For the 26th episode of "Reading the Art World," host Megan Fox Kelly speaks with Martin Gayford, author of “Venice: City of Pictures,” published by Thames & Hudson in November of 2023.

Their conversation shines a special spotlight on the magical, cultural city in advance of the Venice Biennale, opening April 20, 2024.

Martin Gayford’s book brings the richness and complexity of Venice's centuries of history to life with his rumination on the paintings, sculpture, and architecture of that city that are both familiar and unfamiliar to us, revealing in his writings entirely new ways to think about those objects, buildings, and stories of the city that have captivated artists and visitors for hundreds of years. Since the advent of the Venice Biennale in the 1890s, the city has become a shop window for the contemporary art of the whole world.

Martin Gayford is an author and journalist. He studied philosophy at Cambridge and art history at the Courtauld Institute of London University. He's written prolifically about art and jazz, contributed regularly to the Daily Telegraph, and also to many art magazines and exhibition catalogs. He was art critic of the Spectator from 1994 to 2002, subsequently at the Sunday Telegraph before becoming chief art critic for Bloomberg News until 2013.

Martin's publications and writings include studies of the lives and works of van Gogh, Gauguin, Constable, Michelangelo, Lucian Freud, Antony Gormley and several beautiful collaborations with David Hockney.

"Reading the Art World" is a live interview and podcast series with leading art world authors hosted by art advisor Megan Fox Kelly. The conversations explore timely subjects in the world of art, design, architecture, artists and the art market, and are an opportunity to engage further with the minds behind these insightful new publications.
 
Megan Fox Kelly is an art advisor and past President of the Association of Professional Art Advisors who works with collectors, estates and foundations.

For more information, visit meganfoxkelly.com, hear our past interviews, and subscribe at the bottom of our "Of Interest" page for new posts.

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Purchase “Venice: City of Pictures” at Thames & Hudson.

Music composed by Bob Golden.