The Age of Creativity by Emily Urquhart

Author:Emily Urquhart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: House of Anansi Press Inc
Published: 2020-07-03T00:58:41+00:00

* * *

Now we were at a different crossroads, facing another shapeless loss. And, as before, I sought a pilgrimage that might illuminate the path forward. In late August of 2018, I was living at our family cottage by Lake Ontario, and I visited my father at least once a day. It had been a year since his diagnosis, and while dates and days continued to plague him, his creative work had carried on unchanged, as had his social life.

I was in the midst of planning a trip to New York City. There were several shows that seemed suited to the theme of the aging artist and I had a short list of people I hoped to speak with. As my plans progressed, I shared my findings with my father. There was a show on at the Museum of Modern Art called The Long Run, about the later arc of artistic careers; the New Yorker satirist Bruce McCall had agreed to meet with me. My father would listen, and then tell me stories about his experiences in New York as a young artist. How there was a guy in the corner of a party he attended, someone with long white hair, a strange guy, and he didn’t talk to anyone, just stood there silently smoking.

“We all knew it was Andy Warhol,” my dad said.

He told me about the New York art dealer in the early sixties who had been interested in his work, but who’d wanted a 40-percent commission. The cut had seemed outrageous to my father. He’d been in the throes of his early career; his art was selling but he hadn’t yet managed to find full-time work and he had a rapidly growing family. He passed on the dealer’s overture and has since wondered if it might have led to a larger, more international career.

“Why did you say no to him — just because of the money?”

“No,” my dad said. “I was arrogant back then.”

During one of these conversations, my father fished his wallet out of his back pocket and began to sift through its contents.

“Here it is,” he said, handing me a membership card to the Museum of Modern Art. “Now you won’t need to pay the entrance fee.”

He’d received the card twelve years ago, when he’d been part of Transforming Chronologies, the tectonic-drawing show, at the gallery. He’d travelled there for the opening, and that was the last time he’d visited New York. I thanked him, and slipped the card into my wallet. As I did this, he said, “Just, be sure to get it back to me, okay? Don’t lose it.”

In that moment, I realized that my father believed he would return to New York and revisit the Museum of Modern Art, and, what’s more, that he felt this was possible. I was surprised by his confidence, but I shouldn’t have been. He had spent his life travelling for art. He read the weekly New Yorker art listings, and he always knew which big shows were blowing through the city.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.