At art school I had a number of passions. Two of them were 1 The David Sylvester interviews with Francis Bacon book, and 2 The American minimalists… all of them: Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Mangold, Agnes Martin, Cy Twombly, Steve Reich, Terry Riley…
One of my problems was that no-one else I knew in Dundee agreed with me, and once news of the Berlin ‘Zeitgeist’ exhibition had filtered north in 1982, I felt even more out on a limb. Scotland had turned narrative overnight! Steven Campbell’s famous successes in NYC had local dealers thrilled that they might be able to sell some paintings at long last. After the Clement Greenberg years, regular folks could understand pictures again. This was encouraged by fierce advocates in the press such as Waldemar Januszczak who must have been delighted to find the hobby horse he was looking for. It was interesting to me on moving to London five years later, that no-one had heard anything of this particular Scottish renaissance.
I eventually became more aware of the separation of life and art. Bumping into Francis Bacon in 1992 at the old Saatchi Gallery in Boundary Road just weeks before he died, I didn’t know what to say to him. Even though I was still in awe, nothing could come out. I feel somewhat ashamed of this. I remember my wife behind me pushing me, whispering go on, go on.
Although I am aware of the old axiom that a painting is worth what you can get for it, it is of course worth more than that. Finding out what you are prepared to do for art can take a long time.
https://thamesandhudson.com/interviews-with-francis-bacon-9780500292532
No comments:
Post a Comment