PURSUIT OF ART

Critic Martin Gayford has travelled all over the world in pursuit of first-hand encounters with art and artists. Here he recounts trips to see Brancusi’s Endless Column in Romania, prehistoric cave art in France, the museum island of Naoshima in Japan, Robert Rauschenberg in New York, Marina Abramovic in Venice, and a visit to Beijing with Gilbert & George, among many others. Amusing, informative and self-deprecating, Gayford shares the highs and lows of cultural travel, and shows that where art is concerned, only being there will do.