Brandon Taylor

A bold novel about a black painter caught up in the currents of art, faith, and desire.

New York simmers with heat and unrest as Wyeth, a painter, finds himself at an impasse in his own work.

After attending a dubious show put on by a collective of careerist artists, he retreats to a bar in the West Village where he meets Keating, a former seminarian. Over the long summer, as the two get to know each another, they talk and argue about God, sex, and art.

Meanwhile, at his job working for an art restorer, Wyeth begins to investigate the life and career of a forgotten, minor black artist. His search yields potential answers to questions that Wyeth is only now beginning to ask about what it means to be a black artist making black art amid the mess and beauty of life itself.

As he did so brilliantly in the Booker Prize finalist Real Life and the bestselling The Late Americans, Brandon Taylor brings alive a captivating set of characters, this time at work and at play in the competitive art world. Minor Black Figures is a vividly etched portrait, both sweeping and tender, of friendship, creativity, belief, and the deep connections among them. 

Minor Black Figures

Late Americans

A Novel

Shortlist des Booker Prize 2020

Real Life

»Scharfsinnig, intim, urkomisch, ergreifend ... Ein großartig geschriebener Roman über die Verheißung der Jugend, die Suche nach Seelenverwandten und der eigenen Berufung.« Oprah Daily Es ist ein Jahr des Aufbruchs: Seamus, Fyodor, Ivan, Noah und Fatima bleibt nicht mehr viel Zeit, um über ihre Zukunft zu entscheiden. In ihrem letzten Jahr in Iowa City, einer nicht gerade aufgeweckten Universitätsstadt, fragen die Liebenden und Freunde sich: Worauf setzt man im Leben? Arbeit, Liebe, Geld, Tanz, Poesie? Und wie sieht wahre Verbundenheit in einer Zeit der Unsicherheit und Prekarität aus? Feinfühlig und unerschrocken erzählt Brandon Taylor von Freundschaft und radikaler Selbstoffenbarung, Herkunft und Ambition – und erweist sich erneut als exzellenter Chronist unserer Gegenwart. »Taylor verfügt über ein Feingefühl, so unerschöpflich und elegant, wie wir es nur von Klassikern kennen, und schreibt zugleich geschliffen scharf über die Gegenwart.« Emma Cline »Meisterhaft und einnehmend.« Times Literary Supplement »Seine Romane sind so groß, dass sie die ganze Welt enthalten.« Esquire

Roman

Die letzten Amerikaner

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR BY VOGUE, ELLE, OPRAH DAILY, THE WASHINGTON POST, BUZZFEED AND VULTURE “Erudite, intimate, hilarious, poignant . . . A gorgeously written novel of youth’s promise, of the quest to find one’s tribe and one’s calling.” —Leigh Haber, Oprah Daily The Booker Prize finalist and widely acclaimed author of Real Life and Filthy Animals returns with a deeply involving new novel of young men and women at a crossroads In the shared and private spaces of Iowa City, a loose circle of lovers and friends encounter, confront, and provoke one another in a volatile year of self-discovery. Among them are Seamus, a frustrated young poet; Ivan, a dancer turned aspiring banker who dabbles in amateur pornography; Fatima, whose independence and work ethic complicate her relationships with friends and a trusted mentor; and Noah, who “didn’t seek sex out so much as it came up to him like an anxious dog in need of affection.” These four are buffeted by a cast of artists, landlords, meatpacking workers, and mathematicians who populate the cafes, classrooms, and food-service kitchens of the city, sometimes to violent and electrifying consequence. Finally, as each prepares for an uncertain future, the group heads to a cabin to bid goodbye to their former lives—a moment of reckoning that leaves each of them irrevocably altered. A novel of friendship and chosen family, The Late Americans asks fresh questions about love and sex, ambition and precarity, and about how human beings can bruise one another while trying to find themselves. It is Brandon Taylor’s richest and most involving work of fiction to date, confirming his position as one of our most perceptive chroniclers of contemporary life.

