The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing

by Adam Moss

From former editor of New York magazine Adam Moss, a collection of illuminating conversations examining the very personal, rigorous, complex, and elusive work of making art

What is the work of art? In this guided tour inside the artist’s head, Adam Moss traces the evolution of transcendent novels, paintings, jokes, movies, songs, and more. Weaving conversations with some of the most accomplished artists of our time together with the journal entries, napkin doodles, and sketches that were their tools, Moss breaks down the work—the tortuous paths and artistic decisions—that led to great art. From first glimmers to second thoughts, roads not taken, crises, breakthroughs, on to one triumphant finish after another.

Featuring: Kara Walker, Tony Kushner, Roz Chast, Michael Cunningham, Moses Sumney, Sofia Coppola, Stephen Sondheim, Susan Meiselas, Louise Glück, Maria de Los Angeles, Nico Muhly, Thomas Bartlett, Twyla Tharp, John Derian, Barbara Kruger, David Mandel, Gregory Crewdson, Marie Howe, Gay Talese, Cheryl Pope, Samin Nosrat, Joanna Quinn & Les Mills, Wesley Morris, Amy Sillman, Andrew Jarecki, Rostam, Ira Glass, Simphiwe Ndzube, Dean Baquet & Tom Bodkin, Max Porter, Elizabeth Diller, Ian Adelman / Calvin Seibert, Tyler Hobbs, Marc Jacobs, Grady West (Dina Martina), Will Shortz, Sheila Heti, Gerald Lovell, Jody Williams & Rita Sodi, Taylor Mac & Machine Dazzle, David Simon, George Saunders, Suzan-Lori Parks

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Writing, Essays, Design, History, Self Help

432 pages, Hardcover

First published April 16, 2024

Reviews

[Jacqueline Nyathi · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a struggle for me not to use superlatives in describing this book. Adam Moss’s background as a magazine editor (New York) shows: he’s collected here a series of interviews with artists of all kinds, many famous and well-known (to me: Kara Walker, Sofia Coppola, Michael Cunningham, LOUISE GLÜCK, Ira Glass, Max Porter, Sheila Heti, Suzan-Lori Parks), and many others less so. The raison d’être of the book is to delve into the creative process: What makes art? From the initial idea (and how does that happen?), the God-spark, through the process of translating that, to the final work, Moss has tried to get these creatives to break down what happens, with mixed results (spoiler: there’s a lot of mystery involved).

Anyone who does creative work is interested in the processes of others, particularly those who’ve found success. Do they wake up early? Are there rituals? Do they drink coffee? How do they hear from God? Was there a lightning strike? How did they know what to add, what to remove (edit), when to stop? All of these questions make for fascinating answers, and just as interesting is what creatives think about how they came up with the work. Moss has also got each artist to dig up visual archives, included in the book: notes, scribbles, anything that tracks the progress to finished work. It’s amazing to see.

Outstanding. Very highly recommended: a stunning book, that you’ll want to go back to over and over if you’re a creative yourself. But also: one of the reasons the book gets five stars from me? It starts and finishes with profiles of Black women.

My grateful thanks to Penguin and to NetGalley for early access.

[reading is my hustle · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a handsome book: the design + layout of the images and texts, the paper it is printed on, the muted photography. it can be read in any order and the form isn't any one thing. adam moss is an engaging writer as he deconstructs the creative process. he describes his interviews with writers, artists, filmmakers, and songwriters as 'case studies, conversations, little biographies.' he notes that creative paths are similar: art evolves with the process of an idea, shaping the work, doubt and despair, and editing over and over and over.

short version: art requires much fortitude.

some favorite interviews: kara walker, michael cunningham, louise glück, sofia coppola, samin nosrat, wesley morris, amy sillman, george saunders, sheila heti, cheryl pope.

[Jerrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great collection of interviews/essays with some of the important creative minds of our time. The author interviewed creators across multiple artistic genres, from music, movies, TV, theater, dance, etc. in an attempt to identify what drives the creative process.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

STUNNING book about the mental process behind creating great works of art. Each chapter dives into one work of art by one artist, often with an interview and photo evidence of the process. Perhaps my favorite part is that the book spans all manner of art forms- painters, screenwriters, composers, chefs, and even a sandcastle sculptor. Big fan.

[Robert Reinhard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didnt read the whole book, which has many individual interviews with the various artists about their creation of a single work. The book allows for that kind of selective dip. and I read pieces about Tony Kushner, Marie Howe, Stephen Sondheim for example. Although an interesting concept as a program by Adam Moss, an important NY editor and writer, not all "process" in this format illuminates the finished art. I did enjoy reading Tony Kushner's mention of how a passage from Billy Budd was integral to the scene of Roy Cohn at his doctor's office in Angels in America. Genius. I dont think my already over the top appreciation of the song "not Getting Married Today" from Company was increased by reading the interview with Sondheim here about its versions. I'm reading another book now, a critical edition of Ezra Pound's "Cathay" which is better unearthing how a book "is" finally from its origins. I won't "goodread" that one. Pound of course was also the notorious editor for The Wasteland which has been poured over in its drafts.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every Monday morning, I spend two hours in a zoom session with a group of writers at varying levels of success. It’s motivating and fun, but what’s been most invaluable as a writer is to learn that X, who wrote that vampire story I fell in love with uses brackets when they can’t find the words, or that Y whose career I’d probably sell my soul for sometimes “cheats” by cutting and pasting and then completely rewriting over formats with which they’re not familiar. You and your process, however you approach each other, aren’t as wrong or as lazy or as unusual—or as precious—as you think. It’s a lesson provided by every scrap of paper and brush stroke in this book, not to mention the wisdom distilled in Moss’s afterward. If you’re a creative, I can’t recommend it enough. If you don’t consider yourself to be one, you’ll still walk away with a wealth of things to explore.

[Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interviews with artists about their process which replaced the gone but not forgotten The Moment with Brian Koppelman podcast for me. While the interviews were interesting and Moss talked to many artists that I was familiar with, they were not particularly revelatory. Art comes from the churn of ideas. The book did introduce me to a number of artists that I am interested in and will look into.

[Florence ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much of happiness, it turned out, is anticipation.
"Because the best times," he said, "are while you're working on it, you're still imagining what it might be. And it feels like it could be anything." (Michael Cunningham)

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Movies, books, plays, paintings and visual art, sculpture, temporary installation work, photography, cartoons, magazine cover designs, radio essays, songs, television episodes, crossword puzzles, jokes: Adam Moss asks, "How does it all get created?" He talked to novelists, playwrights, songwriters, composers, poets, a dance choreographer, painters, movie and television directors, a cartoonist, performance artists, animators, photographers, two guys that build elaborate sand castles as a hobby, and a cook about writing her first cookbook. Chances are you'll recognize a lot of names in the table of contents. Some, like Stephen Sondheim and Louise Glück, died before Moss published, making those interviews poignant to read.

The main takeaway I got from Moss' book is that creating art (or anything, really) is a process. Almost every artist here has had those moments where an idea struck suddenly, and could be used with little change, but those are just that—moments. Absolutely everyone interviewed for this book talked much more about the long amount of time spent working through ideas, hitting dead ends, starting over, endlessly editing, redrawing or improving. Art is made by doing. The other major takeaway for me is that artists are driven to express their ideas, and they're willing to work long and hard to see that happen. Perseverance counts a lot. Lastly, good feedback that can be trusted is a must, but don't bring it in too early. In fact, a tendency to keep ideas secret from everyone until they're developed "enough" was another commonality.


A cartoon by Roz Chast. In her chapter, she mentions how this particular idea came to her pretty much fully formed. Most of the time she mines a shoebox of "idea germs" she jots down on slips of paper, and reworks things—a lot. Source.

