Picasso: The Artist's Works in Soviet Museums

Among Picasso's oils, watercolors, gouaches and drawings at the Hermitage in Leningrad and the Pushkin Museum in Moscow are some of his most famous early masterpieces ( Family of Saltimbanques ; Still Life with Violin ). Covering his Blue, Rose, ``circus,'' African-inspired and cubist phases, this oeuvre takes us from his arrival in Paris in 1900 at age 19 to the outbreak of WW I. In a beautifully produced, oversized album, Soviet art critic Podoksik weaves a penetrating, very readable essay around this body of work, highlighting the deep humanism which made it so appealing to Russia's pre-revolutionary avant-garde. Along with 56 large color plates, a special section includes 490 miniature reproductions of paintings, sculptures, engravings and drawings, so each of the 56 major works can be fitted into the context of Picasso's artistic evolution. (Sept.)