Harry Truman and Pablo Picasso were about as different as you could imagine – the president who authorized the dropping of the atomic bomb hated modern art, while the cubist painter was a communist. Nevertheless, Alfred Barr Jr. managed to set up a meeting between the two to send a message to the world that modern art is not evil. This book covers the background of both men, as well as politics and art in the decades leading up to their meeting.

I enjoyed reading about these two very different men, the world they lived in, and what a historic moment it was when they met. This will be an easy book for anyone to follow, regardless of your knowledge of early 20th century politics and art; the information is shared well, and the story is quite readable. Matthew Algeo did an excellent job narrating the audiobook. I recommend this book for politics and art enthusiasts.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.

This is a book I never thought I would be interested in. You always near about art being a spoil of war or expression of support or dislike for war. I just never realized how much the U.S. Government was against modern art, although not surprised. To near the stories of Truman and Picasso and now they came to meet despite all their differences, I found myself wrapped up in this book from start to finish. My only regretwith the audio book was that I couldn't see any pictures. The narrorfor was very good. They kept the pace of the book nicely. The voice wasn't a distraction from the story.

This was more about the history of modern art and the politics behind it and against it, and less about Truman and Picasso. Their meeting really just ties together the two subjects, and I think that approach is actually really clever of the author. The entire thing was written and researched very well. I’m honestly surprised by how interesting I found it all to be. There are a lot of names and dates and facts that I know I won’t remember, but the sentiment of the book is still there. Thank you to NetGalley for the audio ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I received an advanced reader’s copy from netgalley in exchange for my honest opinions
Quite by random I discovered Mathew Alego’s books and through them a love for Harry Truman. A few years ago I came across Harry Truman’s excellent adventure, and I was hooked (super pumped that it’s being re released this year too!) I was also fortunate enough to be able to get it in audio and kindle version (which is my preferred way to read things because I can switch versions when the need arises ).
So obviously I knew that there was a President Truman, but I didn’t really know much about him before excellent adventure and then I wanted to read all the things about him and visit his presidential plane at the air force museum. He’s in my top five of presidents to read about- and his after president years are some of my favorite. He just wants to be this normal guy, sure he should be able to do ordinary things- and then surprised to find out he can’t .
I loved this work as well- (and have to admit I don’t think of Harry and Pablo occupying the same space and time!) the book leap frogs so you start out with some modern art history/ MA artist history/ history of MOMA, then Truman history, event history then into how this meeting all came together. And it was everything I could’ve imagined this meeting going. Each man a little set in their ways, flummoxed by each other. I especially loved the story about Truman’s interview on the way home to the USA and whether Pablo was going to return the visit here.
This book was well researched and presented, and the audio version was spot on

WHEN HARRY MET PABLO is kind of a misleading title, which is a shame since that’s what drew me to the book in the first place. On first glance, I thought, Oh, it’s like “When Harry Met Sally” but a rom-com about two dudes, which sounds great! Then I realized it was historical fiction—not as interesting to me, but it remained interesting when I realized it was about Pablo Picasso, since I’m also an art buff. Basically, the book is well-written and extremely well researched, but it traces the trajectory of our two main “characters”—former president Harry S. Truman and cubist artist Pablo Picasso—side by side for 92% of the book. We dip in and out of Harry life’s (and everyone in his immediate sphere or even tangentially connected to him), and in and out of Pablo’s life (and everyone in his immediate sphere or even tangentially connected to him), but these guys don’t actually “meet” until the 93% mark… and then the meeting is a bit anti-climactic. I’d recommend this book for history buffs and art historians, and anyone who just likes learning more about the forces shaping American and European culture. I would not recommend it for anyone who thinks this will be an in-depth, comical look at the head-butting relationship between a conservative Democrat and a boundary-pushing paint-slinger.

Matthew Algeo is quickly becoming one of my favorite historical writers. Rather than writing a drab, long-winded presidential biography, Algeo finds an interesting angle and pursues what makes that slice of presidential history so fascinating. In this book, Algeo marries two of my favorite subjects: art history and presidential history.

Though Harry Truman and Pablo Picasso seem unrelated, Algeo takes the temperature of life as it was during the time that they met. This makes for interesting sidebars into unexplored realms of history. Sometimes it went a bit far afield, but I never minded. I also like how he includes his own little trips alongside the historical one. It keeps it interesting but never consumes the narrative.

Keep writing Matthew Algeo, because I am a fan and will keep reading your books!

The guy who authorized the use of nuclear weapons and the guy who painted Guernica have a nice little day together. This book utilizes that meeting to explain the political and artistic situation of the time period post-Truman presidency, but the meeting is pretty anticlimactic and doesn't occur until the last chapter. However, I love art history and really enjoyed listening to descriptions of Stieglitz's gallery & The Armory Show, etc. Nothing particularly revelatory but great background for those interested in art history, politics.

My my my.
I majored in art in college and personally find Picasso overrated yet ridiculously interesting. That being said, I had to listen to this book.
The title is crazy considering "Harry & Pablo" don't even meet til the last chapter but I still enjoyed it.
Will I write home about it?
Nah.
Will I recommend it to other people with art or politics interests?
Yep.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy of this audiobook. Overall I enjoyed this book, however, I did find it to be a bit disjointed. It's ultimately a story of how Picasso and Truman met and what that meant for modern art in America. However, both figures (Truman and Picasso) have such vast and complicated histories to cover that the author includes some background, but there are a lot of holes as it is not supposed to be a comprehensive history. The author said in the beginning of the book that he originally intended to write the story as an article and I think that might have been a better format for this story. I did enjoy the book and it goes quickly, but it might be bested suited to those wanting to scratch the surface of this storyline before deciding if they'd like to dig into larger volumes on either or both of these men or the history of modern art in America and Europe.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

This book was particularly fun for me because I was an art history/political science double major and the author marries these subjects so well. What makes this story so interesting overall is that it creates a timeline for the reader that shows how art education and museums came to even exist in America (this is probably later than you’d think, the worldwide reactions to modern art, and how we ended up with the censorship and fear of the red scare and McCarthyism.

This books isn’t as much about Truman and Picasso as it is about why their meeting was significant in relation to the politics of that time and the decades leading up to it. The way this history is leading out is very accessible and fascinating, as it touches on matters that are not discussed in history classes unless you are taking very specialized courses.

Would recommend to anyone who enjoys history and/or art history.