The Late Americans

Über die Sprengkraft der Diskriminierung Ein Spätsommerabend bei Freunden, man plaudert und sagt: Wallace könne froh sein, es als einziger Afroamerikaner an der Uni zum Biochemie-Doktoranden gebracht zu haben. Und wer bitte werde noch diskriminiert, weil er Männer liebe? Was Wallace nicht erwidert: Wie es ist, der einzige schwarze Körper in einem weißen Raum zu sein. Keine Sprache zu haben für das, was ihn ausmacht, kein Gegenüber, das die täglichen Hiebe und Stiche kennt. In diesem Sommer will er sein Leben hinter sich lassen. Mit großer Subtilität legt Brandon Taylor eine Gefühlsschicht nach der anderen frei. Ein aufwühlend intimer, ein gewaltiger Roman! »Es ist, als würden sie sagen, du sollst mit all deinen Erfahrungen kommen und ganz du selbst sein. Aber wenn du dann an ihrem Tisch sitzt, als queere schwarze Person aus dem Arbeitermilieu der Südstaaten, wollen sie auf einmal nicht mehr, dass du über bestimmte Dinge sprichst, weil du damit alle Regeln ihrer Welt brechen würdest.« Brandon Taylor im Interview mit Maddie Sofia, NPR »Ein umwerfendes Debüt ... Feinfühlig tanzt das Erzählen über die Seite: mit reiner, präziser Poesie.« The New York Times Book Review »Taylor thematisiert unter anderem Einsamkeit, Begehren und – vor allem anderen – den Versuch, sich einer Sache zu verschreiben, Sinn und Glück aus ihr für das eigene Leben zu ziehen.« Time Magazine »›Real Life‹ verdeutlicht auf ergreifende Weise, welcher Widerspruch aufklafft, sobald man sich in einer Institution nicht akzeptiert und verstanden fühlt, die aggressiv ihre eigene unbefleckte Progressivität bewirbt.« The Guardian »In einer zarten, intimen und eigensinnigen Sprache lotet Taylor aus, was Race, Sexualität und Begehren bedeuten.« Newsweek »Mal bitter, mal zart schreibt sich dieser fein gewirkte Roman in die schwule Literatur ein. Aber damit nicht genug, Wallace' Stimme trägt mit ihrer erfrischenden Nuanciertheit und ihrem Sinn fürs Mikroskopische auch zur Debatte um Black Lives Matter bei.« Financial Times »Ein bestechender Entwicklungsroman!« O: The Oprah Magazine

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR! From “literary superstar” (The Boston Globe) and Booker Prize finalist Brandon Taylor, his “most accomplished novel” (The New York Times): the story of a gay Black painter navigating the worlds of art, desire, and creativity New York simmers with heat and unrest as Wyeth, a painter, finds himself at an impasse in his own work. After attending a dubious show put on by a collective of careerist artists, he retreats to a bar in the West Village where he meets Keating, a former seminarian. Over the long summer, as the two get to know each another, they talk and argue about God, sex, and art. Meanwhile, at his job working for an art restorer, Wyeth begins to investigate the life and career of a forgotten, minor black artist. His search yields potential answers to questions that Wyeth is only now beginning to ask about what it means to be a black artist making black art amid the mess and beauty of life itself. As he did so brilliantly in the Booker Prize finalist Real Life and the bestselling The Late Americans, Brandon Taylor brings alive a captivating set of characters, this time at work and at play in the competitive art world. Minor Black Figures is a vividly etched portrait, both sweeping and tender, of friendship, creativity, belief, and the deep connections among them.

Over a hot summer in New York a painter falls for a priest, in this captivating modern love story from the Booker-Prize shortlisted Brandon Taylor 'A genuinely swoony summer romance' New York Times 'Stunning... an inquiry into desire, faith and what it costs to create beauty' Observer, *Best of 2026* Wyeth is a newcomer to New York, a young Black painter who is trying to find his place in the contemporary Manhattan art scene. He shares a studio with his friends and earns money working for a gallery and an art restorer but he’s struggling with his portrait painting, unable to truly capture the life of his subjects. Then he meets Keating, a white former priest struggling with his faith. The two men seemingly have nothing in common, and yet Keating shows Wyeth how to see the world anew. But as the men grow closer, the differences between them become more stark, until Wyeth and Keating must decide what they are willing to risk – for art and for love. 'One of the most perfect books I've ever read' NPR 'A piercing, precise, and affecting tale of young love and high art' Kirkus 'Brandon Taylor is without a doubt our laureate of hyper-intelligent yearning - nobody does it better' Lit Hub

The dazzling new novel about love and art from the Booker Prize shortlisted author

'Funny, merciless, brilliant... I loved it' CURTIS SITTENFELD, author of ROMANTIC COMEDY 'Assures Taylor's position as one of the most important novelists of his generation' GUARDIAN 'Taylor is a sharp chronicler' RAVEN LEILANI, author of LUSTER What was happiness if not this moment, if not then, right then, the group of them, together for maybe the last time, coming together for this moment, for this very instant, what were they if not happy? Seamus, Fyodor, Ivan, Noah and Fatima are running out of time to decide on their futures. In a university town in the American Midwest, this circle of lovers and friends ask themselves and each other: what is the right thing to stake a life on? Work, love, money, dance, poetry? Is love possible without harm? And what does true connection look like in an age of precarity? The author of the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Real Life returns with a deeply involving new novel of young men and women trying to work out what they want, and who they are. 'Remarkable' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Elegant... Taylor has a Chekhovian generosity' CLAIRE MESSUD, author of THE EMPEROR'S CHILDREN

from the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Real Life

A fascinating journey through Western art from the 1910s to the 1960s, charting how artists wrestled with the headlong changes of a turbulent and conflict-ridden world From the chaos of the First World War to the ravages of the Second, from the Great Depression to the rise of consumer culture, artists we call "modern" faced the challenge of responding imaginatively to utterly new circumstances of life. Original thought, startling artistic techniques, and new attitudes to experimentation were required to produce exceptional and timely work. Make It Modern guides the reader through the art of the modern world. Works of celebrated artists, from Pablo Picasso and Wassily Kandinsky to Frida Kahlo, Jackson Pollock, and Yayoi Kusama, alongside a panoply of undervalued or less-known figures, populate this decade-by-decade narrative. Make It Modern tells an unforgettable story of how art was changed forever.

