Christmas list. A fabulous collection of artists and their muses.— Janet, Bookseller, Warwick's Books, La Jolla, CA, December 7, 2012"In her ambitious new book, Artists in Love, Nashville writer Veronica Kavass explores the romances that helped steer the lives and work of some of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. The result is a perceptive, thought-provoking exploration of love's impact on creativity and how  it has, by extension, helped to shape art history."Would we have seen Max Ernst's deserts, his  full spectrum settings, without [Dorothea] Tanning by his side, enthusiastic to live and paint  out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by skulls?" Kavass asks.From Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter to Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, the twenty-nine stories  range from heartening affirmations of enduring love and artistic collaboration to outright  Shakespearean-esque tragedy. But as Artists in Love demonstrates, inspired works of art were  conceived no matter the arc of the love story, and many are beautifully displayed throughout the book alongside intriguing photographs of the artist-couples." — Melinda Baker, "Love and Other Art Forms" (Interview), Chapter 16, November 1, 2012"Alongside the portrait photographs and art images that make up the other half of this coffee-table-ready  volume, Kavass' prose walks a steady line between the scholarly research and analysis of an art historical  tome and the sexy, sensational dishing one might expect from a book called Artists in Love."— Joe Nolan, Nashville Scene, November 8, 2012"All too often artists who come together for the not at all exclusive  purposes of work, sex, and love must...