How an artist and a writer forged a frank friendship-and a book

""I have been reading your book The Lonely City: The Art of Being Alone and I wanted to write and say how very good it is," "I discovered Henry Darger's work about 15 years ago. I am so interested in how you write about him and [Edward] Hopper, [Andy] Warhol and [David] Wojnarowicz.""

""Painting Writing Texting means a lot to me-to gather together these essays which become a kind of portrait of me, by Olivia, and of our friendship," Joffe tells The Art Newspaper. "More than that, though, the making of the book itself was an insight into how Laing works, the rigorous thinking that goes into every decision, which is always so evident in their writing.""

""What's beautiful to me is the intensity of her regard. It's like she scrapes off some sort of toxic outer layer, a blank plastic. She allows her sitters to possess themselves, to be lovely, idiosyncratic, intelligent, mortal, their eyes wide, wrapped in a daydream or looking boldly back.""

An April 2016 email from Chantal Joffe to Olivia Laing initiated a friendship rooted in shared interests in artists and ideas. Joffe cited The Lonely City and described discovering Henry Darger, expressing interest in Laing's engagement with figures such as Hopper, Warhol and Wojnarowicz. The resulting book pairs ten essays by Laing, who identifies as non-binary, with a chronological sequence of Joffe's paintings from 2016–2025, aligning text and images around mutual people, places and milestones. Joffe describes the book as a portrait of herself and their friendship and as insight into Laing's rigorous creative process. Laing emphasizes the partnership's focus on making while keeping career considerations peripheral.

Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events