Publishers Weekly
10/09/2023
Journalist Algeo (All This Marvelous Potential) relates in this affable account a meeting between America’s 33rd president and one of the 20th century’s best-known artists. In June 1958, Harry and Bess Truman were on a grand Mediterranean tour when they met Pablo Picasso in Cannes, France. Truman and Picasso became unlikely friends—they visited not only the artist’s villa but several other locations in the French Mediterranean together, including the Chateau Grimaldi, a museum to which Picasso later donated significant numbers of his works. Truman did not become the modern art advocate that Picasso’s friend, Museum of Modern Art curator Alfred Barr, had hoped when he organized the meeting. Nor did Picasso, a committed communist, become a Cold Warrior, despite Truman’s attempts to convert him. But Picasso, who comes off as a rather prickly character, indulges with Truman in a rare deviation from his typical unfriendliness toward other famous figures. Alongside this entertaining travelogue, Algeo presents an institutional history of modern art in America, with a focus on the efforts of the Truman White House to promote modern American art abroad—notably abstract expressionists like Robert Motherwell and Jackson Pollock—as a potential cultural weapon in the Cold War. It adds up to an enjoyable slice of art history. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
"When Harry Met Pablo confirms Matthew Algeo’s status as a master of microcosm history. Vividly recreating the unlikely meeting of two twentieth century titans, he transports the reader to the French Riviera, deftly balancing telling details and big-picture themes in an expertly crafted tale that captivates from the first page to the last.” —Philip White, author of Whistle Stop and Our Supreme Task, and The Leader’s Mind
“. . . an interesting, meaningful lesson in personality and history.” —Clifton Truman Daniel, grandson of Harry and Bess Truman, and author of Dear Harry, Love Bess
“Once again, Matthew Algeo has reached into the fascinating life of our thirty-third president and plucked out a gem. The unlikely matchup of Harry Truman and Pablo Picasso—two major figures of the twentieth century, makes both a page-turning story and a timely lesson for today about censorship, tolerance, and freedom of expression. With thorough reporting and lively writing, Algeo delights in the parallels, and contradictions, inherent in the meeting between the plain-speaking ex-president—no lover of modern art—and the brilliant and mercurial artist who created some of its most enduring masterworks. Along the way, he brings us a story as enjoyable as it is unexpected.” —Steve Drummond, author of The Watchdog: How the Truman Committee Battled Corruption and Helped Win World War II
“Harry Truman and Pablo Picasso were among the greatest characters of the twentieth century but couldn’t be more different: Picasso was an unapologetic Communist and the world’s most renowned Modern Artist. Truman, a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, ridiculed Picasso’s talent as “Ham and Eggs.” In When Harry Met Pablo, Algeo combines tenacious research, engaging storytelling, and a quick wit to explain how and why this Cold War 'Odd Couple' enjoyed a very human moment together. To some, a picture is worth a thousand words, but in Matthew Algeo’s skilled hands, a picture of Harry Truman greeting Pablo Picasso is priceless!” —Louis L. Picone, author of Grant’s Tomb
“When Harry Met Pablo is a breezy, compulsively readable account at one of the twentieth century’s most improbable encounters. It’s a stirring reminder of the importance of free expression and the power of friendship to transcend ideological differences.” —Troy Senick, author of A Man of Iron
