Russell Tovey - Talk Art: Everything You Wanted to Know about Contemporary Art But Were Afraid to Ask

For me, art is that thing which happens after language. Its a kind of romantic view of it, but its one I hold dear that if you cant say it, if you cant write it, then it needs a work; it needs another kind of experience... What I try to do is use art to say things which cannot be said otherwise.

LAWRENCE
ABU HAMDAN

First published in the United States of America in 2021 by Chronicle Books LLC.

Originally published in Great Britain in 2021 by Ilex, an imprint of Octopus Publishing Group Ltd
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y ODZ
www.octopusbooks.co.uk

Text copyright 2021
by Russell Tovey and Robert Diament.
Compilation copyright 2021 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.
constitutes a continuation of the copyright page.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data available.

ISBN 978-1-7972-1424-5 (pb)
ISBN 978-1-7972-1518-1 (epub, mobi)

Cover design by Allison Weiner.

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Case and : Tracey Emin, talk ART, 2020, pen on paper

original artwork by Katherine Bernhardt

original artwork by Yinka Ilori

original artwork by Tt X AB Teresa Farrell & Alvaro Barrington

original artwork by Lenz Geerk

original artwork by Katherine Bradford

original artwork by Jon Key

original artwork by Salman Toor

original artwork by Shawanda Corbett

original artwork by Ana Benaroya

original artwork by KAWS

Everything I know about art comes from two places. One is looking; always looking. The other is listening; listening to artists. Reading this book is like listening in on brilliant, curious, strange, charismatic people telling you things that you didnt know you needed to know until you heard them. Every page here left me a little changed which is a lot. Time is slowed, allowing you to look for waters from a deeper well.

Russell and Robert have a kind of magical elixir about them, something elevated, urgent, passionate, joyous, heart-breakingly earnest, silly and unashamed to ask anything. Somehow they free their subject with a combination of questions and observations that range from smart to the unexpected to the stupid. In art this last category often yields penetrating insights. When they spoke to me I ended up spilling moon-rivers of my deepest self the self you usually keep dancing at a distance. Sometimes in the answers they elicit you hear terrible spirits, ghosts, inner self-murders that make artists beat on against whatever current theyre called on to fight against. Hearing these is fearsome and at the same time like listening to love stories. Stories about how artists come to find their own voice, muster courage to keep going, deal with rejection and surrender to what theyre helpless not to do which is to make art, even if its ugly, embarrassing, illogical, obscure, or alarming.

When it comes to contemporary art, I often have no idea what critics, curators and artists are talking about. Many speak a kind of unintelligible gobbledygook that only 155 other equally abstruse people speak. That language is meant to keep people out, to intimidate and impress. Russell and Robert roll a different way, covering subjects as wide-ranging as contemporary painting, political art, aesthetics of race and gender, art history and how to look at art for dummies (that was me, a former long-distance truck-driver with no school and no degrees, who didnt start writing until I was 40). They are able to say something is crap and be able to say why, exorcise demons that tell you that you dont know what youre doing (hi, everyone!), explain why a lot of art is over-priced, how to think about the market and money, how to navigate galleries and much more. All this is made accessible, fun, gossipy and fast-paced.

The artists and art-world subjects in this book form a beautiful, diverse core-sample of the extraordinary multiplicity of artistic practices on the one hand, and an overall grasp of art today on the other. Prepare to enter a portal to the mysteries of art, canonical wisdom, an understanding of how pleasure is an important form of knowledge, and the serpents that live inside all art.

Jerry Saltz

Rankin

Good afternoon, good morning, good evening, wherever you are in the world. Were Russell Tovey and Robert Diament... and this is talk ART, the Book!

Art has enriched our lives. It can enrich yours too and hopefully, probably, already has. This book is proof. Its a celebration of our experiences with art thus far, spotlighting the artists and artworks that have been part of our friendship and beyond. We first met in what now seems like a galaxy far, far away in August 2008. Russell was an up-and-coming actor, having recently starred in The History Boys film, and Robert had just released his debut album as singer-songwriter in electro-pop band Temposhark. The artist Tracey Emin invited us both to a dinner in Edinburgh to inaugurate 20 Years, a major retrospective of her work held at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Within minutes of conversation we formed a bond, immediately connecting over a shared enthusiasm for Traceys titles, scratchy drawing style and ability to disclose intimate stories.

This chance meeting led to over a decade of friendship, emails, text messages, phone calls and video chats, sharing urgent daily discoveries of new artists and artworks. We recognized each others passion, as if kindred spirits. We began adventuring across London, and eventually the world, to visit every gallery and museum we could find, as well as tracking down public sculptures on empty beaches, on busy streets, in city parks, or the secret gardens of collectors homes. Art has been a joyous constant, a source of inspiration closely by our sides, and without a doubt the glue in our friendship.