Finding Dora Maar

A very interesting look into the search for one of Picasso's former mistresses Dora Maar. Dora was an artist and photographer who had achieved some acclaim in her own right. A tour de force, Dora's volatile personality didn't sit well with everyone, however she maintained her presence in the artistic community for several decades.

Although Dora is the main character in this biography, the book contains countless details of other well known artists during her lifetime, painters, writers, photographers etc. The author spent considerable time and resources investigating all these links that would help her flesh out just exactly who Dora Maar was.

Not a dry research project but a fascinating look into the private lives of the beautiful people living in France before, during and after WWII.

An incredible story, and it’s great to see Dora getting the recognition she deserves. If you love modern art, you’ll love this.

After accidentally stumbling upon a diary which enlisted phone numbers of all reputed painters and other such famous people, it was a painstaking process to find out who the diary belonged to, what was the relations with the owner of the diary and that lead to discovery of life on an extraordinary person. I have myself read a lot about Picasso however, Dora Maar always remained a fleeting reference. I always knew her as The Weeping Woman. After reading this book you know about a person with many talents eclipsed by another over awing personality.

Dora Maar always considered her in fusion of Picasso. When he painted, she felt that she was painting. His life was her life irrespective of how many women enter even though she had an overbearing personality and influence over Picasso's work.

So many people cared for her and claimed to be in love with her, but she was in love with a person who thought little or nothing of her beyond as a muse for his paintings. The difficult life she lived due to psychosis and depression before and after Picasso's death was unexplored and certainly piques interests of the reader.

Finding Dora Maar, by Brigitte Benkemoun, reconstructs the life and times of a photographer and painter who worked in France from the early 1930s onwards. Benkemoun’s route into her subject is both serendipitous and unusual: after her husband lost his prized Hermès agenda, she bought a replacement on eBay - and found Dora Maar’s 1951 address book inside! So begins two years of detective work as she investigates the people in the address book, and what they can tell us about Maar’s life and character.

I must admit, I’d never heard of Dora Maar before, but Benkemoun’s approach and enthusiasm swept me up and absorbed me into the world of Maar and the artists, writers and others she knew - and ceased to know - over the course of her adult life. The author’s use of a single object to open up a whole history is reminiscent of Gillian Tindall’s work - however, unlike Tindall’s most recent book, The Pulse Glass, Finding Dora Maar radiates positivity and excitement. I loved following Benkemoun as she had ‘eureka!’ moments and uncovered new insights into the artist. I also liked how she paid attention to who was and wasn’t listed in the book, and whether their details were up-to-date, to deduce the status of Maar’s various relationships at that particular point in time.

Maar was the model for Picasso’s Weeping Woman, and her relationship with him coloured her whole life, even after they split for good after ten years together in 1945 (Maar died in 1997). Like the women in Polly Samson’s A Theatre for Dreamers, her (willing and devoted, but still…) service to the great master stymied her own career, and in return, he treated her appallingly and steered her away from photography and towards painting. While Maar was undoubtedly talented in both areas, I feel this was a shame - I was particularly attracted by Benkemoun’s image of a young Maar making a perilous climb to capture photos of conditions inside a mine, as well as her street photography.

While Benkemoun is full of enthusiasm for her project, that doesn’t mean she isn’t uncritical of her subject - far from it, in fact. Right from the start, she’s honest about the fact that Maar had a copy of Mein Kampf on her bookshelf, and that this made her doubt whether she wanted to continue with her research. Taking a whole-life approach, Benkemoun shows that this artist who at one time was very left-wing, hung out with the Surrealists, and had a succession of gay male companions, became homophobic and anti-Semitic as she grew more pious, mentally ill and isolated in her later years.

At times, Maar reveals herself to be so unlikeable that Benkemoun finds it a relief to take a break from her to find out more about her friends - including fellow painter Jacqueline Lamba, Vicomtesse Marie Laura de Noialles and long-time confidante Nadine Effront - all women worth reading about in their own right. We learn about the dynamics, beginnings and endings of Maar’s friendships with men and women, famous and obscure. While she is not always likeable, Maar never fails to be interesting.

Finding Dora Maar is a fascinating account of serendipity, the joy of research, and a complicated woman artist who moved in the best circles.

Brigitte Benkemoun’s husband buys a vintage diary on eBay and finds an address book included in the package from 1951 belonging to Dora Maar, who was Picasso's famous "Weeping Woman." So begins the search for information on Dora Maar and her fabulous life. This book is a fascinating account of one woman's life and the people who shaped her.

I have, more than once, found treasures on eBay. It was no surprise to me that someone would try and sell some relative's treasure as an ordinary item. But for a spouse to be wise enough to grab a purchased item (fka treasure) and recognize it for what it is? Then to write a book about it? Genius! I had to read this book.

With an artist parent, I've grown up with books, prints and histories of painters. Especially those from France or who lived in Paris. Student work, copies of copies. . .all around us as we grew up. It was lovely, and an education all on its own. The network these artists built up as they developed and evolved was something of which I was aware, and the idea of someone's 1951 contact list with notes falling out of eBay into the hands of an interested author. . .well. It answers all one's non-fiction reading needs: drama, history, fandom, mystery and am I in it? (ie 7 degrees of separation rule).

