Brian O’Doherty / Patrick Ireland
Brian O’Doherty/Patrick Ireland is an artist and writer. His novels include The Strange Case of Mademoiselle P. (1992); and The Deposition of Father McGreevey (1999), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2000. Other writings include Inside the White Cube (1976); and American Masters: The Voice and the Myth (1998). His recent exhibition at Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, ‘Beyond the White Cube: A Retrospective of Brian O’Doherty/Patrick Ireland’, will travel to New York University’s Grey Gallery next year. He lives in New York City and Todi, Italy.
Who was your most inspiring teacher?
Didn’t have one.
What images keep you company where you work?
None.
What was the first piece of art that really mattered to you?
A Rembrandt in Dublin’s National Gallery that turned out not to be a Rembrandt.
If you could live with only one piece of art, what would it be?
Diego Velázquez, Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour, 1656)
What films have influenced you?
Jean-Luc Godard’s À bout de souffle (Breathless, 1960); Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane (1941).
What’s your favourite title of an artwork?
One of my own: The Reconciliation of Social Conscience with Aesthetic Concerns (1968).
What should change?
Corporate culture.
What should stay the same?
My wife.
What could you imagine doing if you didn’t do what you are doing?
Can’t imagine.
What music are you listening to?
Erik Satie’s piano works for two and four hands.
What are you reading?
Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman: A Tale of Political Intrigue and Sexual Masquerade by Gary Kates (1995).
What do you like the look of?
Muhammad Ali when he was Cassius Clay.
What is art for?
It isn’t for anything, unfortunately.
What is art not for?
Commerce.
frieze is now accepting letters to the editors for possible publication at editors@frieze.com.
