Almost exactly a decade ago, the Swiss curator and writer Hans Ulrich Obrist published Lives of the Artists, Lives of the Architects, an acclaimed collection of “never-ending” conversations with internationally renowned creative minds, which was partially inspired by Vasari’s seminal 1550 Renaissance text, Lives of the Artists, and Pete Sylvester’s 1987 book, The Brutality of Fact: Interviews with Francis Bacon.
This handsome volume can be found in most large galleries and bookshops, featuring a cover adorned with a Post-it note from Gilbert & George that reads: “Life is a holiday compared with what is to follow.”
Echoes of a corresponding carpe diem ethos infuses Obrist’s first memoir, Life in Progress. This began in earnest from an early age. “My worry was that I would not have enough time to read all the books,” he writes in the second paragraph of the second chapter. The budding art enthusiast visited as many museums, galleries and exhibitions as possible and travelled all over Europe by train. Obrist obsessively collected postcards and staged mini-exhibitions in his childhood home, culminating in curating and his first official exhibition in his student flat in 1991.
The author tried some unorthodox working methods along the way, such as forsaking a standard night’s sleep for Leonardo da Vinci’s reputed penchant for taking a 15-minute nap every three hours while painting the Mona Lisa. Conversations with artists evolved into 24-hour marathons in the Serpentine Gallery and the accurately named Brutally Early Club, which would convene at 6.30am. He doesn’t shy away from the big ideas, grappling with saving the lost art of handwriting and creatively harnessing AI.
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Life in Progress reveals why Obrist is often credited as the inventor of modern curation, who twice topped Art Review’s illustrious Power 100 list of the most powerful people in the art world. Under his tenure as artistic director, the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park has become one of London’s most prestigious and exciting spaces, generating an enormous amount of coverage outside the art press with an annual celebrity-studded summer party.
This inspiring titan of the modern art world now delivers an unconventional and entertaining short memoir, which focuses on art and creativity rather than his private and personal life, while offering a sustained burst of infectious enthusiasm for the life-affirming power of creative connection in the modern era.
