• about
• flockers
• categories

August 3, 2010

Michael Auping Book of Interviews

This is a fine book for readers interested in the creative process of painters, sculptors, architects, musicians, and writers. The interviews are generally very brief and feature such people as Jonathan Borofsky, Louise Bourgeois, Francesco Clemente, Robert Duncan, Jenny Holzer, Anselm Kiefer, Agnes Martin, Stephen Shore, and many others. The tone seems mostly casual, although the discussions often result in sudden insights that reveal much about art and artists.

I particularly liked the Stephen Shore interview, which includes this example of his photography (see more here):

And this is an intriguing remark Shore makes at the end of the interview:

I want to add one thing that relates to the question of people asking, “Why did he take that picture?” It has to do with impact. I’ve told the story before of going to a symposium at the International Center of Photography with Jay Maisel and Jay telling me that the problem with my pictures is that they don’t have impact. He then proceeded to show slides to the group gathered there. He put on a tray of slides and had them changed at five-second intervals. Each time a new photograph appeared, the audience went “Ah!” And before they could finish their “AH!” or their “Ooh!” the next picture was there. Evidently, he was interested in the first five seconds of a person’s reaction to a photograph. My hunch is that people who ask, “Why did Stephen Shore take that picture?” are people used to seeing photographs that are high in initial impact. And my view is very different. The first five seconds aren’t as important to me.

Another bit I enjoyed involved Auping asking Richard Tuttle about his acquaintance with Agnes Martin:

MA: If you could describe Agnes’s sense of color in one word or one sentence, how would you do it?

RT: Tender.

Ads via The Deck