Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928-1960
First edition
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| Author | William Boyd |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Edition Stemmle |
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Publication date
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June 1998 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 38934333 |
| Nat Tate | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Nathwell Tate March 7, 1928 Union Beach, New Jersey, USA |
| Died | January 12, 1960 (aged 31) off Staten Island, New York, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Painting |
| Notable work | Surviving works include: Portrait of K Bridge no. 114 Bridge no. 122 at least one un-numbered Bridge drawing |
Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928–1960 is a 1998 novel, presented as a biography, by the English writer William Boyd. Nat Tate was an imaginary person, invented by Boyd and created as "an abstract expressionist who destroyed '99%' of his work and leapt to his death from the Staten Island ferry. His body was never found." At the time of the novel's launch, Boyd went some way to encourage the belief that Tate had really existed.
Boyd published the book as a hoax, presented as a real biography. Gore Vidal, John Richardson (Picasso's biographer), Karen Wright (then editor of the influential Modern Painters magazine) and David Bowie (a board member of Modern Painters magazine and co-director with Karen Wright of 21 Publishing, which published the book) were all participants in the hoax. "Nat Tate" is a combination of the names of two London art galleries, the National Gallery and the Tate Gallery. Boyd and his conspirators set about convincing the New York glitterati (social elites) that the reputation of this influential abstract expressionist needed to be re-evaluated.
Bowie held a launch party on April Fool's Day eve, 1998, and read extracts from the book, while Richardson talked about Tate's friendships with both Picasso and Braque.
About a week later, journalist David Lister, who was at the New York launch, reported in the The Independent of London that "some of the biggest names in the art world have been the victims of a literary hoax", and the story was picked up by other newspapers, including The New York Times. He said that no one he spoke to claimed to know Tate well, but no one claimed not to have heard of him. He said he sniffed something fishy, since he appeared to be the only person in the room who had never heard of Tate. His suspicions were confirmed when he discovered that none of the galleries mentioned in the book actually existed. By January 2016, Lister had become The Independent's Arts Editor.
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