Portrait of the artist as fiction

• Published in: Art and Australia Vol. 41; no. 3; pp. 465 - 468
• Main Author: Stretton, Andrea
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.03.2004
• ISSN: 0004-301X

Discusses the relationship between fiction and the visual arts. The author focuses on the book Louise Bourgeois (Phaidon, 2003), a compendium of essays on the artist Louise Bourgeois that includes a work by Bourgeois herself which appropriates sections of Françoise Sagan's novel Bonjour Tristesse (1954). She considers books including Lust for Life (1934) by Irving Stone, M: the Man Who Became Caravaggio (2000) by Peter Robb, Old Man Goya (2002) by Judith Blackburn, Seek my Face (2001) by John Updike, and Portraits in Fiction (2001) by A. S. Byatt, wondering what the result is of such historical recreations. She refers to the critic Gary Schwartz's complaints against the fictionalization of artists, but asserts several counter-arguments, suggesting that perhaps critics of such novels `protest too much'. She examines My Name is Asher Lev (1972) by Chaim Potok, Vivisector (1970) by Patrick White, and The Horse's Mouth (1944) by Joyce Cary, speculating on the implications of fictional references to real artists and the art world.