A History of Art in the 20th Century

Make it Modern

In Contemporary Art Brandon Taylor charts the ideas and practices of contemporary art across a wide international spectrum. From Minimalism and Conceptualism to video and film, from painting and sculpture to performance and installation, he shows how advanced art has continued to provoke and perplex a fascinated public. Generously illustrated in color, Contemporary Art is a guiding narrative to the most adventurous art of our time.

Art Since 1970

Contemporary Art

In this book, the author provides a summary of the main tenents of modernism in art, and then considers the phenomenon of post-modernism, allegedly the central condition of art in the post-war world, one determined by popular culture, feminism, historical styles and new trends in psychoanalysis and philosophy.

A Critical Perspective for Art

Modernism, Post-modernism, Realism

When Constructivism emerged shortly after the Russian Revolution, its central principles concerned structure and efficiency in the work of art and the nature and properties of materials. In a series of eight essays, Brandon Taylor examines the origins of these principles and their extraordinary consequences for the rest of modern art. Even before Constructivism, structure was a vital ingredient in Cubist art. After it, ideas about faktura or the "madeness” of an art object--and about its rational organization--became stock-in-trade for De Stijl in Holland and Art Concret in France and bore decisively on other currents such as Surrealism and abstract art. After 1945, artistic movements including Systems, Kinetic and Minimal Art were all touched by the long reach of Constructivist ideals. Recent art has proved no exception. Taylor shows that casual attitudes to materials, even the collapse of Constructivist ideals, have helped form the artistic tenor of our times.

After Constructivism

What is form in modern art? How could a work of art achieve its organic life in a world increasingly dominated by mechanism, by new technology? In this new book, Brandon Taylor proposes that biology and the life sciences themselves supplied many of the analogies and metaphors by which modern artists were guided. For the creative giants of the period - Picasso, Miró, Kandinsky, Strzeminski, Dalí, Arp, Motherwell and Pollock, as well as less-known figures such as Taeuber, Erni and Kobro - questions of 'living' form loomed large in studio conversation, in the press, and in the writings of the artists themselves. In a book rich in new research and fresh thinking, a well-known art historian proposes six modalities of organic and vital life that pervade the radical experiments of modern art: the organic, the biomorphic, the ambiguous, the monstrous, the dialectical, and the liquid.

Modernism, Organism, Vitality

The Life of Forms in Art

Matthew Cullerne Bown

This work considers aspects of the art and architecture of the Soviet Union during the turbulent period of 1917 to 1922, covering a broad range of art, some modernist, some anti-modernist, but all to some degree guided by (and sometimes coerced by) the apparatus of the over-arching state.

Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in a One-party State, 1917-1992

Art of the Soviets

In Art Today Brandon Taylor charts the ideas and practices of contemporary art across a wide international spectrum. From Minimalism and Conceptualism to video and film, from painting and sculpture to performance and installation, he shows how advanced art has continued to provoke and perplex a fascinated public. Art Today shows how the new art of the last three decades has been energized not merely by changing technologies of art-making, but by the spread of new museum architecture, by the voice of the critic, and in recent times by the activity of the powerful international curator. It also shows how the dominant narrative of advanced art in the USA and Western Europe has been invigorated by an expanding international network, from the West Coast of America, from Eastern and Central Europe, and more recently from Asia and Africa. Reviewing the major controversies of the later twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first, it also includes a discussion of the impact of the internet and digital art. Generously illustrated in colour, Art Today is a guiding narrative to the most adventurous art of our time.

Art Today

"Offering a critical perspective-rather than a traditional survey, this provocative text explores the art of the last twenty years-the latter 1970s, the 1980s, and the first half of the 1990s-in both a thematic and chronological fashion. Using an engaging and approachable style-and an abundance of color illustrations, it takes a long look at dominant tendencies in contemporary art in the United States, Western and Eastern Europe, and Russia-and provides a series of challenging view points on the most advanced art forms, themes, and issues."--Amazon.

Rethinking Art Now

Avant-garde and After

Sheretta Taylor

Tokens of Love explores the Bible's most inspiring and devastating love stories to equip readers with insightful, practical lessons for healthy, happy, and holy relationships. This devotional will encourage you to earnestly seek God's will for your love life and discover the Bible as God's chosen tool to guide you along the way.

A 31-Day Devotional Journey Through the Love Stories of the Bible

Tokens of Love

Wilfried van der Will

This book raises the question to what extent Nazi culture prefigured the Post. Modernism of today.

Brandon Taylor

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