Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928-1960

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Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928-1960
Author	William Boyd
Publisher	Edition Stemmle
Publication date	June 1998
ISBN	1901785017

Nat Tate - An American Artist 1928-1960 is a 1998 fictional (hoax) biography by William Boyd.

1 Plot summary
2 An art hoax
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Boyd's story - of young Tate's rise as a second-generation Abstract Expressionist, supported by critics and dealers and sought after by collectors - appears to be a satire on the New York art world at its first great moment of commercial and critical success.^[1]

Nat Tate was an orphan who, according to his biographer, was 'notionally of the New York School'; a friend of Picasso's and Braque's and a lover, although somewhat short-lived, of Peggy Guggenheim. The story ends with Tate's suicide, after a visit to Georges Braque, in whose studio he sees what true artistic mastery is. Understanding his own mediocrity, Tate grasps the meaning of his success and, "the presaging of a future he did not welcome ... Tate was one of those rare artists who did not need, and did not seek, the transformation of his painting into a valuable commodity to be bought and sold on the whim of a market and its marketeers."

At 31, having first destroyed all of his artwork, Tate committed suicide. He bought a ticket for the Staten Island Ferry, walked to the stern, climbed onto the railing, and threw himself overboard; his body was never found.

The book, written in the form of a monographic essay, includes photographs, documents, notes and guest appearances by real art-world figures (as well as a character from Boyd's other fiction.) Gore Vidal, for example, is also quoted in the book as remembering Tate as "essentially dignified, drunk with nothing to say". Boyd also has Hans Hofmann, as Nat Tate's teacher, espousing views he didn't hold and a supposed poem by Frank O'Hara (mostly written by Boyd himself).

[edit] An art hoax

In 1998 William Boyd conducted an art hoax along with Gore Vidal, John Richardson (Picasso's biographer), and David Bowie. He wrote a biography of the 1950s artist Nat Tate (Nat Tate - An American Artist 1928-1960), a biography that set both the British and American art worlds alight, and then with his co-conspirators set about convincing the New York gliterati that the reputation of this influential abstract expressionist needed to be re-evaluated.^[2]

David Bowie, a board member of Modern Painters magazine and director of 21 Publishing that published the book, held a launch party on April Fool's Day, 1998, and read extracts from the book, while Richardson talked about how Tate was friends with both Picasso and Braque.

In fact, the book was entirely fictional and none of some of the biggest names in the arts world (including artists, collectors, art historian, art dealers, New York based writers like Paul Auster, and editors of literary journals) realized that Nat Tate was a complete fake and that they had been the victims of an elaborate set up.^[3] Some of the paintings featured in the book were reportedly painted by Boyd and the hoax was made more believable by Gore Vidal's endorsement on the book's dust cover. Also, the photographs of Nat Tate that feature in the 'biography' are of unknown people from Boyd's own photographic collection.

The literary editor of The Independent, who was at the New York launch, said that no one he spoke to claimed to know Tate well, but no one claimed not to have heard of him. Lister stated that he sniffed something fishy, since he appeared to be the only person in the room who had never heard of Tate. His suspicions were confirmed when he discovered that none of the galleries mentioned in the book actually existed.^[4]

Karen Wright, one of Bowie's co-directors at 21 Publishing said the hoax was not meant to be malicious.

“

Part of it was, we were very amused that people kept saying 'Yes, I've heard of him'. There is a willingness not to appear foolish. Critics are too proud for that.^[3]

”