Interviews with American Artists

Rating:
Summary: required reading
Review: This book is a treasure: a collection of previously unpublished interviews with luminaries of postwar American art, conducted by a sensitive master of the form. David Sylvester interviewed only artists he knew; his familiarity with their work, and his profound understanding of their aesthetic dilemmas, is evident throughout.

Most of the interviews in the volume were conducted between 1960 and 1967, and subsequently broadcast over the BBC. The usual "New York School" suspects are present and accounted for: de Kooning, Kline, Newman, Gottlieb, Johns, Rauschenberg, Motherwell, Frankenthaler, David Smith, et alia ... More recent interviewees include Cy Twombly, Jeff Koons, Carl Andre, and Richard Serra. Conducted over a three-year period, the interviews with Serra concerning his Torqued Ellipses are especially worthwhile. Additional biographical notes by Jonathan Shirland round out the book.

The interviews are characteristically intelligent, focused, and perceptive. One would expect nothing less from David Sylvester, whose probing interviews with Francis Bacon remain a key touchpoint for those interested in that modern artist's process. His slim book on Giacometti is nothing short of brilliant. The lengthier interviews contained herein further demonstrate the breadth of Sylvester's understanding -- and deepen our sense of loss at his recent passing.