The Art of Buying Art

The Art of Buying Art: An Insider's Guide to Collecting Contemporary Art is a just released book by Paige West of Mixed Greens in New York. She offers tips on where to go to buy original art, what questions to ask, how to negotiate the price, and how to build an art collection. It sounds like a great book for beginning art collectors.

New Work, Old Work

I want to share a paragraph about new work from the book Art and Fear:

"In routine artistic growth, new work doesn't make the old work false -- it makes it more artificial, more of an artifice. Older work is ofttimes an embarrassment to the artist because it feels like it was made by a younger, more naive person -- one who was ignorant of the pretension and striving in the work. Earlier work often feels, curiously, both too labored and too simple. This is normal. New work is supposed to replace old work. If it does so by making the old work inadequate, insufficient and incomplete -- well, that's life . . . Old work tells you what you were paying attention to then; new work comments on the old by pointing out what you were not previously paying attention to. Now this would all be smooth and lovely, except that new work can turn to old work in an instant -- sometimes, indeed, in the instant immediately following the work's completion. Savoring finished work may last only an eye-blink. This is certainly unpleasant -- but it's a good sign."

This is a good sign? Oh. I thought it was some sort of defect in me. The hard part is selling old work that has lost my interest, because I'm on to something new. I find it difficult to talk up the old work. I think that's part of why artists find it so much easier to let someone else do the selling for them.

Manual of Contemporary Art Style

Here's a funny book. The Pablo Helguera Manual of Contemporary Art Style is a tongue-in-cheek guide for artists, curators, and critics. I guess it's a spoof of an Emily Post type of book, but the thing is, a lot of it is true. It's hard to tell where the joke ends and where reality begins. Here's a quote from the introduction that I thought was funny:

"Art is an uncommon profession, one that is best defined as an entrepreneurial religion. This is because it offers the possibility of spiritual fulfillment but at the same time it operates like any other enterprise of our capitalist world. When the novice initiates his relationship with art, he tends to see it as a spiritual calling, but secretly awaits a personal and financial remuneration that goes beyond internal fulfillment. When such remuneration is not received, it is replaced by great perplexity, distress, and bitterness. Hence, those who enter the art world emphasizing the spiritual over the pragmatic tend to become quickly disappointed, while those who go in pragmatically and with little concern for spiritual fulfillment are the ones who integrate in the field with greater ease."

Entrepreneurial religion? I laughed out loud when I read that, but it's so true. The sad part about this book is that you begin to see that artists really are only pawns in the art world game. It's also amazing to think about how many peoples' livelihoods depend on the work of artists.

Check this book out and see what you think.

Painting the Spirit of Nature

Painting the Spirit of Nature is a beautiful book by Maxine Masterfield. Her focus is unusual techniques for the abstract representation of nature using watercolors and inks. I don't use either of those media, but I still find the ideas and her paintings inspirational. Unfortunately the book is out of print, and used copies are expensive. Every now and then I'll see one available for under $20. Snap it up if you find it at a reasonable price!

The Pleasure Trap

The Pleasure Trap is a fascinating book by Doug Lisle and and Alan Goldhamer. Doug Lisle also turned it into a DVD, which I like even better. Dr. Lisle explains how evolution, our changing world, and society have conspired to make us crave fat, sugar and salt, and how to make healthier choices. Dr. Lisle is quite funny, which makes the DVD entertaining as well as informational. Highly recommended!

Beyond Realism

Beyond Realism is an interesting book by Brian Ryder that I recently discovered. He takes you step by step through the development of ten abstract and semi-abstract paintings, and demonstrates techniques for using acrylics, oils, oil bars and oil pastels. I find books like this useful for explaining techniques that I've seen in paintings but wasn't quite sure how to execute.

New Acrylics Book

The New Acrylics is a fabulous new book by Rheni Tauchid. Everything you always wanted to know about acrylic paints -- a in-depth explanation of the different mediums and gels; information about the various colors, including the interference and metallic colors; and instructions on basic techniques and alternative approaches for using the paints. The photographs are beautiful, and they feature well-known artists work.

Definitely worth adding to your book collection if you are interested in abstract painting with acrylics.

Art and Fear

Jim Murray, who teaches the Art in Art Spaces class through the Palos Verdes Art Center, recently mentioned the book Art and Fear. He suggested that we read it, because it deals with a lot of the issues that we discuss in class. I read it many years ago, but I hadn't looked at it since. I took another look at it, and wow! --he's right. This book is right-on in its discussion of what artists go through when creating art. Here are a couple of brief excerpts from the first chapter:

"Making art now means working in the face of uncertainty; it means living with doubt and contradiction, doing something no one much cares whether you do, and for which there may be neither audience nor reward. Making the work you want to make means setting aside these doubts so that you may see clearly what you have done, and thereby see where to go next. Making the work you want to make means finding nourishment within the work itself."

"Art is made by ordinary people. Creatures having only virtues can hardly be imagined making art . . . The flawless creature wouldn't need to make art. And so, ironically, the ideal artist is scarcely a theoretical figure at all. If art is made by ordinary people, then you'd have to allow that the ideal artist would be an ordinary person too, with the whole usual mixed bag of traits that real human beings possess. This is a giant hint about art, because it suggests that our flaws and weaknesses, while often obstacles to our getting work done, are a source of strength as well. Something about making art has to do with overcoming things, giving us a clear opportunity for doing things in ways we have always known we should do them."

I highly recommend this book to all artists.