This program originally aired online via zoom on January 22nd, 2025 at 12:30pm Eastern.
Julie Salamon (New York Times best-selling author) sits down with Adam Moss author of The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing. Prior to writing his first book, Adam had a successful career in editing. He was the editor of New York magazine, The New York Times Magazine, and 7 Days. Upon retiring from New York magazine he thew himself into his hobby of painting hoping to become skilled and accomplished – when this did not happen he began to reckon with the artistic process. Adam set about interviewing a diverse collection of artists from many different mediums to better understand how artists think and look at the world, in the hopes that it could provide useful tools for other creatives. The process of writing and creating The Work of Art taught Adam not only more about his own creative process, but reintroduced him to his writers voice. Upon completion, the book revealed itself to be about failure and perseverance. An artists ability to fail and keep going was the story behind all creative works.
Adam discusses growing up in a “hot house” of Jewish sensibility on Long Island, where the social capital was wit and cynicism. He reflects on the style and tone of periodicals like Mad Magazine, Esquire, and New York in the 1960s and how that informed his own taste and sense of humor. Julie and Adam reflect on our contemporary cultures comparatively increased access to art and the decreased power of institutional tastemakers. After completing his book Adam still paints, he has not gotten better, but he loves it more.
Topics covered in this program: Visual storytelling, artists mind, creative process, artistic process, collaborative work, solo work, judgement and taste in our contemporary culture, the voice of midcentury Jewish publications in popular culture, relentless obsession of art makers.