It takes grit to document an artist’s entire body of work, especially if the artist is boundlessly prolific. Pablo Picasso’s catalogue raisonnè (the official name given to the comprehensive list of an artist’s work) is 33 volumes, contains 16,000 images, and took its author, Christian Zervos, four decades to finish. One has to wonder why anyone would embark on such a gargantuan and seemingly thankless task. But many do, settling for the reflected fame of their celebrated subjects.
Head of a Country Man (self-portrait) by John Olsen. John Olsen
Gabriella CoslovichSaleroom writerGabriella Coslovich is an arts journalist with more than 20 years’ experience, including 15 at The Age, where she was a senior arts writer. Her book, Whiteley on Trial, on Australia’s most audacious of alleged art fraud, won a Walkley in 2018.
