Françoise Gilot and Pablo Picasso in Golfe-Juan, France, 1948, photographed by Robert Capa, from Artists In Love by Veronica Kavass
Tory’s Spring 2015 collection taps into the spirit of artist Françoise Gilot and the time she spent with Picasso in Vallauris; together, the two were an art-world power couple. But they weren’t the only examples of such creative coupling — as Veronica Kavass’ book Artists In Love makes clear. In it, she dives into 29 such stories dotting the annals of art history: Gilot and Picasso, Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O’Keeffe, Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Marina Abramović and Ulay, just to name a few. Some of the pairs were all-out fiery (and often turbulent) romances; others, more creative/inspirational unions. With the book’s reach over various art movements and numerous countries around the world, Kavass provides a fascinating window through which to view, and understand, some of art’s greatest cultural forces. “Would we have seen Max Ernst’s deserts, his full spectrum of settings, without [Dorothea] Tanning by his side, enthusiastic to live and paint out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by skulls?,” she asks in the introduction. “Without [Tom] Doyle’s invitation to join him on a residency in Germany, would [Eva] Hesse have taken the pivotal trip back to her home, to the setting that inspired her to transition to sculpture?”

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