75 Reasons to Live: Tony Labat on Howard Fried’s Inside the Harlequin: Approach-Avoidance III and II

Artist Tony Labat talks about Inside the Harlequin: Approach-Avoidance III and II (1971) by his former teacher Howard Fried, touching on rules, comedy, and the studio as the subject of art. Quoting Fried: “It's life, man. Deal with it.“Remember the end of Manhattan, when Woody Allen asks himself what makes life worth living? In January 2010, during SFMOMA's three-day 75th anniversary celebration, 75 people from the Bay Area creative community gave extremely short talks — 7.5 minutes or less! — on a single collection work of their choosing. Someone called it “manic splendor“ — and it was. You can view all of the talks on The Anniversary Show exhibition page. Or look for them here, on Open Space.