Contemporary Artists Working Outside the City: Creative Retreat (Routledge Advances in Art and Visual Studies)

"This book reflects on the motivations of creative practitioners who have moved out of cities from the mid-1960s onwards to establish creative homesteads. The book focuses on desert exile painter Agnes Martin, radical filmmaker and gardener Derek Jarman, and iconoclastic conceptual artist Chris Burden, detailing their connections to the cities they had left behind (New York, London, Los Angeles). Sarah Lowndes also examines how the rise of digital technologies has made it more possible for artists to live and work outside the major art centers, especially given the rising cost of living in London, Berlin, and New York, focusing on three peripheral creative centers: the seaside town of Hastings, England, the midsized metro of Leipzig, Germany, and post-industrial Detroit, USA."--Provided by publisher Cover -- Half Title -- Series Information -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of contents -- Figures -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Part I Introduction -- 1 The Back to the Land Movement: From the 1840s to the 1970s -- Notes -- References -- Part II The Creative Homesteads of Agnes Martin, Derek Jarman, and Chris Burden -- 2 We are Born as Nouns Not Verbs: Agnes Martin and the New Mexico Desert (1968-2004) -- Early Life and Career until 1957 -- In New York, 1957-1967 -- Final Months in New York -- In New Mexico, 1968 Onwards -- A Sustainable Lifestyle that Fostered Wellbeing -- The Relationship between the Environment of New Mexico and Martin's Post-1974 Creative Output -- Leaving Cuba and Moving to Galiesto in 1977 -- In Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 3 Vaster than Empires and More Slow: Derek Jarman and Prospect Cottage, Dungeness, Kent (1987-1994) -- Early Life (1942-1971) -- From Liberation to Diagnosis (1972-1986) -- Beyond the Solemn Geography of Human Limits (1987 to 1994) -- The Sun Rising -- Time as Experienced Differently in Gardening and Poetry -- Activism -- Blue Transcends the Solemn Geography of Human Limits: Towards the End 1993-1994 -- In Conclusion -- Telephone Interview with Howard Sooley, May 17, 2017 -- Notes -- References -- 4 In a Free Spot: Chris Burden and Topanga Canyon, California (1984-2015) -- Early Life (1946-1965) -- Studying in California 1965-1971: From Minimal Art to Performance -- Concrete Performance 1971-1975 -- 1975-2015 From Performance to Sculpture -- Telephone Interview with Nancy Rubins, September 12, 2017, 9am PST -- Notes -- References -- Part III The Rise of the Town-Country -- 5 The Lure of the Midsize Metro: Leipzig -- Interview with Kilian Schellbach, January 2017, Café Bau Bau, Leipzig -- Notes -- References -- 6 Neither City nor Country: Hastings Email Interview With Louise Colbourne, September 19-28, 2017 -- Notes -- References -- 7 In The Ruins, A Garden: Detroit -- Email Interview With Cedric Tai, September 18-october 4, 2017 -- Notes -- References -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Index