The Great Parade: Portrait of the Artist as Clown Book

A beautiful book that showcases how circus figures and artifacts have been portrayed in art over the past two centuriesThe circus is a dazzling world filled with acrobats and harlequins, tumblers and riders, monsters and celestial creatures. Now this engaging book sets that world in a new light, examining how painters, sculptors, and photographers from the eighteenth century to the present have used the circus as a springboard for their imaginative expression and have envisioned the clown as a metaphor for the modern artist.The book presents more than 175 works by such artists as Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Rouault, Picasso, Chagall, and Léger. Some of these are masterful works shown for the first time; these range from the 18-meter stage curtain Picasso designed in 1917 for Erik Satieâ??s ballet Parade to more intimate works such as Nadar and Tournachonâ??s photographs of Pierrot as played by celebrated mime Charles Debureau. This enchanting book is the catalogue for an exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Canada, which opened at the Grand Palais in Paris on March 9, 2004, and moves to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa from June 25 to September 19, 2004.Gérard Régnier (Jean Clair), Director of the Musée Picasso, Paris, is the general editor of the catalogue.Read More