The Prospect from Paris

In 1946, the young English artist Raymond Mason, having already quit his native Midlands for the Royal College of Art and later the Slade School, packed his bags for Paris, then the undisputed artistic capital of the world. There he found himself thrust into the company of some of the greatest figures of twentieth-century art, from Balthus to Duchamp, Giacometti, and Picasso, and, inspired by their example, set about making his own distinctive contribution to the history of modern sculpture. In this memoir, Mason vividly conjures up the golden age of the Parisian art world. The cultural impresarios Jean Cocteau and Andre Malraux, the dealers Claude Bernard, Aime Macght, and Pierre Matisse, and the interactions of visiting British artists Henry Moore and Francis Bacon with the ''locals''--all figure in Mason's entertaining account as he pays a by-no-means uncritical tribute to the masters of European modernism. By turns humorous and passionate, Mason also reflects on a variety of other subjects, including Parisian architecture, the development of his own oeuvre, and the work of artists from Hogarth to Rodin. These passages by an articulate artist writing about art complete an enjoyable and thoroughly spirited volume.