Personally, I found the artifacts of the process varied a lot in how interesting they were. The visual artists' doodles, sketchings, "drafts" and the works they drew inspiration from were the easiest to follow, as they told a pictorial story of the work evolving. The pictures of writers' notes and scribblings often made little sense to me, as I was looking at the workings of someone else's thought process in words, which isn't linear or straightforward. It does give you a very good idea of how a novel or song you might love took a long time and a lot of effort to get to its final state, whether it's Bob Dylan's "Blowing in the Wind" or Moses Sumney's "Doomed," or Michael Cunningham's The Hours.


The Blur Building, Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland, a temporary exhibit that was part of an expo in 2002. Moss talks to architect Elizabeth Diller about its creation in chapter 31. Source.

Moss used to work as a magazine editor, and this book shows it. It has both a understated, refined aesthetic and a well designed layout. Text printed in red with accompanying red arrows around the text columns not only looks tasteful, but gently leads your eye to the exact picture referenced without interrupting the reading flow. Footnotes are grouped in their own, smaller column; unobtrusive, yet easy to find. Form follows function beautifully here. Moss says in the Introduction that the chapters can be read in any order, and I can personally attest to that.

It's inspiring to know, even if we're just hobbyists, that struggles, doubts, and ideas that flop are all part of the process of creation, the work of art. Here's forty-three conversations with artists about how they wrestle with that and still create.

[Literatūras ceļvedis]

""The Work of Art" veido vairāk nekā 40 gadījumu studiju, sarunu un nelielu biogrāfiju ar dažādu mākslas žanru pārstāvjiem. Tie ir gleznotāji, rakstnieki, kinorežisori, dziesmu autori, žurnālisti, kuri iepazīstina ar savu darbu tapšanas procesu."

Vairāk par Adama Mosa grāmatu "The Work of Art : how something comes from nothing" (Penguin Press, 2024) lasiet Ievas Ēkenas apskatā LNB izdevuma "Literatūras ceļvedis" augusta numurā.

https://www.literaturascelvedis.lv/po...

Ieva Ēkena ir LNB Speciālo krājumu departamenta Mākslas un mūzikas centra mākslas krājuma eksperte.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book about the art process. It includes interviews from a wide variety of artists from painters to composers, chefs, visual artists, screenwriters, writers, and so many more. It includes many pictures, which makes it a beautiful book to have.

[rumbledethumps · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me. The author never neglects to tell the reader which of the famous artists are his personal friends, and their stories are fairly anodyne. He suffers from the survivorship bias (how many other artists did exactly the same thing as his friends, but didn't succeed?), and it just becomes uninteresting after a few profiles.

And this one just hits the mark of the whole book: "Sofia [Coppola], who is the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola, had a childhood of privilege, which only makes her emergence as a major filmmaker that much more impressive...." I do not deny that Coppola is an impressive filmmaker in her own right, but that she never had material worries and was able to pursue her art/craft without having to worry about making a living, does not make it "much more impressive." The whole tone of the book is cowtowing to famous people he knows personally.

There are some gems in here, but they are hard to dig out.

[William Schram · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happens when the fountain of creative juices begins flowing for an artist or creative person? Author Adam Moss hoped to see firsthand how a scribble on a napkin could become a piece of architecture, for example. Moss discusses the artistic process with 43 people.

What is most interesting about the book are the scribbles and doodles that lead to the art. There are faithful reproductions of the steps that led to many of them. I’ve heard of a few of the people in the book before, but many of the names were new to me. The author discusses the process and dealing with mental blocks along the way.

I enjoyed the book. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the surface this seems like a book I would have liked, but I really did not. This could have been 43 individual articles since the chapters had no cohesion and were structured as distinct interviews instead of a cohesive story. I also would have enjoyed some of the author’s own deeper opinions/takeaways after being able to talk to such a diverse set of creatives, but instead it read so robotic.

Readers are talked to instead of being invited for deeper reflection, where fluid interpretation is so crucial to the arts space.

