Dimensions
142 x 211 x 27mm
'The Lives Of The Muses' is a fascinating look at nine muses and the men they inspired, from Alice Liddell, who inspired 'Alice In Wonderland', to Yoko Ono. From the National Book Award finalist Francine Prose, author of 'Blue Angel'.
There is no ideal muse, but rather as many variations on the theme as there are individual women who have had the luck or misfortune to find their destiny conjoined with that of a particular artist.
What are we to make of the seven-year relationship between the child Alice Liddell and the Oxford don who became Lewis Carroll? Or the "serial" muse Lou Andreas-Salome, who inspired Nietzsche, Rilke and Freud - as impressive a list as any muse can boast! Salvador Dali was the only artist to sign his art with his muse's name: Gala Dali, an imperious though enterprising muse celebrated for her sexual appetite.
Lou, Gala, and Yoko Ono all defy the feminist stereotype of the muse as a passive beauty put on a pedestal and oppressed by a male artist. However, it's rare to find an artist and a muse who are genuine partners, true collaborators, such as ballerina Suzanne Farrell and choreographer George Balanchine.
What do the nine muses chosen by Francine Prose have in common? They were all beautiful, or sexy, or gifted with some more unconventional appeal. All loved, and were loved by their artists, and inspired them with an intensity of emotion akin to Eros. For these artists, the love of - or for - their muses provided an essential element required for the melding of talent and technique necessary to create art.
