I have done a few interviews. I do my best to make the enjoyable. My hope is the conversation will be helpful to the artist, the reader and me.
This week I spotlight some recent interviews of artists who deserve a hearty congratulations:
David Diao at UCCA, Beijing
David Diao interviewed by Matthew Deleget in BOMB on the occasion of his retrospective at the Ullens Center of Contemporary Art in Beijing.
Nicole Eisenman in conversation with David Humphrey in BOMB on the occasion of being named a MacArthur Genius.
Keltie Ferris interviewed by Jason Stopa in Art in America on the occasion of her excellent (and well reviewed) show at Mitchell-Innes & Nash.
My feeling is that thoughtful interviews are the best way to learn about an artist and their work. Jennifer Samet does yeoman’s work with her Beer with a Painter series at Hyperallergic. BOMB is the gold standard for artist on artist dialogue. Temporary Art Review’s interviews are varied but innovative.
Notes about art books:
I was very sad to be traveling and miss my annual pilgrimage to the now massive NYABF. While preparing for my E/AB statement I was rereading a somewhat caustic but very informative interview between Sol LeWitt and Saul Ostrow and came upon this: “I became interested in making books, starting about 1965, when I did the Serial Project #1, deciding that I needed a small book to show how the work could be understood and how the system worked. From that time I began to do books as works in themselves, not as catalogues. I used photography in most of these pieces. The importance of Ed Ruscha in this cannot be ignored. Buying books was a way anyone could acquire a work of art for very little.”
Then LeWitt and Lucy Lippard started Printed Matter which begat the NYABF and the E/AB fair.
-Jeff Bergman
October 2015
