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Reviews
The Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art by Sebastian Smee
jadejesus18's review against another edition
5.0
Listen, I’ll always read books on art world chisme.
jrmarr's review
3.0
Well written but patchy for me in terms of interest. I definitely liked the Matisse/Picasso and Pollock/de Kooning chapters more than the others.
jasoncomely's review
5.0
This was a page-turner. Smee is a magnetic writer. I found the Pollock / de Kooning "rivalry" (if we're to call it that) particularly compelling.
johndiconsiglio's review against another edition
3.0
Pulitzer-winning art critic dissects 4 friendships—Freud/Bacon, Manet/Degas, Matisse/Picasso, de Kooning/Pollock—& how they changed modern art. But let’s skip the high brow stuff & go right to the juicy gossip that makes this book fun. Freud declined a wedding invite because he’d not only slept with the bride but also the groom & the groom’s mother. Manet took a knife to a Degas painting of Mrs. M. Picasso’s lover sent their adopted preteen daughter back to the orphanage rather than risk her in the leering artist’s studio. Keep your phone handy to Google painting references.
alundeberg's review against another edition
3.0
Engaging look into how four sets of artists influenced each other's art and style. I give this three stars because while the author writes well, the structure jumps around and felt scattered. While others can do this to create a dramatic effect and sense of tension, Smee's use felt disjointed. Sometimes his argument felt forced-- like he was placing more of an impact between the artists than was actually there (I have no doubt the artists felt the influences, but there's a lot that shapes an artist, not just a "rival"). He often will state a blanket statement about art or humanity that is rather tenuous at best and assumes that the reader agrees. I often did not agree with these statements and was not as convinced by him. While it's always fun to get a look into the lives of artists, Smee is trying really hard to fit the evidence and the reader to his conclusions.
textpublishing's review against another edition
5.0
‘Vivid and exuberant writing about art…[brings] great works to life with love and appreciation.’
Pulitzer citation
‘Smee takes readers deep into the beginnings of modern art in a way that not only enlightens, but also builds a stronger appreciation of the influences that created the environment that fostered its development.’
Kirkus
‘This is magnificent book on the relationships at the roots of artistic genius. Smee offers a gripping tale of the fine line between friendship and competition, tracing how the ties that torment us most are often the ones that inspire us most.’
Adam Grant, author of Originals and Give and Take
‘The keynotes of Sebastian Smee’s criticism have always included a fine feeling for the what of art—he knows how to evoke the way pictures really strike the eye—and an equal sense of the how of art: how art emerges from the background of social history. To these he now adds a remarkable capacity for getting down the who of art—the enigma of artists’ personalities, and the way that, two at a time, they can often intersect to reshape each in the other’s image. With these gifts all on the page together, The Art of Rivalry gives us a remarkable and engrossing book on pretty much the whole of art.’
Adam Gopnik, author of Paris to the Moon
‘Modern art’s major pairs of frenemies are a subject so fascinating, it’s strange to have a book on it only now—and a stroke of luck, for us, that the author is Sebastian Smee. He brings the perfect combination of artistic taste and human understanding, and a prose style as clear as spring water, to the drama and occasional comedy of men who inspired and annoyed one another to otherwise inexplicable heights of greatness.’
Peter Schjeldahl, New Yorker art critic
‘Beautifully written…This ambitious and impressive work is an utterly absorbing read.’
STARRED Review, Publishers Weekly
‘Smee’s book is full of interest and elegance and compelling insights into formative moments in, not just art, but Western culture more broadly.’
Australian Book Review
‘Smee’s writing is vivid and engaging, informed by his artistic judgment and a warmth of human understanding. The Art of Rivalry is a cracker of a book.’
Spectator Australia
‘Absorbing, informed and provocative, Sebastian Smee’s The Art of Rivalry takes us to heart of each of these relationships. It offers revelatory insights into the ways in which these major artists influenced and changed each other.’
