Steve Martin - Interviewed

Portland's marvelous bookstore recently interviewed Steve Martin because of his newly published novel, An Object of Beauty.

From the piece...

Jill: I love John Updike's answer to his own question, "How do rich people know about good paintings?" He says, "The paintings are Darwinian in a way. They make themselves necessary for survival."

Martin: Right. He gives a poetic answer. I think it is sort of poetically true that these pictures announce themselves.

Jill: Why did you cast John Updike as that character?

Martin: John Updike was a big writer on American art. He published books dedicated to American art, and he wrote essays in the New Yorker on American art. Not a lot of people know that, but he loved it, and he was good at it. So it seemed like the right scene at the right moment, for Lacey to brush up against that greatness. [Laughter]

Jill: What was the first piece of art that you ever bought?

Martin: It's a little vague. The first good artwork I ever bought was an Ed Ruscha print called Hollywood. I bought it from Irving Blum, the great dealer in Los Angeles, who gave Andy Warhol his first show, with the Campbell's Soup cans. I was a Hollywood writer. I was writing for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour then. The painting was $125.

Martin's book has been reviewed and talked about already. Go get yourself a copy!