The legendary Brooklyn Rail has been a platform for artists, academics, and writers in New York and abroad for almost twenty years. No other publication devotes as much space to the artist’s voice, allowing ideas to unfold through open discussion, with all their idiosyncrasies. The journal’s continued appeal is due in large part to its wonderfully diverse contributors, many of whom bring contrasting and often unexpected opinions to conversations about art and aesthetics. Since its inception, co-founder and artistic director Phong Bui and his team have interviewed over one hundred artists for the Brooklyn Rail . Here, we bring together a selection of sixty of the most influential and seminal interviews with artists ranging from Richard Serra and Brice Marden, to Alex Da Corte and House of Ladosha, for the first time. While each is important in its own right, offering a perspective on the life and work of a specific artist, together they tell the story of a journal that has grown during one of the more diverse and surprising periods in visual art. There is no unified style or perspective; Brooklyn Rail’s strength lies in its ability to include and champion difference. Selected and coedited by Jarrett Earnest, a frequent Rail contributor, with Lucas Zwirner, the book includes a new introduction to the project by Phong Bui as well as many of the hand-drawn portraits he has made of those he has interviewed over the years. This combination of verbal and visual profiles offers a rare and personal insight into contemporary visual culture.
