Interviews

Rondo (1971), Sam Gilliam. Kunstmuseum Basel

‘I’ve always insisted on remaining an artist’

Sam Gilliam has consistently challenged the traditional premises of painting. As he tells Apollo, his need to make art is as urgent as ever

11 Jun 2018
Chantal Joffe photographed in her studio in March 2018.

Chantal Joffe on painting, pastel and parenthood

An interview with the British artist, renowned for expressive portraits of family, friends and fellow artists

26 May 2018
Christian Boltanski in his studio in Paris in March 2018, photo: © Elizabeth Young

Christian Boltanski expands his repertoire

The French artist explains why organising a retrospective is like rustling up a meal

1 May 2018

‘Every work I create is a mathematical dream’ – an interview with Beatriz Milhazes

Beatriz Milhazes discusses colour, craft, and collaboration – and what her work owes to her native Brazil

24 Apr 2018
Installation view of ‘The Roof Garden Commission: Huma Bhabha, We Come in Peace’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

‘It feels like the sculptures have landed on the roof’

Huma Bhabha discusses sci-fi, politics and her Roof Garden Commission for the Metropolitan Museum of Art

23 Apr 2018
Iceberg Hits (2018), Eva Rothschild.

‘My sculptures don’t exist in a vacuum’

Eva Rothschild talks about her work and influences – from minimalism to Ireland’s coastal landscapes

5 Apr 2018

‘I don’t call myself a printmaker’ – an interview with Christiane Baumgartner

Christiane Baumgartner uses the very traditional medium of the woodcut to capture the complexity of the modern world

26 Mar 2018

‘It’s a record of my life, translated into art’

An interview with Joan Jonas, on the occasion of the artist’s major retrospective at Tate Modern

17 Mar 2018

‘We want to get people involved in their city’

Judikje Kiers, director of the Amsterdam Museum, on the museum’s expansion plans and its TEFAF loan exhibition

7 Mar 2018
Meeting You Halfway II (2009), Anthony McCall. Installation view, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, 2009.

Light, fire and smoke – an interview with Anthony McCall

Anthony McCall talks about sculpting with materials such as light and fire – on view in Wakefield and London

1 Mar 2018
Installation view, ‘Power and Beauty in China's Last Dynasty: Concept and Design by Robert Wilson’ at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, 2018, Courtesy the Minneapolis Institute of Art

Robert Wilson creates a feast for the senses

The celebrated theatre director and artist explains his approach to creating exhibitions

26 Feb 2018
Daimyo armour (18th century), Japan. Private collection, France.

‘This exhibition is about forces enacted on the body’

George Henry Longly discusses his exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo, which features eight Japanese armours

19 Feb 2018

‘Painting has its own identity’ – an interview with Giorgio Griffa

The Italian painter discusses music, poetry and the unfinished nature of his art

29 Jan 2018
Rasheed Araeen.

‘There is an element of optimism in my work’

Rasheed Araeen talks to Apollo about six-decades of making visually arresting and politically engaged art

27 Jan 2018
The Hayward Gallery, London, 2017, photo: Morley von Sternberg

‘The most substantial Kunsthalle in London’

Ralph Rugoff, the director of the Hayward Gallery, explains what the revamped brutalist building has to offer artists and audiences

2 Jan 2018
My Hands (2017), Polly Apfelbaum.

‘Feminism is just another colour in the work’

Polly Apfelbaum talks about bodies – human and mythic – in her new show at Frith Street Gallery

11 Dec 2017

‘Sculpture is part of the public realm’

Mark Handforth discusses his commission for the ICA Miami’s new home – and the city’s thriving art scene

5 Dec 2017

‘I always felt that paintings had a lot of ego’

R.H. Quaytman talks to Apollo about the problems and possibilities of painting

26 Nov 2017
Film still of A Single Voice (2017) by Susan Philipsz (b. 1965).

‘I’m interested in the architectural concerns of sound’

Susan Philipsz talks about her new work at BALTIC, dismantling an opera about space, and the power of the human voice

30 Oct 2017
Soccer Player, (1964), Ilya Kabakov, private collection. © Ilya and Emilia Kabakov

Back in the USSR: an interview with Ilya and Emilia Kabakov

Ilya and Emilia Kabakov are a formidable artistic partnership, whose work takes a piercing look at life in the Soviet Union

19 Oct 2017
Detail of Nathalie Du Pasquier's 'Other Rooms' installation at Camden Arts Centre, 2017.

‘I wanted to do something I have never done before’

Nathalie Du Pasquier talks about trying something different at the Camden Arts Centre, and the difference between art and design

10 Oct 2017
Wayne Thiebaud, photographed in front of Fields and Furrows (2002), in 2013. Photo: Sacramento State/Mary Weikert

Geometry, pastries and paint: an interview with Wayne Thiebaud

‘I started painting these triangles and turning them into pies. I thought, “My God! I’m done in! Nobody will ever take me seriously!”’

16 Sep 2017
David Lamelas. Photo: Celeste Leeuwenburg

‘I think of myself as a producer of ideas’

Pioneering conceptual artist David Lamelas on space, identity, and taking advice from Anthony Caro

28 Aug 2017
Carolee Schneemann holding a Venetian lion mask, photographed in London in May 2017, Photo: Benjamin McMahon

Painting for pleasure: an interview with Carolee Schneemann

Carolee Schneemann talks about capturing the moment – and explains why ‘performance art’ is a demeaning term

12 Aug 2017