The tragically hilarious Nat Tate
Don’t fake it baby, lay the real thing on me…
I’m sure you all recall the furore that surrounded the publication back in 1998 of ‘Nat Tate – An American Artist: 1928 – 1960‘. The book, written by William Boyd and published by 21 Publishing, was launched in NY on April 1st 1998 when David Bowie read excerpts at the launch which was held in the studio of Jeff Koons.
People who clamed to be familiar with the tragic artist and his paintings (Nat Tate ended his life after burning nearly all of his work), were left more than a little embarrassed when the UK newspaper, The Independent, exposed the book for the hoax that it was. Nat Tate never ended his own life in 1960, because he never had a life to end.
William Boyd discusses the whole hilarious episode tonight on Channel4 at 23:40 GMT in the series Identity Crisis. Tonight’s episode is called ‘Lies’.
Thanx to Rochelle for the pointer.