Leading art critic and writer Richard Cork tells the stories of his personal encounters with some of the world’s most influential modern and contemporary artists. Richard Cork draws on his impeccable skills as a critic and writer to tell the story of his encounters with some of the world’s most influential artists. Through a series of frank interviews, some scheduled, others serendipitous, he uncovers artists’ inner thoughts, anxieties and creative ambitions, to reveal the personalities behind the art. From individuals who are able to look back over a lifetime’s work, such as Louise Bourgeois, Roy Lichtenstein and Jasper Johns, to young artists encountered at the beginning of their careers, including Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst, from a drive through the Yorkshire countryside with David Hockney to a tour of Soho drinking establishments with Francis Bacon, alongside remarkably insightful encounters with artists as varied as Gerhard Richter, Doris Salcedo, Sonia Boyce, Luc Tuymans and Steve McQueen, Richard Cork has found that ‘talking to artists can in my experience be surprising, revealing, salutary, testing, provocative, stimulating and at times capable of overturning all my preconceptions about the individuals I encounter.’ Cork has played a significant role in popularizing late modern and contemporary art. In the words of art critic Louisa Buck, his ‘lucid, even-handed and at times trenchantly critical judgement has been invaluable in helping to create the multiplicity of approach and vigorous debates of today’s artistic climate’.

A unique exploration of the close relationship between art and design, explored through the historic and contemporary fabric designs of Liberty, where avant-garde art has influenced the colourful, geometric collections for more than half a century. Liberty is renowned internationally for its fabrics, especially its floral patterns, but it also has a long history of developing bold, geometric designs. Many of these have been inspired by early 20th-century avant-garde art, notably by the Italian Futurists – by artists such as Giacomo Balla and Umberto Boccioni – and their English contemporaries the Vorticists, including Christopher Nevinson and Edward Wadsworth.  In anticipation of Liberty’s 150th anniversary, esteemed couturier and interior designer Federico Forquet has curated a striking new range of fabrics – the FuturLiberty Collection – that carries Liberty’s creative heritage into our own age.  The Futurist and Vorticist art that lies behind the new designs is explored by specialists Ester Coen and Richard Cork, while archivist Anna Buruma examines Liberty’s rich history of avant-garde designs. By illuminating the process by which the FuturLiberty Collection came into being, this highly visual study also reveals how art can inform design, making it contemporary, relevant and engaging.

A fascinating insight into the lives and work of a remarkable range of contemporary artists Conducted by Richard Cork, one of the UK's most distinguished art writers, these intimate and revealing interviews provide a wealth of fascinating insights into the work of leading British artists. They discuss, often very frankly, their lives and art, their working methods and aspirations. The collection features an array of highly engaging and articulate artists, from Frank Auerbach, Anthony Caro, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney and Howard Hodgkin to Cornelia Parker, Tacita Dean, Grayson Perry and Rachel Whiteread. Drawing out Francis Bacon's impassioned musings on mortality, Tracey Emin's obsessive methods and subjects, the intensity of Anish Kapoor's internal journey and Richard Long's epic explorations of landscape, Cork is a penetrating, insightful and accessible interviewer. These conversations, brought together for the first time, brilliantly affirm his belief that 'talking to artists is like embarking on voyages of discovery'.