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Michael Jacobs was haunted by Velázquez's enigmatic masterpiece Las Meninas from first encountering it in the Prado as a teenager. In Everything is Happening Jacobs searches for the ultimate significance of the painting by following the trails of associations from each individual character in the picture, as well as his own memories of and relationship to this extraordinary work.
From Jacobs' first trip to Spain to the complex politics of Golden Age Madrid, to his meeting with the man who saved Las Meninas during the Spanish Civil war, via Jacobs' experiences of the sunless world of the art history academy, Jacobs' dissolves the barriers between the past and the present, the real and the illusory.
Cut short by Jacobs' death in 2014, and completed with an introduction and coda of great sensitivity and insight by his friend and fellow lover of art, the journalist Ed Vulliamy, this visionary, meditative and often very funny book is a passionate, personal manifesto for the liberation of how we look at painting.
Über den Autor / die Autorin
Granta Publications is deeply saddened to learn of the death of one of its longstanding and much-loved authors, Michael Jacobs.
Michael wrote thoughtful, beautifully written books that explored his interest in Spain, South America, travel, art and history. He was one of the most loyal and friendly of men, and spread his bonhomie widely. He will be much missed by everyone who knew him as well as those who have been touched by his books.
Granta Books published two of Michael's books, Andes (2010) and The Robber of Memories (2012), and we very much hope to publish his latest, but unfinished, book Everything is Happening in 2015.
Michael Jacobs was born in Italy and studied art history in London and the US. He is the author of several travel books and was shortlisted for the 2004 Thomas Cook Travel Book Prize and the 2013 Dolman Travel Book Award. He lived in Spain and London. He died in January 2014.