[David Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adam Moss actually delivers on the promise of his book: “The Work of Art – How something comes from nothing “ Through a dizzying array of conversations with extraordinary artists from a multitude of disciplines, including visual art, music, photography, theatre, film-making, writing… Moss expertly explores the field of creativity, providing insights that are both unparalleled and profound. This is a true master work, a cherished reference work on the artistic process. Bravo!

[Wilhelm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adam Moss, tidligere redaktør i New York magazine, har skrevet en ambisiøs bok der han gjennom intervjuer med 43 kunstnere forsøker å finne svar på hvordan kunst blir til. Hvordan fungerer den kreative prosessen som gjør at kunst oppstår?

Det er mange veldig gode og spennende intervjuer. Boken er også et lite kunstverk hva gjelder design. Litt for mange av intervjuene er litt kjedelige eller traff ikke helt for meg.

[Sarah]

Neat coffee table book. I really liked the sections about artists and writers I’ve heard of, but otherwise found it hard to keep at it.

[Bianca Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

anyone who’s ever wanted to create something needs to read this. smth about looking thru artists’ notes/sketches/drafts felt deliciously invasive and nosy

i read this on my kindle and then ordered it cuz i liked it so much, and imagine my surprise when i unboxed it and it’s A BEAUTIFULLY FABRIC-BOUND COFFEE TABLE BOOK… 😭😭😭

fav convos: michael cunningham, sofia coppola, samin nosrat, ira glass

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did not read the whole book. read around 12 of the artist’s stories. A few were very interesting.

[Diya Chutani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not about works of art but about their process and that’s why I enjoyed it. I loved that it was a collection of lil memoirs that gave me a peak into the lives of so many cool people who create cool things. Expanded my definition of what an artist is and reminded me of the values I sometimes forget about in my own creative process.

I stumbled upon a physical copy of it at a book store the other day and was like DAMN the kindle did not do this justice bc there are so many little artifacts from peoples processes (journals, in progress pieces, etc) that just didn’t get to visually see very well so that’s my only complaint but that’s just my own circumstance

[ZeeMi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating portrait of creativity made up of an array of artists in all fields. Also a handsome volume. The level of discourse in a relatively short chapters wasn't always able to plumb great depths, but even still... I loved it.

[Jim Razinha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am always fascinated with creative processes. This book tried very hard to stifle that fascination. It could have been an interesting behind the scenes look at 43 artists. (I embrace Alex Trebek’s “I am curious about everything. Even things I am not interested in.” This taxed the “interesting” part.) Many of these are overly long, and I imagine the spectrum won’t appeal to many (nor the sometimes graphic discourse. I admit being baffled at the poetry (and not for the first time, the Nobel committees) I love music composition, yet wonder also at some of the choices of the author.

Underwhelmed, or just whelmed? Lost time. Clearly, in this case, I am not the target audience, and I will still be fascinated with creative processes.

[Diane Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever wondered how artists, writers or other creative types begin their creative journey? How do they continue from the bare idea to the final product? Most importantly, how do they know they are done? The Work of Art lets forty-three creatives speak in their own words about their process to create one work for which they are famous.

Despite the broad creative areas covered, most of the interviewees displayed a feeling of awe over what they created. Most had explanations for where the original idea had come from (i.e.; a dream, a book, an image or a random conversation overheard). However, few expected the adulation that their work engendered. They just wanted to finish their project because it needed to be completed. Most explained step-by-step how they proceeded from idea to final product. Their preliminary sketches, notes, etc. are included. Extensive footnotes add the author’s comments about what he is hearing rather than distracting from the creative’s monologue. The bottom line of the book is that art, at least great art or art that makes you famous, which is not necessarily the same thing, takes a lot of hard time-consuming work.

If you are a struggling artist in any medium (painting, sculpture, writing, photography, fashion design, etc.), The Work of Art is an interesting way to see the methodology of other creatives. It may make you feel better if you have struggled for years with a project to know you are not alone. It may encourage you to try another artist’s method for getting past blocks or uncertainty. Even if art is not your love, it is still fascinating to see how others think. 4 stars!

