In search of Dora Maar (Spanish version)

By: Brigitte Benkemoun

Published by: Taurus

ISBN: 9788430624430

Softcover. 256 pages. 

Language: Spanish

The fascinating life of an avant-garde artist told through the chance discovery of an address book.

In search of a replacement for the Hermès address book her husband has lost, Brigitte Benkemoun buys an old one on eBay. Almost identical to the original, with "the same smooth leather, but redder, softer, and with a shiny patina", it conceals an address book dating from 1951. As he leafs through it, he discovers with great fascination that the names that appear on its twenty pages (on B, Breton, Braque and Balthus; on C, Cocteau; on E, Éluard...) are "the greatest post-war artists in alphabetical order", who become the common thread of this book.

Benkemoun then embarks on an obsessive search and soon discovers that the diary belonged to Dora Maar, Picasso's famous Weeping Woman and a brilliant artist in her own right. The author embarks on a two-year journey of discovery to tell the story of a provocative, passionate and enigmatic woman, and the role that each of these figures played in her life. The result is a unique and dazzling portrait of the artist and her world through snapshots, party scenes and iconic cafés, and powerful fragments of her poetry and the poetry written about her.