The Curious Case of Nat Tate (encore)

The Curious Case of Nat Tate (encore)

From Who Arted: Weekly Art History for All Ages by Kyle Wood

April 17, 2026 · 7 min

About this episode

This episode explores the fictional artist Nat Tate and the art world's reaction to his fabricated biography.

The art world is full of interesting characters. In so many ways, the artist‘s biography can be as important as their work. Nat Tate was an interesting character introduced to critics and tastemakers in 1998 when David Bowie hosted a dinner party to help launch a new book Nat Tate: Am American Artist 1928-1960. While the book has the sleepy title of a non-fiction book, it was actually a novel framed as a biography. Nat Tate was a tragic abstract expressionistic painter who destroyed 99% of his work before his untimely death. It was a compelling narrative of art and an artist lost to history. It was also pure fiction. While Bowie enlisted the help of a Picasso biographer to tell tales of Tate‘s interactions with Picasso, Braque and others, Nat Tate never existed. A week later, a journalist published a story of how important figures in the art world fell victim to this hoax. Oddly while Nat Tate was not real, there are real ”surviving” artworks attributed to him. In 2011, Sotheby‘s auctioned off a Nat Tate painting, Bridge No. 114, which sold for over 7000 pounds. ⁠Listen Ad-Free on Patreon. ⁠ For just $3 per month, you can get ad-free versions of Fun Facts Daily, Who ARTed and Art…

People in this episode

Host: Kyle Wood

Topics covered

  • art hoax
  • abstract expressionism
  • artist biography
  • David Bowie
  • fiction in art
  • Nat Tate

Keywords

  • Nat Tate
  • David Bowie
  • art hoax
  • abstract expressionism
  • fictional artist
  • Sotheby's auction

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Sotheby's

Books & works: Bridge No. 114, Nat Tate: Am American Artist 1928-1960

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