Pat Steir

You are being honored with an award soon. Can you tell us about that?It’s at Artwalk, which is a fund-raiser for Coalition for the Homeless. It simply couldn’t be a better cause. For years I’ve been donating artwork and money to it as well. And they honor an artist once a year, someone who has been working for a while. The cause is fantastic.

I donated a painting for them to auction off—as did many other artists, by the way. I’ve just been supporting them for years. They feed homeless people in a big way. They have trucks that go out with hot food and park in places where homeless people try to live and they feed them. There are other organizations that deal with people who are on the social welfare books who are registered in some way. But Coalition for the Homeless feeds people who are not registered in any way: not with unemployment, not with Social Security—people who really need it, hard-core hungry people. So it’s a big deal.

You’re also in the middle of an installation at the New York Studio School. I notice the dates are ongoing for that project.
Yes. Self Portrait: Reprise 1987–2009. The first time I did it was 20 years ago at the New Museum. The show will be painted on the wall.

That sounds so cool. Do you work with assistants?
Yes, yes, yes. I couldn’t possibly not. At the Studio School, I have two of my people and then students who are working on the piece. But they draw from a projection, and the projections are of master drawings. So they trace the master drawings and supposedly that will be a learning experience. It’s not a collaboration, though; it’s my work and I rule it with an iron hand. It’s a really beautiful project. And I have two rooms. One room will be copies of Albrecht Dürer drawings—figure studies, body-type studies—starting with a baby and women and finally a self-portrait. The self always changes, always becomes another self. You are never the same person. Young people look for themselves, but that means they have a very static idea. And as you get older, the idea changes. Then there’s the Buddhist idea of no self, all selves, selfless. And so it encompasses all of that. The ones I did before were in black and white. These will be in color. So it’s a kind of advancement.

I read some interviews of yours from a while back, and I was really impressed with how articulate you are about your work. I feel like it wasn’t as popular 20 years ago to be able to talk about your work. I see you through these interviews as an ambassador for painting, and I still think of you that way.
You know, I once read a short story by an Italian writer about a man who took lessons in a language from another man. The man who took the lessons wrote a novel in that language and in the meantime the teacher died. And he discovered that no one on earth spoke that language; he had written a novel in a language that no one speaks. And that’s why I feel like one of the few priests of a struggling religion. You know, I have painter friends, but there aren’t so many.

The Coalition for the Homeless Artwalk Benefit is on Tue 17 at Skylight Studios.