Description
Book SynopsisStudio Voices explores the multi-layered experiences of modern and contemporary British artists in their own words, drawing on the author's original research in the Artists' Lives audio archive at the British Library.
Michael Bird's fascinating oral history of the lives and working practices of artists over the last century, extracted from the huge and growing archive of artists' interviews recorded since 1990, allows us to eavesdrop on artists' life-story conversations, which range through creative practice and professional achievements, childhood memories, family life, relationships, and unexpected, incidental epiphanies of self-awareness.
The Artists' Lives project was established in 1990 as part of National Life Stories, the UK's national oral history archive, which is based at the British Library.
Trade Review‘40 or so artists talk about making art the centre of a life: their different childhoods, different experiences of war and of love, of parenting, and of art institutions. With Michael Bird’s insightful commentary,
Studio Voices is an exhilarating testimony to human creativity. A deeply pleasurable book.’ - Alison Light
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements; Foreword by Cathy Courtney; Introduction: The Kitchen Sink Too; 1 Home is Where we Start From: Artists as Children and Parents; 2 This is What I Want to Do: First Steps in Art; 3 The Sound of Bombs Falling: A Century of War; 4 Self-propelled People: Going to Art School; 5 Strange Calm and Turbulence: On Painting; 6 It has Substance: On Sculpture; 7 The Strength of an Idea: Conceptual and Performance Art; 8 The Work Completes: On Being an Artist; Short Biographies; Further Reading; Index
