Gavin Butt Interview
Gavin Butt is Professor of Fine Art at Northumbria University in Newcastle, UK. Since he graduated with a PhD in queer art history, Gavin has worked “as a writer and academic focused on the visual arts and their varied forms of connectedness with popular music, queer culture and performance.” His latest book is No Machos or Pop Stars: When the Leeds Art Experiment Went Punk, published this year by Duke University Press.
How did you get to where you are today, professionally?
I was taught as a fine artist and art historian at Goldsmiths in London in the late eighties, studying alongside members of the YBA generation. I then went on to study the social history of art at Leeds University and graduated with a PhD in queer art history from there in 1998. Since then I’ve been working as a writer and academic focused on the visual arts and their varied forms of connectedness with popular music, queer culture and performance. I’ve published a book on gossip and queer art, have made a documentary film about artist’s DIY use of moving image technology, have co-directed a project about contemporary performance and live art, and more recently have begun to explore the role of art school education in the history of popular music (check out my co-edited book Post-Punk Then and Now). I have held positions at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London, Goldsmiths, University of London and University of Sussex. I am currently Professor of Fine Art at Northumbria University in Newcastle, UK.
Can you please briefly describe the book?