Spotlight

Searching for Von Honningsbergs by Rowena Wiseman

Posted by Harriet Gausman in Spotlight |

  Lawson is sent overseas to retrieve three paintings for an exhibition. He has a thorny love affair with an anorexic Russian Latvian firetwirler, does a deal with two shady characters in Brazil and runs for his life from a madman in Beijing. When Lawson discovers that he has actually become involved in an art world scam, he begins to question the true value of art. What are the main themes of your book? SEARCHING FOR VON HONNINGSBERGS is all about art – what are the stories behind artworks, why did an artist paint a certain piece, why did someone end up with a particular artwork on their wall and what does it mean to them? It also questions how we interpret art. There’s a whole industry around art – there are curators, art historians, auction houses, collectors, marketers (my main character Lawson calls these people ‘parasites’) … do we lose the artist’s original intention in other people’s interpretations? Can we ever really know exactly what was in an artist’s head when they created an artwork? What is the true value of art? And finally, one of the big questions asked at the end – is it okay to do the wrong thing for the right reason? Who or what inspired your story? SEARCHING FOR VON HONNINGSBERGS was inspired by an article I read in Melbourne’s major newspaper about an art curator going overseas to search for some Sidney Nolan paintings. I began wondering about how artworks end up distributed all over the world, who owns these works and how did they come to be in their collection? What, essentially, was the story behind those artworks? What do you like best about your primary characters? I lived with Lawson’s voice in my head for many years – I find him witty, sardonic and straight up about the way things are. He hasn’t been sucked into the ‘art world wank’. He is an insider on the outside. What are their worst peculiarities? Lawson is probably pretty self-centred at the beginning, however, he does develop empathy for others along the way. I’ve got another character, called Baiba, who Lawson has a brief and stormy affair with. She’s an anorexic Latvian Russian firetwirler, who smokes cigarettes only on the weekend and gives herself orgasms to burn fat. I had a lot of fun with her as a character. How does your main character evolve? Lawson dreams of being an artist, he spends a lot of time imagining his exhibition openings, the articles people are going to write about him and his set of adoring fans, but he’s not actually producing any artworks. By the end of his journey he is actually motivated to start painting. By his own admission, as an art student he was always too proud and thought he was too talented (just no one had noticed yet) to take criticism. But by the end of the story, he realises that he doesn’t know it all and he still has a lot...