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30 YEARS: INTERVIEWS AND OUTTAKES BY MICHAEL AUPING
30 Years: Interviews and Outtakes, by Michael Auping. Published by the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in association with Prestel. Approximately 192 pages; 40 illustrations, 20 in color. Softcover edition available through The Modern Online (www.themodern.org) and in The Modern Shop beginning in September 2007.
Throughout his thirty-year career at museums in California, Florida, New York, and Texas, Michael Auping has consistently made time to talk with artists about the nature of their work. In his new book, 30 Years: Interviews and Outtakes, Auping shares a selection of interviews discussing a wide range of cultural generations and artistic approaches. Painting, sculpture, drawing, video, performance, architecture, poetry, music, and conceptual art are all included in the conversations. The interviews are complemented by the author’s own photographs and evocative images of the artists’ creative lifestyles.
Michael Auping, currently Chief Curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, is a specialist in the international developments of postwar art and a well-known scholar of Abstract Expressionism. His exhibition Abstract Expressionism: The Critical Developments, which took place in 1987, is considered the most thorough survey of the movement in more than three decades. His book of the same title, published by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in association with Abrams, was pivotal in redefining the role of this important movement. He has recently organized an important retrospective of the work of Philip Guston and a survey of Anselm Kiefer’s investigation of heaven and earth. He is currently organizing a group exhibition, Declaring Space: Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, which opens in fall 2007 at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The extensive list of major exhibitions Auping has organized also includes the artists Francesco Clemente, Hamish Fulton, Richard Long, Georg Baselitz, Gerhard Richter, Jonathan Borofsky, Louise Bourgeois, John Chamberlain, Bruce Nauman, Richard Serra, and Susan Rothenberg.
The interviews in 30 Years: Interviews and Outtakes offer an intimate look at conversations that at times appear to be unrelated to art, but in their own way reflect the artist’s approach or personality.
Auping comments, "I’m not sure how to describe this book. It’s about art, but it’s about a lot of other stuff too. In some of the interviews you have to read between the lines—make a connection, however you want to do that—between the artist’s work, what you think they might be like based on that work, and what is being said here. In editing them, I aimed the interviews at students or anyone starting a career. The point is to show just how human a profession is. There are parts that are pretty funny."
The conversations include John Chamberlain on cutting hair, Tadao Ando on the similarities between boxing and architecture, Louise Bourgeois on sculpting people, Bruce Nauman on math, Agnes Martin on young artists, Anselm Kiefer on heaven, Susan Rothenberg on women and art, Vernon Fisher on the importance of Mickey Mouse, the poet Robert Duncan on "wonder tales," and Cai Guo-Qiang on fire medicine.
Discussing the process of compiling the material for the book, Auping relates, "When you do something like this you are forced to look back on your career. It’s a strange thing because you end up evaluating your army of influences, the people you were attracted to at various times. Why them? Because they had something interesting to offer and were willing to offer it."
Interview List
Reception, Book Signing, and Tuesday Evening Lecture with Michael Auping
September 11, 2007, Museum Auditorium
Museum Gallery Hours |
©2007, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth