Virtual Memories Show 589:
Adam Moss
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“My whole career had been based on a dialogue with others, and I didn’t know how to talk to myself, how to listen to myself. So this book was a way to try to understand the artist’s head.”
With his amazing new book, THE WORK OF ART: How Something Comes From Nothing (Penguin Press), hall-of-fame magazine editor Adam Moss explores the artistic process by interviewing more than 40 creators about the evolution of a piece of their art. We talk about the archeology of early drafts and sketches, why he took up painting and how its vexations drove him into making this book, what it’s like to tour artists’ heads, the creative benefits of “the bounce,” the differences between collaborative and solo art-making, and the dizzying iterations of a single artwork by Amy Sillman. We get into where his 40-year magazine editing career began (and where it ended), the process of figuring out how to write and edit his own prose for this project, the incredible design project of bringing The Work Of Art to life as a museum of creativity (& its early life as a ‘zine), what happened when he pitched Warren Beatty on this project, and his ongoing attraction to the artifacts of artists in the midst of artworks. We also discuss why I may be the ideal reader for this book, how the introspection of COVID & lockdown influenced The Work Of Art and its subjects, what he learned about interviewing (& which subject intimidated him the most), how he finally learned to stop waiting for a catharsis and learned to take joy in the making of art rather than the finished artwork, and plenty more. Give it a listen! And go read THE WORK OF ART!
“In my magazine career I was constantly trying to figure out ways to make images and text work together in different ways to tell stories.”
“I’ve only ever known how to edit for myself, and all the magazines I ever edited were governed by my matrix of interests.”
“The book taught me the most obvious lesson: it really is about the work, not about the thing you’re making.”
“My experience of these conversations is that they were all transferential; I became in love with all of them, one by one.”
Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!
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About our Guest
Adam Moss was the editor of New York magazine, The New York Times Magazine, and 7 Days. As editor of New York, he also oversaw the creation of five digital magazines: Vulture, The Cut, Daily Intelligencer, Grub Street, and The Strategist. During his tenure, New York won forty-one National Magazine Awards, including Magazine of the Year. He was an assistant managing editor of The New York Times with oversight of the Magazine, the Book Review, and the Culture, and Style sections, as well as managing editor of Esquire. He was elected to the Magazine Editors’ Hall of Fame in 2019.
Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at Adam’s home on a pair of Blue enCORE 200 microphones feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4 digital recorder & interface. I recorded the intro and outro on a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Nice photo of Adam by Todd Heisler / The New York Times / Redux; regular one by me. It’s on my instagram.