by RalphSteadman (Author)
Ralph Steadman, the creator of his own inimitable visions of Freud, Dante, Orwell, Alice and the Great Gonzo, now offers the (auto)biography of his artistic alter ego, the redoubtable Gavin Twinge. Twinge, last remnant of a nineteenth-century 'domestic engineering' dynasty, founder of the DOODAAA school, and pioneer of Barcode Art, Shredded Literature and Aerial Abstracts, is the original angry voice of contemporary art. The question Steadman sets out to answer is: Who hurt Gavin into art? Was it his mother, who fought in the Spanish Civil War? Or Gavin's travelling salesman 'father'? Or indeed, his biological father, the little-known Beat poet Howell Northern? Or Silas Gonad, the sinister doctor who attended at his birth? Or the art establishment itself? From the moment Steadman first meets Twinge, it becomes his quest to get to the heart of the mystery. Whether he has to penetrate the deep south of the South of France by London taxi, where Gavin finds inspiration with his fellow Doodaaists or witness the creation of the banned installation 'The Philosophyof French Plumbing', Steadman sticks by his man, matching him drink.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 352
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: 07 Oct 2002
ISBN 10: 0747560803
ISBN 13: 9780747560807
Book Overview: * The true(ish) life story of the most original and angry young(ish) man in British art * A satirical investigation of art since Marcel Duchamp, a masterclass in biography (and how not to do it) and a heart-stopping work of conical genius * Illustrated throughout in colour and black-and-white