1st Edition
Theorising the Artist Interview
Reflecting on the relationship between artists and their audiences, this book examines how artists have presented themselves publicly through interviews and sought to establish a critical voice for themselves.
Considering the interview as a form of cultural production, contributors explore the criteria for determining the artist interview as a distinct field of research in relation to other cultural fields. Structured in four parts, ‘History and Historiography’, ‘Subverting the Biographical Model’, ‘Interviews as Practice’ and ‘Materiality and Technology’, the book takes an interdisciplinary approach that encompasses the fields of art history, fine art, oral history, curating, media studies and museum conservation. By theorising the artist interview as a form of cultural production and embracing it as a co-constructed critical practice, this volume aims to show and encourage an approach to art history which dismantles old hierarchies in favour of valuing dialogue and collaboration.
The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, museum studies, oral history and historiography.
Part 1 History and Historiography of the Artist Interview
1. The History of the Artist Interview: Conventions, Conditions, Contexts, Collaboration
Reva Wolf
2. Re‑Stor(y)ing the Self
Rebecca Fortnum and Hester Westley
3. Articulating Artworks: On the Theory and Practice of Oral History in Art Conservation
Sanneke Stigter
Part 2 Subverting the Biographical Model
4. The Voice of the Artists: Notes about Vasari’s Lives and Early Modern Sources
Maddalena Spagnolo
5. As A Possibility of an Encounter: A Performative Reading of Autoritratto (Self‑Portrait) by Carla Lonzi
Lucia Farinati
6. Herstory or Mine? Writing Feminist Histories of Art with Self‑Mythologies in Mind
Zsofi Valyi‑Nagy
Part 3 Interviews as Art Practice
7. I Prefer Talkers: Andy Warhol and His Philosophy
Jean Wainwright
8. Audio Arts: A Recorded Space for Contemporary Art and Artists
Lucia Farinati
9. Face to Face: Interviews as Practice in the Work of Stephen Sutcliffe
Susannah Thompson
Part 4 Materiality and Technology
10. New Ways of Speaking: The First Artist Interviews on BBC Radio
Jennifer Thatcher
11. Interview as Action/Archive: The Role of Televised Reportage in Contemporary Visual Art in the Turkish Cypriot Community
Esra Plumer Bardak
12. The Pleasures of the Transcript: Why Transcription of Artist Interviews Matters
Jennifer Thatcher
Biography
Lucia Farinati is a writer-researcher, curator and activist. She holds an MA in Curating from Goldsmiths University and a PhD in Critical Studies from Kingston University, London. She is the co-author of The Force of Listening (2017), and Training for Exploitation? Politicising Employability and Reclaiming Education (2017).
Jennifer Thatcher is an art historian, critic and curator. She co‑curated Folkestone Book Festival (2023), curated the public programmes for Folkestone Triennial (2014, 2017) and Whitstable Biennale (2016), and was Director of Talks at the ICA (2003–2010). She is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Kent, Canterbury.
“In this bold endeavour to theorise the artist interview, Farinati and Thatcher have put together a thought-provoking anthology discussing the artist interview from various perspectives. It is interesting to realise that the interview is a tool for both the artist, art historians, critics, and conservators, and often a collaboration on multiple levels.”
-- Sandra Kisters, Director of Collections and Research at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
"Vital reading for anyone who conducts or uses quotes from interviews with artists, this anthology asks us to pause and reflect on the interview as a complex mode of cultural production. The essays gathered here do the best kind of interdisciplinary work, modeling how to ask better, more careful questions about how artist interviews are produced and what work they do in the world."
-- Jennifer Sichel, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art and Theory, University of Louisville
