Elephant visits Tal R in his Copenhagen studio ahead of his exhibition, Sexshops

Elephant issue 32

By Andrew Mellor

'You don't make art to get psychological answers back. You simply unfold the mystery of your own interest.' Andrew Mellor visits Tal R in his Copenhagen studio to talk railcars, sex shops and the terrors of measuring yourself against the art-history greats. 

Tal R speaks calm, idiosyncratic and un-accented Danish, amidst the organised chaos of his hangarlike studio in central Copenhagen. But he maintains and even underlines the privilege of an outsider. He was born Tal Rosenzweig in Tel Aviv to a Danish mother and Czechoslovakian Jewish father in 1967. The family moved to Copenhagen when he was one. Now, Tal R is probably Denmark’s most recognisable painter (though he works in sculpture, collage and other forms besides). The Danish capital has provided him with countless subjects. But only as an intruder can he truly break the culture of a place open, he says. 

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