Robert J. Elisberg
Writers Guild of America
1996

All right, this is a generalization -- but CD-ROMs about great paintings are often dry as dust: the pictures are wonderful, but making your way through them is akin to that art museum field trip you were forced to take in the fourth grade. On the other hand, Picasso from Grolier is a generally entertaining work in its own right. It's cleverly produced, with a bit of unobtrusive multi-media photos, sound bytes and clips interspersed throughout, and offers an involving look into the legend of the renowned artist.

The CD-ROM also has its own seal of approval, endorsed as it is by the Picasso family itself -- something they don't hand out easily (the recent movie on Picasso's life starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, didn't get their okay...though in fairness, that was partly because one of Picasso's sons is preparing his own documentary). Having a family-approval means that you're not likely to get into much controversy, but then a CD-ROM such as this is not about controversy, but rather the art.

There are over 600 paintings and sculptures on view here, including 100 pieces with detailed analysis, and all are presented in sharp images. A very lively spirit pervades throughout, putting Picasso into perspective in relation to his own work and his era.

Clever though the program is, there are some downsides. At times, for instance, the interface isn't intuitive, making it difficult to get back to where you started by forcing you to backscroll screen after screen, rather than a simple one-click option. A pause button would be nice during some of the multimedia clips. Also, information in the "Major Themes" area is a bit thin, presenting only a collection of art. While nice, you'd hope for more discussion on the actual themes themselves. (Also, background music gets a bit much here.) The program has a very nice "Index" of Picasso's work, showing graphic icons of the art chronologically; you can also list the works alphabetically, but unfortunately there are no icons, just a text list of names.

There's also one particular odd quirk -- it's hard to track down details on members of the Picasso family, even though they're mentioned throughout! If you try to do an end-run and go directly to the "Glossary" (which is otherwise very good), family members are only listed in a family tree structure with dates.

Despite all that, the main area of the program is the "Notebook," and it's here that the content is its most rich. There are detailed discussions of individual works, interesting analyses of composition, comparisons and even close-up views, as well as overviews of the different periods of Picasso's work. And then, of course, there is the prodigious art that shines throughout.

© 1997 Grolier Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.