It Speaks to Me

In this beautifully illustrated collection of interviews, fifty contemporary artists discuss the artworks that inspire them from museums around the world. Imagine your favourite artist leading you through a museum to the very work of art they can't stop thinking about. That's the experience at the heart of It Speaks to Me. In lively and intimate interviews, some of today's most acclaimed artists share the compelling details that make an artwork memorable and meaningful to them. Together these artists bring to life a wide range of museum pieces, from celebrated masterpieces to little-known gems, or from a Rembrandt self-portrait to a social-protest drawing. In the process they remind us of why we look at art at all: to share in the spark of creativity that can jump from an artwork across countries and centuries and to experience the extraordinary sensation of being inspired. Highlights include: David Hockney on Edgar Degas, Marina Abramovic on Umberto Boccioni, Ai Weiwei on a Shang Dynasty jade, Nick Cave on Jasper Johns, Judy Chicago on Agnes Pelton, William Kentridge on Antoine Bourdelle, Luc Tuymans on Jan van Eyck, and Gillian Wearing on Rembrandt. AUTHOR: Jori Finkel covers art for The New York Times from Los Angeles and is the West Coast correspondent for The Art Newspaper. She has also written for Artnews, Art in America, Town & Country, and Art+Auction magazine, where she was formerly senior editor, and has contributed to broadcasts on NPR, PBS, and CNN. SELLING POINTS: . 50 contemporary artists from around the world discuss 50 different artworks that inspire them in interviews with author Jori Finkel. . The artists interviewed are a diverse mix and the art they chose is also diverse and stretches across many genres, media, and art periods. . Each artist has a spread that includes a full page reproduction of the work selected and a text about why the artist chose it and finds it inspiring. . Some of the artists included in this book are Suzanne Lacy, John Baldessari, David Hockney, Diana Thater, Jimmie Durham, William Kentridge, Judy Chicago, Teresita Fernandez, Candida Hofer, Pipilotti Rist, James Welling, Mark Bradford, Luc Tuymans, Nick Cave, Marina Abramovic, and Ai Weiwei talking about work by artists such as René Magritte, Edgar Degas, Roy Lichtenstein, Van Eyck, Robert Rauschenberg, Andrew Wyeth, Mark Rothko, Agnes Pelton, Andrea Bowers, Jasper Johns, Rembrandt, Joseph Beuys, and Umberto Boccioni. 100 colour images