The Lives of Artists: Collected Profiles

The definitive collection of artist profiles by legendary journalist and New Yorker writer Calvin Tomkins, from the 1960s to today

In 1959, Calvin Tomkins interviewed Marcel Duchamp for Newsweek, beginning his sixdecade- long career writing about art. He then joined The New Yorker, where he has contributed dozens of profiles on the most interesting artists of the time, from Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg to Cindy Sherman and Mark Bradford. This six-volume set includes 82 of Tomkins's most significant profiles dating from 1962 to 2019. Part art history, part human interest, Tomkins offers insights and observations about the artists, their work, and the ever-changing art world they inhabit.

Calvin Tomkins has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1960. He has written more than a dozen books, including The Bride and the Bachelors, Merchants and Masterpieces, Living Well Is the Best Revenge, Off the Wall, Duchamp: A Biography, and Lives of the Artists.

David Remnick has been editor of The New Yorker since 1998, and a staff writer since 1992.