“He comes in and out of focus in the culture,” Mr. Higgs said. As interests shift, people discover him and he becomes a star; other times he is forgotten. He added, “Now, more than 30 years after he started, we can see what a remarkable thing he set in motion as an 18 or 19 year old. His idea was fully formed at the beginning, and his life has really been fleshing out this idea.”
Mr. Childish’s painting has gradually evolved, and he has been working on a larger scale. “I paint a little less than I used to,” he said, “and I make a little less music, which is still too much. I’m trying to moderate myself.” His new works at Lehmann Maupin (which, by coincidence, also represents Ms. Emin) will include paintings of figures like the Finnish composer Sibelius and the German mountain climber Toni Kurz, who died tragically at the age of 23.
“I like this existential loneliness of people who go out into the void and do something,” Mr. Childish said. “The heroism of it; pitting yourself against yourself.”
Does he see himself in that role? “It’s not something that I want,” he replied. “I’m interested in it, but I don’t think that it’s the truth—I think it’s a very easily believed lie.”
But, Mr. Childish allowed, “Sibelius is a bit of a kindred spirit in the sense that he was a completely messed up, melancholic young man. He wrote his last symphony and decided it would never be quite good enough at age 60 and so he burned it and never wrote another thing and lived into his 90s.”
He thought for a moment.
“That’s almost the opposite of what I’m like,” he said. “But I don’t know. I’m not 60.”
arusseth@observer.com
