With an introduction by Arthur C. Danto, this book provides a fresh, engaging view into Picasso's life and art. Mary Ann Caws describes the artist's life thematically and chronologically, and also takes as focal points Picasso's relationships with his close friends as they changed over the years. Pablo Picasso invokes central places and characters in various periods of the artist's long and active life: in Barcelona; his time at the Bateau-Lavoir in Paris; his work and life in Provence; his friendships with Gertrude Stein, Max Jacob, Apollinaire and Pierre Reverdy, Jean Cocteau, Breton and the surrealists, and later Dali, Eluard, and critic Roland Penrose. It traces his relationships with partners Dora Maar, Francoise Gilot and Jacqueline Roque. Caws provides biographical context to the artist's work, focusing on the time around "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" and then "Guernica", as well as the changes and consistencies in his oeuvre over the twentieth century.
Throughout, the author examines Picasso's juggling of viewpoints, artistic strategies, loves and friends, which she interprets as part of the expansion of the artist's genius and personality, represented by the figures of the Harlequin, the clown and the acrobat. This book is a concise and lively study of the enormously productive and varied life and art of one of the twentieth century's most influential artistic figures.