- Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928-1960
-
Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928-1960 
1st editionAuthor(s) William Boyd Publisher Edition Stemmle Publication date June 1998 ISBN 1901785017 OCLC Number 38934333 Nat Tate - An American Artist 1928-1960 is a 1998 fictional (hoax) biography by William Boyd.
Contents
Nat Tate
Nat Tate was an imaginary person,[1] invented by Boyd[1] and created as "an abstract expressionist who destroyed '99%' of his work and leapt to his death from the Staten Island ferry. His body was enver found."[1]
An art hoax
Boyd published the book as a hoax, presented as a real biography. Gore Vidal, John Richardson (Picasso's biographer), and David Bowie (a board member of Modern Painters magazine and director of 21 Publishing, which published the book) were all participants in the hoax. Nat Tate's name is a combination of two London art galleries, the National Gallery and the Tate Gallery. Boyd and his co-conspirators set about convincing the New York glitterati (social elites) that the reputation of this influential abstract expressionist needed to be re-evaluated.[2]
Bowie held a launch party on April Fool's Day eve, 1998,[1] and read extracts from the book, while Richardson talked about Tate's friendships with both Picasso and Braque.
About a week later, a man named David Lister wrote The Independent of London and claimed that "some of the biggest names in the art world have been the victims of a literary hoax,"[1] and the story was picked up by other news papers, including The New York Times.[1]
In reality, it appears that few were fooled and most of the big names in the arts world (including artists, collectors, art historian, art dealers, New York based writers like Paul Auster, and editors of literary journals) quickly realized that Nat Tate was a complete fake and that they had been the victims of an elaborate set up.[3][1] 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] Boyd, the main perpetrator of the hoax, agreed, saying "the doubts were meant to set in very quickly."[1]
Newsweek magazine attempted to contact David Lister, the man who had written The Independent, but could not find him, leading them to suggest that perhaps Lister, too, didn't really exist.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Plagens, Peter (20 April 1998), "The Late Great Tate", Newsweek magazine: 62
- ^ "Biography of William Boyd". BookBrowse.com. http://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm?author_number=851. Retrieved 2007-05-19.
- ^ a b "Bowie and Boyd hoax art world". BBC. 1998-04-07. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/75207.stm. Retrieved 2007-05-19.
- ^ "Work of fiction fools literary world". The Indian Express (Bombay). 1998-04-11. http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19980411/10150314.html. Retrieved 2007-05-19.
External links
- "21 Publishing Website". www.21publishing.com. http://www.21publishing.com/21pub/p8.html. Retrieved 2007-05-19.
Categories:- American novels
- Literary hoaxes
- Nonexistent people
- 1998 books
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
