A brush with... Jacqueline Humphries

Ben Luke talks to Jacqueline Humphries about her influences—from writers to film-makers, musicians and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work. Humphries, born in 1960 in New Orleans, US, and now based in New York, is an artist who has pushed painting into new territories. She is mindful of the medium’s history but embraces technologies and explores their impact on this time-honoured discipline. Her practice, which now stretches across five decades from the late 1980s to today, is rigorous, irreverent and consistently surprising. She discusses the early influence of Édouard Manet and a late revelation about Caravaggio, key relationships with fellow painters like Charlene von Heyl, her admiration of The Fall’s Mark E. Smith, and her fascination with the video game Dwarf Fortress. Plus she answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: What is art for?

Jacqueline Humphries, Modern Art, Helmet Row and Bury Street, London, until 22 July; We Smell Gas, Reena Spaulings, New York, until 25 June; From Andy Warhol to Kara Walker: Scenes from the Collection, Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany, until 14 July; To Bend the Ear of the Outer World: Conversations on contemporary abstract painting, Gagosian, London, until 25 August.

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