Book
Nat Tate
Presented in the form of an illustrated art biography, the book recounts the life of Nat Tate, a supposed American painter born in 1928 who enters the New York art world after the Second World War. Tate develops a reputation among Abstract Expressionist circles, travels to Europe and measures his uncertain talent against the work of artists such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.
The biography ends with Tate destroying most of his work and dying in 1960, but the central fact is that neither the artist nor the career ever existed. Boyd constructed the life, paintings, photographs and critical history as a literary hoax, using the authority of biography to explore reputation, memory and the willingness of cultural circles to recognise a figure they feel they ought to remember.
Genres
Historical people
More by the author
Other books by William Boyd