The fun-for-me part was that I knew nothing of Dora Maar. I knew of Picasso and Lee Miller, Ray Man and others, but knew nothing of Dora Maar. The author takes the reader through her process, step-by-step, showing research found and connections made. She clearly claims assumptions and proposed theories (of which there are few). With all of these a very distinct picture of Dora Maar develops, tumbled together in positive and negative space. She was a woman with mighty competition in a man's world; an artist in her own right, but robbed of that consideration by having played "muse."

Brigitte Benkemoun presents her examination and research deftly, providing a reader in 2020 of exactly what it took Dora to play in that era's whimsical playground; what alliances were required, what gains for sacrifice, what cost victory, where hides love and shines betrayal, how fleeting fame, how long the lonely, and that lifelong, ever moving "why?" when tallying up the value of worth. . . all of this pulled from a modest, ordinary address book. Brilliant!!!

4 stars, shining light on brilliance in subject and execution.

A super sincere thanks to Brigitte Benkemoun, Getty Publications and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review. It was a bright spot in an otherwise grey time.

Finding Dora Maar: An Artist, an Address Book, a Life by Brigitte Benkemoun was an interesting read. When the author's husband loses his beloved Hermès agenda, she searches online and buys a vintage diary on EBay. When it arrives, they discover that the previous owner's address book is still in it, with listings of such artists as Jean Cocteau, Paul Éluard, and Jacqueline Lamba, among others. This leads to the discovery that the previous owned was Dora Maar, best known today as the subject of Picasso's 1937 Weeping Woman.

Maar was a painter, photographer and poet and, like the friends listed in her address book, was an innovative radical artiste who inspired artists who followed, including Picasso himself. Benkemoun, through tracing the names in address book, traces the history of the surrealists and artists around Maar. Quite an interesting read.

Finding Dora Maar
An Artist, an Address Book, a Life
by Brigitte Benkemoun
Getty Publications
Arts & Photography. |. Biographies & Memoirs
Pub Date 19 May 2020
I am reviewing a copy of Finding Dora Maar through Getty Publications and Netgalley:
Finding Dora Maar merges biography, memoir and cultural history in one captivating book.
While searching for a replacement for his lost copy of Hermès Agenda Brigitte Benkemoun’s husband buys a vintage diary on eBay. When Brigitte opens it, the diary shows private notes dating back to 1951, as well as twenty pages of phone numbers and addresses for Balthus, Brassaï, André Breton, Jean Cocteau, Paul Éluard, Leonor Fini, Jacqueline Lamba, and other artistic luminaries of the European avant-garde.
Brigitte comes to the realization that the book belonged to Dora Maar, Picasso’s famous “Weeping Woman.” Dora Maar was a brilliant artist in her own right. The journal leads. to Benkemoun embarking on a two year long journey of discovery to learn more about this provocative, passionate, and enigmatic woman, and the role that each of these figures played in her life.
Finding Dora Maar is a fascinating of Picasso’s former mistress, as well as a talented artist of her own right, Dora Maar.
Five out of five stars!
Happy Reading!

I found this such a compelling and engaging read, and a very unusual one. It all started when Brigitte Benkemoun’s husband bought a vintage notebook on eBay and when she started to look through it she realised it was an address book containing many names that she recognised. Some further detective work revealed that the notebook had belonged to Dora Maar and the names and addresses belonged to the great and the good of Parisian artistic and avant-garde circles – from Brassai to Andre Breton, Cocteau to Lacan. Benkemoun set out on a journey of discovery to track down the addresses and in this way explores Dora Maar's life and work through her friends and acquaintances. I found it an exhilarating journey, not least because Benkemoun actually met Maar in her older reclusive years so we get a glimpse of the real woman behind the notebook. Part memoir, part cultural history, part biography, part detective tale, this is essential reading for anyone interested in that era and in Dora Maar, Picasso and their circle in particular.

Brigitte Benkemoun finds the address book for muse and lover of Picasso, herself an artist with photography and paintings.
Dora seems like a complicated, fascinating women. To be surrounded by a lot of the famous painters, writers, poets of the hay day between 1930-1951. The address book likely written in 1951 is the starting point for Brigitte to delve into the people in her life. As an ardent lover of "modern" art, I loved this book. I have seen many paintings and works by the artists she had within her inner circle. Picasso seems like a really rough and intense person to be with and with all of his ex lovers, they remain scarred (of what I have read up till now).
Dora surely deserved to be seen as an artist in her on right, but alas what art becomes "famous' or "collectable' is often arbitrary.
A fascinating book read in two days. If you are an art lover, or are interested in the time period of the 30s-50s (the book goes up to the 90s), you will enjoy this.
I got this book as an ARC from NetGalley, with the English translation by Jody Gladding, so cannot comment on the original French version. But I love the persistance and dedication Brigitte showed this woman, and hopefully she will be remember as more than the "weeping woman'.

