Beck & Al Hansen: Playing With Matches

An extensive interview with Beck by Carlo McCormick is
featured as well as an essay by curator Wayne Baerwaldt.

Beck is the musician who created perhaps the most original hit album of the 1990s, Odelay, highly rated on virtually every critic's picks lists of best records of 1996 for its smart lyrics and eclectic sampling of styles. Rightly or wrongly, he will be the main draw for this title, rather than his grandfather, Al, best known for his happenings in the 1960s and 1970s and sometimes associated with Fluxus. This is unfortunate because Al Hansen's work, here mostly represented by text pieces and collages made from the detritus of contemporary culture, are rich and worthy of examination in their own right. Readers looking for clues to Beck's talents will, however, be richly rewarded with descriptions of the entertainer's relationship with Grandfather Al and the profound effect Al's life-as-art teachings had on the younger artist. Ultimately, the book truly is a collaboration, concentrating on both men's work from the early 1990s, when they had frequent contact. Because of Beck's popularity, this is well recommended for general public library collections as well as larger contemporary art collections.AEric Bryant, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.