|
Artist Descending a Typewriter: Nine Essays on Contemporary Art
Michael Paul Hogan’s writing career began in journalism. After only a year and a
half on the job, Hogan realized that the best thing about journalism was the
opportunity to meet famous people whose work he admired; in other words, doors
opened to him that might not have otherwise. The people he met gave him material
to write about, but they also gave him social and artistic connections that led
him to worlds unknown. Since then, Hogan’s career and life have flourished
because of the many artists hs has come to know very well, as friends and
colleagues. Artist Descending a Typewriter would not have been written had Hogan
not connected in meaningful ways with these thirteen artists—Li Bin, Helen Ivory,
Jean Dolande, Victoria Merki, Michael Woods, Kong Ning, Paul Polydorou, Claudia
Masciave, Toti O’Brien, Volker Klein, Alexander Christoph Sterzel, Ruben
Dominguez Leon, and Erica Capobianco. In this book, Hogan shares conversations,
memories, photographs, paintings, and assorted literary and artistic ephemera
from his years of both professionally and personally knowing these artists. For
the reader, the result is a door that opens onto a uniquely personal view of
contemporary art.
“Michael Paul Hogan is a fascinating polymath and the thirteen artists he has
chosen to profile are true originals, each an exceptional contributor in their
own right. Take, for example, the multi-talented Michael Woods, described by
George Melly as ‘the last of the Surrealists’ and equally aptly by the legendary
film director Nicolas Roeg as ‘an artist chasing his scientist’s tail.’ Li Bin,
through his conversations with the author, brings us an extraordinary insight
into the Cultural Revolution in China, his artistic response being, as Hogan
says, probably the most significant we will ever see from the darkest period of
post-revolutionary China. This is not however the place to detail all the
exceptionally talented and diverse artists whom the author has chosen to include,
each one personally known to him. It is enough to say that the reader will be
introduced to thirteen exceptional and mainly under-publicized artists whose
interesting life stories are sympathetically recorded by Michael Paul Hogan.
Each essay is accompanied by the artist’s seminal works, and the result provides
an original and exceptional contribution to contemporary art history.”
|
