|
'A moving account of an artist too well understood for his time.'
Gore Vidal
'Tate was an orphan, a shy depressive and an alcoholic ("an essential dignified drunk with nothing to say", recalls Gore Vidal). He produced a "once legendary, now almost entirely forgotten series of drawings inspired by Hart Crane's great poem, 'The Bridge'. (Boyd reproduces a couple of these.) He mixed awkwardly with the bohemians of 1950s Manhattan - briefly he was Peggy Guggenheim's lover.'
The Guardian, London, April 1998
'The pleasure of Boyd's fake is that it also belongs
to an older tradition of mock-books. It is hilarious
quite apart from the fact that it has fooled anyone.'
The Guardian, London, April 1998
'It is an intelligent parable about mediocrity andgenius, about an artist who comes to see the limits which have been placed on his own capacity and prefers to draw the line himself. Tricked out in orthodox post modern garb, it is a pleasant and thought provoking work.'
The Spectator, London, May 1998
'The book freely mixes fact and fiction, as Tate interacts with famous artistic figures in the way of Woody Allen in "Zelig" and of Tom Hanks in "Forrest Gump." (Picasso barely speaks to him; Braque is gracious but gently corrects his pronunciation of van Gogh).'
New York Times, April 1998
'Novelist William Boyd's slim monograph on a little-known American painter may be his masterpiece... Like Boyd's other books, it has to be read as a novel, but unlike the rest, it comes with enough subtext to make Amis green with envy.'
The Independent, London, April 1998
'...I think from Nat Tate's life all kinds of lesson
can be drawn that apply to artists generally, and
particularly to our contemporary art scene... It's a
little fable for now and for any time. I think it's
particularly relevant now, when, almost overnight,
people are becoming art celebrities. '
William Boyd
|
