Kurt Andersen and writer Lawrence Weschler talk aboutthe sometimes-secret techniques that make art appealing.

Weschler is a former staff writer forThe New Yorker, andthe author of many books, includingBoggs: A Comedy of Values,Calamity ofExiles, andMr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder. He is also director of the New York Institute of the Humanities at New York University. Weschler’s new book on the conceptual artist Robert Irwin will be published later this year.