The Art of Life: Adam Foulds

The Art of Life podcast invites guests to pick three works that have shaped their lives. Along the way we talk about their own work, and how the art in question may have informed or connected with it.

In this episode of The Art of Life the Booker-shortlisted novelist and poet Adam Foulds picks out three of his favourite works of art, taking us from Georges Seurat to John Soane via the photographer William Eggleston. He talks about familiar artworks serving as ‘autobiographical anchors’, and how much he cherishes his visits to the National Gallery in London (which has a cameo in his most recent novel, Dream Sequence). He also shares details of his favourite museum in Toronto, where he now lives.

Bathers at Asnières (1884), Georges Seurat. National Gallery, London Photo: © The National Gallery, London

Untitled (c. 1969–1974), William Eggleston. Courtesy Eggleston Artistic Trust and David Zwirner; © Eggleston Artistic Trust

The Picture Room Recess at Sir John Soane’s Museum, London. Photo: Gareth Gardner

Adam Foulds’s most recent novel, Dream Sequence, is published by Vintage.