PURSUIT OF ART: Travels, Encounters and Revelations

Bestselling author of Modernists & Mavericks, Martin Gayford recounts some of the extraordinary journeys he has made during the course of a career spent thinking and writing about art. The critic has travelled all over the world in pursuit of first-hand encounters with art and artists, often to fairly inaccessible places involving frustrations and complications, but he also made serendipitous encounters and outcomes which he makes as much a part of the story as the final destination. Ever amusing, informative and self-deprecating, he recounts trips to see Brancusi's Endless Column in Romania, prehistoric cave art in France, the Museum Island of Naoshima in Japan, the Judd Foundation in Marfa Texas and a Roni Horn work in Iceland. Other journeys are to meet artists like Robert Rauschenberg in New York, Marina Abramovic in Venice, Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris or a trip to Beijing with Gilbert & George. He takes a descent into Anselm Kiefer's Underworld, discusses Leonardo's Lady with Jenny Holzer, considers the Sistine Chapel and the moment when a wave breaks with Jenny Saville. He also meets with Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Frank and Gerhard Richter. These encounters provide insights into the way artists approach and think about their art, and reveal the importance of their personal environment to their practice. They also affect Gayford's own evolving ideas over a lifetime of passionate engagement with art. He is a perceptive and knowledgeable companion who shares the highs and lows with cultural travel and convinces us that where art is concerned only being there will do. 192pp well illustrated with colour photos. A glamorous Thames & Hudson publication.