Interviews with Artists (1966 - 2012)

“The artist, not the commentator, takes us to the heart of the matter. Who would not, to put it in a nutshell, give all of Vasari for a short, searching conversation with Michelangelo?”
Michael Peppiatt

Eykyn Maclean London is delighted to announce that their forthcoming show will be a curatorial collaboration with art historian Michael Peppiatt entitled Interviews with Artists (1966 – 2012). The exhibition will run from 19th June to 27th July, 2012. The show will coincide with the publication of Peppiatt’s book of the same title published by Yale University Press.

Peppiatt developed close relationships with many of the great artists of the twentieth century. The exhibition will feature selected works by Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon, Balthus, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jean Dubuffet, R.B. Kitaj, Henry Moore, Claes Oldenburg, and Antoni Tàpies alongside extracts from the extraordinary range of revealing interviews in the book and photographs of the artists at work.

Peppiatt’s friendships and frequent studio visits with these artists and many more give a unique perspective on their life and work. Peppiatt explains how an interview would often illuminate an artist's work not only for the spectator but for the artist himself, clarifying the daily struggle in the studio or opening up new lines of enquiry. “Reading an artist’s own words is captivating because it brings us closer to the essence of that artist.” explains Nicholas Maclean. “The exhibition is inspired by the intimacy which pervades the dialogues in the book.”

Michael Peppiatt is a leading authority on Alberto Giacometti and Francis Bacon. His biography of Francis Bacon, Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma, a New York Times ‘Book of the Year’, is considered the definitive account of Bacon’s life and work. Critically acclaimed Peppiatt has written extensively on modern art and curated numerous exhibitions. Peppiatt was an art critic at the Observer before moving to Paris and becoming literary editor for Le Monde and arts correspondent for the New York Times and the Financial Times. In 1985 he became editor and publisher of the
Paris-based review, Art International. Peppiatt returned in 1994 to London, where he lives with his wife, the art historian Jill Lloyd, and their two children.

Eykyn Maclean is a private art gallery with locations in New York and London, specialising in museum calibre work by key Impressionist and 20th Century European and American artists. Christopher Eykyn and Nicholas Maclean established Eykyn Maclean in 2006, after a combined 29 years of experience at Christie's where they were co-heads of the Impressionist and Modern Art department. The New York gallery space launched in 2010 with the critically acclaimed show Inside Giacometti’s Studio – An Intimate Portrait (2010) which was followed by Matisse and the Model (2011). Eykyn Maclean opened their London gallery space in Mayfair in February 2012 with Cy Twombly: Works from the Sonnabend Collection.

Image captions

Henry Moore,Architecture Prize. 1979, Bronze, Private Collection, Reproduced by permission of The Henry Moore Foundation, ©DACS, London 2012
Claes Oldenburg, Fagend, 1966, Crayon and watercolour on paper, 15 x 21 1/8 in., Private Collection, ©1996, Claes Oldenburg
Frank Auerbach,Head of Leon Kossoff, 1954, oil on board, 27.3 x 22.2 cm (10¾ x 8¾ in), Private Collection, © Frank Auerbach
Henry Moore,Maquette for Seated Woman, 1956 (casting after 1976), Bronze, height 7.1in (18cm), Private Collection, Reproduced by permission of The Henry Moore Foundation, ©DACS, London 2012.
Jean Dubuffet,Tête de Jeune Fille aux cheveux cendré , 1946, oil, sands and stone on hardboard, 64.8 x 45.7 cm ; 25 ½ x 18 in., Private Collection, ©DACS, London 2012