David Bruce

The Coolest People in Art David Bruce

This book contains 250 anecdotes about art, including these: 1) New York artist Raphael Soyer visited the Sistine Chapel, where he marveled at the paintings - Michelangelo had painted the ceiling when he was in his thirties and many years later had painted 'The Last Judgment' on the wall. After Mr. Soyer had seen the Sistine Chapel for the first time, he and some friends saw an exhibition of European and American non-objective paintings. A young woman who was connected with the exhibition asked him (a friend translated the Italian) what he thought of the paintings. Rather than criticize them directly, he merely replied, "Tell her that I saw the Sistine Chapel this morning." The young woman understood. The friend translated her reply: "True, this [exhibition] does not speak to the heart. 2) Musician Laurie Anderson and comedian Andy Kaufman seem like an unlikely team, but they used to do put-ons to-gether. They would go to a place that had a Test-Your-Strength machine. Mr. Kaufman would try but fail to win a stuffed rabbit for Ms. Anderson. Then Mr. Kaufman would angrily denounce the machine, yelling that it was rigged, and Ms. Anderson would angrily demand the stuffed rabbit that Mr. Kaufman would have won for her if the machine had not been rigged. By the way, Ms. Anderson has some advice for people who would like to be creative: "My approach as an artist has been to always remember that I'm free. That's what I tell young artists. You hear them say, 'I can't be an artist! Michelangelo was an artist! What would people say?' Well, most people don't care about what you do. So knock yourself out. You're free." 3) Artists frequently work with nude models. Artists John "Jack" Baldwin and his wife, Bunny, once took a vacation in Mexico, where they went to a clothing-optional beach. Bunny pointed out a particularly beautiful naked woman to Jack, who told her, "I am not here to work."