中文简介：

迈克尔·佩皮亚特（Michael Peppiatt）在过去50多年里接触了许多欧洲现代艺术家。本书精选了他杰出的传记文章，涵盖了广泛的现代艺术，从梵高和皮埃尔·博纳尔，到与画家德洛奈、艺术家多拉·马尔和弗朗西斯·培根的个人谈话。

迈克尔·佩皮亚特生动、引人入胜的文笔带领我们进入许多**艺术界人士的工作室，例如加泰罗尼亚画家安东尼·塔皮埃斯的工作室，并分享了幻灭时刻——如与自我神话的巴尔蒂斯会面等。此外，读者还能够深入探索一些有趣轶事：例如与卢西恩·弗洛伊德一起乘坐他的宾利车，在苏荷区与培根喝酒以及与大卫·霍克尼讨论毕加索穿的裤子等。

本书还包括一些未被充分认识的艺术家，如达豪幸存者Zoran Music，或黑山艺术家Dado，此外，他还在2009年威尼斯双年展上策划了回顾展。这这些文章精选自不同领域，并且非常易于普通读者理解。它们提供了敏锐的评论和尖锐的批评判断，同时也为我们呈现了对现代一些最伟大的创造性头脑独特而深入的见解。

英文简介：

Praised by the Art Newspaper as 'the best art writer of his generation', Michael Peppiatt has encountered many European modern artists over more than fifty years. This selection of some of his best biographical writing covers a wide spectrum of modern art, from Van Gogh and Pierre Bonnard, to personal conversations with painter Sonia Delaunay, artist Dora Maar, who was Picasso's lover in the 1930s and 1940s, and Francis Bacon, perhaps the most famous of the many artists with whom Peppiatt has formed personal friendships.

Michael Peppiatt's lively, engaging writing takes us into the company of many notable art-world personalities, such as the Catalan painter Antoni Tàpies, whom he visits in his studio, and moments of disillusion, such as his meeting with the self-mythologizing artist Balthus. Art criticism blends with anecdote: riding with Lucian Freud in his Bentley, drinking with Bacon in Soho, discussing Picasso's trousers with David Hockney...

This collection of Peppiatt's most perceptive texts includes under-recognized artists, such as Dachau survivor Zoran Music, or Montenegrin artist Dado, whose retrospective Peppiatt curated at the 2009 Venice Biennale. Remarkably varied in their scope and lucidly written for a general reader, these selected essays not only provide us with perceptive commentary and acute critical judgment, they also give a unique personal insight into some of the greatest creative minds of the modern era.