The Salon

By Nick Bertozzi

Book Overview

Set in turn-of-the-century Paris, this graphic novel about friendship and adventures of Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Gertrude and Leo Stein, Erik Satie, Alice B. Toklas, and Guillaume Apollinaire give a fascinating glimpse into the minds and hearts of the modernists.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312354851
• ISBN13: 9780312354855
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: Griffin
• Length: 178 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.5" x 5.9"

Customer Reviews

MOMA meets "Law and Order"

Early Cubism was born out of the back-and-forth visual exploration of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso and "The Salon" re-imagines turn of the century Paris and the players that turned art on its head as a crime drama. Think MOMA meets Paul Pope's "Heavy Liquid" meets "Law & Order". Bertozzi's own artwork is beautiful and the reserved color palette matches the tone of the story. Bertozzi's take on Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" on the back cover is pretty brillant as well. The murder mystery is fun, but actually less interesting than the author's imagined conversations between Picasso and Braque as well as Gertrude and Leo Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Erik Satie, Henri Matisse and Guillaume Apollinaire. Art history was one of my favorite subjects in college, particularly Cubism and "The Salon" captures the optimistic forward-looking energy of this movement, the catalyst for every major art movement to follow.

Long Live the Belle Epoque

The Salon is a murder-mystery that portrays the most influential painters and artists of the belle epoque, including Leo and Gertrude Stein, Apollinaire, Henri Matisse, George Braque and a hilariously ribald Picasso as they follow a mysterious blue female serial killer who rips the heads from the bodies of her unfortunate avant-garde victims. Between bouts of whoring and flashes of artistic brilliance (Braque and Picasso create Cubism while staring out the window of a moving train in the middle of the narrative), the cabal of creatives chase the mysterious murderess through their own paintings with the aid of a magic blue absinthe discovered by Paul Gaugin, who has disappeared mysteriously and is presumed dead. The story begins when the Steins invite George Braque to their salon and induce him to swallow a draught of the potion, which sends him spinning straight into a painting by Rousseau. Absinthe in this narrative is the tool of transport to magical realms, a place where every artistic creation exists as its own complete universe. The art is undeniably comic-based but the use of color is intruiging and the story is very well crafted. It will make a fine addition to any collection of modern absinthe-related literature.