Alex: The Life of Alexander Liberman

Suave, urbane Russian-born painter/sculptor/photographer Alexander Liberman, editorial director of Conde Nast magazines, has divided his energies between the worlds of serious art and high fashion. This sedulously researched biography pays tribute to all sides of the man. Growing up in Moscow, London and Paris (his father was an architect of Lenin's New Economic Policy), Liberman overcame the ``overwhelming erotic presence'' of his domineering sensualist mother, Henriette Pascar, who paraded countless lovers in front of him. In New York City he and second wife Tatiana became prominent figures in a social set whose orbit encompassed Mikhail Baryshnikov, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Motherwell and dress designer Valentina. Freelance journalist Kazanjian and New Yorker writer Tomkins provide an intimate glimpse of infighting within the Conde Nast empire, including Liberman's clash with Vogue editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland. The authors deem Liberman's abstract paintings a forerunner of Minimalism and also spotlight his monumental welded-metal sculptures. Photos. (Oct.)