Join authors Andrew Durbin and Deborah Levy to explore biography and storytelling as acts of memory.
This event coincides with the publication of by Deborah Levy’s novel My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein and Andrew Durbin’s The Wonderful World That Almost Was, a biography of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek. The authors will reflect on their distinct approaches to fiction, criticism and research in a special conversation.
The Wonderful World That Almost Was follows the development of the intense friendship – and romance – between photographer Peter Hujar and painter and sculptor Paul Thek. The biography traces the ways in which these artists’ work directly and indirectly influenced both one another and the wider cultural sphere in America, in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Durbin’s book is an ode to a lost but still-living world—and two men who defined it.
My Year in Paris with Gertude Stein is about how we put ourselves together— an exhilarating, witty, cosmopolitan meditation on the pleasures and challenges of friendship, desire and living with other people. But it is also crashes through genre to create an inspired portrait of Stein herself: a writer who experimented fearlessly with a new way of living and who wrestled herself free from the nineteenth century to invent a brand-new way of looking at the world.
All Tate Modern entrances are step-free. You can enter via the Turbine Hall and into the Natalie Bell Building on Holland Street, or into the Blavatnik Building on Sumner street.
There are lifts to every floor of the Blavatnik and Natalie Bell buildings. Alternatively you can take the stairs.
- Fully accessible toilets are located on every floor on the concourses.
- A quiet room is available to use in the Natalie Bell Building on Level 4.
- Ear defenders can be borrowed from the Ticket desks.
To help plan your visit to Tate Modern, have a look at our visual story. It includes photographs and information about what you can expect from a visit to the gallery.
For more information before your visit:
- Email hello@tate.org.uk
- Call +44 (0)20 7887 8888 (daily 10.00–17.00)
