Artists and architects may be sheltering at home, but their creativity still flows — and the results surprise even them. Here’s what 10 famous makers are looking at, reading, and sketching now.
Under most circumstances, the life of an artist or architect requires a lot of solitary time. But none of the 10 artists and architects I spoke to expected to be sheltering somewhere, hiding out from a deadly pandemic with a small number of family members or close friends.
When asked how they were spending their time, they answered that, despite their fears, the pandemic is proving to be fertile ground — and they sent along some proof. The anxiety of the coronavirus era has already seeped into the work of Rashid Johnson, who suddenly started making blood-red drawings. Steven Holl depicted a pair of struggling lungs, and mourned a close friend — while continuing to design buildings. Adam Pendleton, whose artwork incorporates text, looked out the window and said he saw the words “SEE THE SIN.” Frank Gehry sketched, but his big meeting got Zoombombed. Leidy Churchman started an epistolary romance, and Doris Salcedo doubled-down on her constant theme: memorializing the forgotten.
One thing is clear: Like the generation after World War I, today’s artists will take this traumatic and uncertain time and turn it into something unexpected. As Maya Lin put it, “We’re going to get really interesting creativity out of this.” The following interviews have been edited and condensed.
William Eggleston
Celebrated as the father of color photography, Mr. Eggleston, 80, emailed from his hometown of Memphis, where he was staying temporarily with one of his sons.
Memphis is turning green again and I’m spending a lot of time on the screened porch which is very pleasant, looking out at the backyard.
Just a few weeks ago I was in Los Angeles editing my next book. It is a group of previously unseen work called “Outlands” that should be published this fall. These volumes represent the last definitive pass of my early work shot on Kodachrome, the same body that formed the basis of my first book, “William Eggleston’s Guide.”
We reviewed images that I haven’t seen in more than 40 years — all from Memphis and environs, with very much a pure use of color, and of a vanishing world at the time. Revelatory images that I look forward to sharing. All of these images are very much on my mind right now, just as if they were taken yesterday or today.
I’m also looking through the bookshelves. I found a book of photographs by my friend Dennis Hopper, which has some early pictures of another friend, Walter Hopps. Both gone, but still present.