Encounters with Artists

Leading art critic and writer Richard Cork tells the stories of his personal encounters with some of the world’s most influential modern and contemporary artists.

In Encounters with Artists, Richard Cork turns his impeccable skills as a critic and writer to tell the story of his encounters with some of the world’s most influential artists. From a chance meeting with Pablo Picasso in Cannes in 1965 through his early days as a writer on the Evening Standard and his later role as chief art critic for The Times, Cork here reveals the characters behind the art.

In a series of frank interviews - some scheduled, others serendipitous - Richard Cork uncovers the artist’s inner thoughts, anxieties and creative ambitions. They include individuals who were able to look back over a lifetime’s work, such as Louise Bourgeois, Roy Lichtenstein and Jasper Johns, as well as young artists at the beginning of their careers, such as Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst. Whether in a studio with Lucian Freud, on a drive through the Yorkshire countryside with David Hockney or on a tour of Soho drinking dens with Francis Bacon, Cork has found that ‘talking to artists can in my experience be surprising, revealing, salutary, testing, provocative, stimulating and at times capable of overturning all my preconceptions about the individuals I encounter.’ Other remarkably insightful encounters include artists as varied as Gerhard Richter, Doris Salcedo, Sonia Boyce, Luc Tuymans, Annette Messager and Steve McQueen.

Cork has played a significant role in popularizing late modern and contemporary art. In the words of art critic Louisa Buck, his ‘lucid, even-handed and at times trenchantly critical judgement has been invaluable in helping to create the multiplicity of approach and vigorous debates of today’s artistic climate’.