Australian Arts Review
‘Smee’s double portraits are deeply moving, even haunting in their investigations of artistic and emotional symbioses of incalculable intricacy and consequence.’
Booklist
‘A riveting study.’
Miriam Cosic, Australian Book Review, 2016 Books of the Year
‘A hybrid of art history and biography, The Art of Rivalry sparkles with originality and psychological insight, and is full of fascinating information.’
Best Books of 2016, Australian Financial Review
‘The way Smee connects the dots is revelatory, plus lots of art world gossip.’
Daily Review
‘A riveting study…the title of which says it all.’
Miriam Cosic, Australian Book Review
‘Sebastian Smee explores the ‘frenemy’ relationships between modern artists Freud and Bacon, Manet and Degas, Matisse and Picasso and Pollock and de Kooning—an amusing, intimate and human lens that textbooks are closed to.’
Art Almanac
‘It made me laugh and it made me think.’
Wendy Whiteley, Australian Financial Review
Pulitzer citation
‘Smee takes readers deep into the beginnings of modern art in a way that not only enlightens, but also builds a stronger appreciation of the influences that created the environment that fostered its development.’
Kirkus
‘This is magnificent book on the relationships at the roots of artistic genius. Smee offers a gripping tale of the fine line between friendship and competition, tracing how the ties that torment us most are often the ones that inspire us most.’
Adam Grant, author of Originals and Give and Take
‘The keynotes of Sebastian Smee’s criticism have always included a fine feeling for the what of art—he knows how to evoke the way pictures really strike the eye—and an equal sense of the how of art: how art emerges from the background of social history. To these he now adds a remarkable capacity for getting down the who of art—the enigma of artists’ personalities, and the way that, two at a time, they can often intersect to reshape each in the other’s image. With these gifts all on the page together, The Art of Rivalry gives us a remarkable and engrossing book on pretty much the whole of art.’
Adam Gopnik, author of Paris to the Moon
‘Modern art’s major pairs of frenemies are a subject so fascinating, it’s strange to have a book on it only now—and a stroke of luck, for us, that the author is Sebastian Smee. He brings the perfect combination of artistic taste and human understanding, and a prose style as clear as spring water, to the drama and occasional comedy of men who inspired and annoyed one another to otherwise inexplicable heights of greatness.’
Peter Schjeldahl, New Yorker art critic
‘Beautifully written…This ambitious and impressive work is an utterly absorbing read.’
STARRED Review, Publishers Weekly
‘Smee’s book is full of interest and elegance and compelling insights into formative moments in, not just art, but Western culture more broadly.’
Australian Book Review
‘Smee’s writing is vivid and engaging, informed by his artistic judgment and a warmth of human understanding. The Art of Rivalry is a cracker of a book.’
Spectator Australia
‘Absorbing, informed and provocative, Sebastian Smee’s The Art of Rivalry takes us to heart of each of these relationships. It offers revelatory insights into the ways in which these major artists influenced and changed each other.’
Australian Arts Review
‘Smee’s double portraits are deeply moving, even haunting in their investigations of artistic and emotional symbioses of incalculable intricacy and consequence.’
Booklist
‘A riveting study.’
Miriam Cosic, Australian Book Review, 2016 Books of the Year
‘A hybrid of art history and biography, The Art of Rivalry sparkles with originality and psychological insight, and is full of fascinating information.’
Best Books of 2016, Australian Financial Review
‘The way Smee connects the dots is revelatory, plus lots of art world gossip.’
Daily Review
‘A riveting study…the title of which says it all.’
Miriam Cosic, Australian Book Review
‘Sebastian Smee explores the ‘frenemy’ relationships between modern artists Freud and Bacon, Manet and Degas, Matisse and Picasso and Pollock and de Kooning—an amusing, intimate and human lens that textbooks are closed to.’
Art Almanac
‘It made me laugh and it made me think.’
Wendy Whiteley, Australian Financial Review