Jed Perl

Will Corwin sits down with author and art critic Jed Perl to discuss his most recent (2009)
book Antoine's Alphabet, about the 18th century French painter
Watteau. An enigmatic fellow with a flair for the colorful and dramatic, Watteau captured the
imaginations of artists from Cezanne to Proust to Samuel Beckett.
Perl also discusses his book New Art City, a tome of mid-century New York art history, and how he managed to track down the true stories of the abstract expressionists decades after their heyday. Perl is also the long time art critic for The New Republic, so he's the perfect man to answer the question, "what's happening in the
art world?" Getting a bit more
personal, Perl talks about what it's like to judge art for a living when you're married to a painter
(his wife Deborah Rosenthal). Turns out it's pretty great (35 minutes).