I have never before read a book like this; what a unique premise for a book and what stunning research went into its completion! This was an exceptional book. Very well researched and just a well written book. An exceptional book on artists from the French avant garde. Amazing that someone could find such a treasure!

I knew so little about Picasso's mistress and model, Dora Maar. What could have been just tedious research was turned into a fascinating story combining memoir, history and mystery. Another fascinating woman has been released from the shadows of history.

An intriguing and well written story of a little-known artist, told as appealingly and skilfully as literary fiction. Great narrative nonfiction for art and history fans, and for book clubs.

Benkemoun's investigation of artist Dora Maar centers around the names found in a 1951 address book. An interesting examination of European artists' lives and social circles in the 20th Century.

The address-book conceit for exploring Dora Maar is both useful and imaginative - evading the strangling hold of the biildungsroman biography - and occasionally too slight and a little frustrating. I feel like Maar ultimately slips through my fingers, and through Benkemoun's. What Benkemoun does do well is expand the view of Maar constructed both by Picasso followers - the mad, weeping woman - and by biographers who have tried to reclaim Maar from Picasso and from history and to see her as an artist in her own right rather than Picasso's victim. While she was that, writers like Mary Ann Caws recreated her without flaw; it is a shock to move from Caws's positive portrait of Maar as leftist, feminist artist to read Benkemoun's dissection of her later anti-semitism and retreat into conservatism. A necessary shock, but one that I wish could be explored more, and which the address-book form blocks - Benkemoun refers often to Maar's father's known anti-semitism, but never really discusses this at any length.

What this is, in the end, is an interesting and necessary revelation of Maar as both more and less than traditional and revisionist biographies have shown her, but it is squarely a portrait of Maar in the year of her address book, 1951, as Benkemoun herself admits. That is fine, but this should be clearer, sooner, and only becomes clear towards the end when Benkemoun finally draws her own boundaries: and the limits of this frame mean that her early period among the Surrealists and her time with Picasso is less than fully served, and her later, hideous retreat also gets shorter shrift than it could.

Very very interesting concept and format, unlike anything I’ve seen before. I enjoyed the translation and story.

Biography of controversial Dora Maar who we primarily know as Picasso's lover but she was so much more. Photographer, artist, poet, incredible woman.

Interesting and fascinating book.

I very much appreciated this unique format of Dora Maar from such an attentive and thoughtful observer. Engaging and well-written.

It all starts with the innocent purchase of a red leather notebook on Ebay. Author Brigitte Benkemoun was hunting for a gift, actually she was trying to replace a special edition red leather address and notebook.

What arrived from her ebay purchase was more than she could imagine...and it turned into a hunt for the original book's owner.

This is the story of that search, and the answers she found to questions she hadn't even asked, was only the begining of this exciting story.

This is the heartwarming and engaging journey through the addresses found in the book.
And these were no ordinary names... these were the names, addresses and phone numbers of some of the most influential people of that time. .artists, painters, writers...
And they all led to Ms. Henriette Theodora Markovitch, aka Dora Maar, woman, French photographer, painter, poet...and muse to Picasso.
She is "The Weeping Woman" in a Picasso painting. She was incredible, talented and overlooked.
This is an absolute must read!

4⭐

Thank you to NetGalley, Getty Publishing and the author Ms. Brigitte Benkemoun for the opportunity to read this Advanced Readers Copy of "Finding Dora Maar". The opinions expressed in this review are mine alone.

An overdue and warmly welcomed contemporary look at Dora Maar, who was an artist in her own right and not just one of Picasso's paramours.

Although a catalyst of pure luck, the angle of finding Maar's notebook is narrative gold. It not only gives us a niche connection to Maar, but renders the relationship between writer and reader intimate: together we read Maar's notes, and together we will rediscover this brilliant woman.

Why can't I find second hand treasures belonging to the deities of history in my local Oxfam?

This book is delightfully written and tells about the intertwined lives of Dora Maar, (the famous photographer and contemporary of Man Ray), Picasso (who treated Mme Maar very shabbily), and virtually every artist in Paris in the 1930's through 1960's. The mystery is born when the author finds an old address/date book in a vintage French leather "diary". When she flips through it, she realizes that whoever originally owned this little book had been a person of some prominence who knew a long list of famous people in the golden days of Paris and the Lost Generation. The mystery is untangled in a fascinating way, which also leads the author to tracking down people who may have known those whose names and addresses are in this little book. The stories are many and gripping, especially for anyone interested in painters, sculptors, and writers of that era. Ms. Benkemoun travels to various parts of France to track down answers to her questions, so if the reader enjoys "visiting" these places as part of the story, that is a bonus. I highly recommend this book, and will be interested in other work by this author.

This is perfect for the Strong Sense of Place website: lovely writing, fascinating detail, tons of atmosphere. I really enjoyed the way it's a mashup of a detective story, memoir, and history — super compelling.

Finally in English! One of several innovative non-fiction titles I pressed into the hands, metaphorically speaking, of friends and strangers this past year. And it made my Best Books of 2020 list, the annual post of my favourite reads.
The full Instagram post with book covers gallery is at the link.