A brush with… Rashid Johnson, a podcast by The Art Newspaper

A brush with…, sponsored by Cork Street Galleries, is the new podcast from The Art Newspaper’s The Week in Art team.

In the series of exclusive, in-depth conversations, host Ben Luke interviews four leading painters about their life and work through their cultural experiences.

In this final episode of the inaugural series, American artist Rashid Johnson talks of his beginnings as a photographer and how he quickly occupied a “post-medium space,” working in everything from film to sculpture, installation and, as with the other artists in the series, painting.

Johnson considers his use of materials such as black soap and shea butter; the role of books in his work; and the personal and political background to his recent body of Anxious works, culminating in the new Anxious Red paintings.

Throughout the conversation, Rashid reveals the influence of cultural figures as di-verse as hip-hop star Rakim, writers Toni Morrison and Paul Beatty, and artists Roy DeCarava, Franz Kline, Jean Dubuffet and David Hammons. He also answers the podcast’s regular questions on studio rituals, the one artwork he would choose to live with, and, perhaps ultimately, what is art for?

You can listen to all four episodes and subscribe to the podcast here.