Picasso Erotique

Readers who are inured to the late, comically lewd work will find plenty of it in Picasso Erotique, but there's also plenty of the early, more ephemeral erotic work here that will prove less familiar, and even revelatory. Jean Clair, Director of the Mus e Picasso in Paris and author of numerous art historical books in French, has gathered 317 color and 143 b&w illustrations covering all periods of Picasso's incessant output, fleshed out with excellent essays by Annie Le Brun, Robert Rosenblum and others. Placed next to Fernande Olivier's Loving Picasso (Forecasts, Apr. 9), the two books make for some serious high art thrills. (Aug.)