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Press for providing me with an advanced review copy.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 stars for the conceit and book design and maybe 3 stars for the quality of the interviews? There are glimmers of profundity here, but on the whole the set is informal and messy, like life and people and art. Which in a way is beautiful and refreshing, but I also found quite frustrating during various interviews. Maybe I just like experiencing the finished product more than unearthing the path to it, since it loses some of its majesty? Maybe that says more about me than the book?

A lot of the formula for Great Art seems to be: some raw talent or interest or encouragement at an impressionable age, time, playfulness/looseness/acceptance of some failure, patience, and rigorous self editing (toward a voice or truth you need to come to on your own).

[danielle; ▵ · Rating 5 out of 5]

reading this book, I felt like I was part of something (like I am not so different from all the people in the book), and that sense of belonging was exciting and comforting, but then there’s the distance (the people in the book knowing the people who connected their points with them), and I felt something closer to despair—a despair of not knowing who can connect my points with me (although maybe I do or can—stories unfold over time, as exhibited by the book; so I’ve decided to walk away optimistic: such people exist, and I am one of them)

[Alexa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Faith—the bedrock confidence that you can actually do what you are trying to do—is what makes stamina possible. The photographer Walker Evans has a nice quote about its necessity: “It’s logical to say that what I do is an act of faith. Other people may call it conceit, but I have to have faith and conviction. It came to me. And I worked it out. I used to suffer from a lack of it, and now that I’ve got it I suppose it seems self-centered. I have to have faith or I can’t act.”

[Lee Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

What was really interesting to me was “Miss Gleason in 39 Stages, showing how a painting evolved in a process of adding and removing. This reminds me of what I go through with some songs, and in the end I might not like the result, or find an earlier version that really worked and I didn't notice it at the time. Creating art is a process of noticing what might be art.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I read, I kept thinking about how this book is the artistic equivalent of Paul Feyerabend's "Against Method," which puts forward the proposition that scientific advancement is much more random than Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn would have us believe. It turns out that science is a process of start and stop, randomness, luck, blind alleys, fudged results and stubborn insistence on things for which there is little basis, but somehow we nevertheless manage to build a beautiful edifice of knowledge on these shaky foundations.

There seems to be little common pattern to be discerned among the 43 artists whose creative processes are profiled in this book. Sure, there's almost always a moment of inspiration, a development stage in which the work begins to take on form, a production stage and then lots of revisions. But that's little more revealing than it would be to say of any process that it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The attempt by Mr. Moss in his afterword to distill some artistic essence or to at least find some common threads among his artists was a failure for me. I didn't even always trust the artists' own description of their methods, which sometimes felt more like after the fact rationalizations than true descriptions of actual process. My final takeaway was a sense of wonder at the diversity of methods and results. How can we even recognize all of these things as art? Fortunately, the creation of art also involves a lot of imitation and learning from the masters. Otherwise with all of the diversity, we'd never develop recognizable styles and genres.

I very much liked the idea of including a broad range of artists of different types - from painters to novelists to poets to dramatists to musicians to costume designers, even journalists and chefs. There were many familiar names, but also more than a few that I had never heard of. I see art everywhere in the world, so I was happy that Mr. Moss does too. There was a weighting of the choices toward gay men and to New York, but that's the universe that Mr. Moss lives in and knows best, and he does stretch to include a fair sampling from outside of this world. The only bad part of this broad approach for me was there were at least a half dozen of the profiled artists whose work was not very interesting to me, but still I was glad to learn about them, since their art and their process is valid, and I can learn from it, even if it is not ultimately for me.

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published at myreadinglife.com.

This book has been brought to my attention at least three times through podcasts I listen to or newsletters I read. It was named as one of the best books of the year for its unique look at the work of creativity. Due to my interest in writing and the level of praise it's received, I picked it up. It definitely lived up to its billing.

Each chapter of the book is the result of an interview by the author with an artist where he tried to get at what the process of creativity looks like. This includes many artifacts of the artists as they worked: drafts, notes, correspondence, etc. The breadth of artistry was wide including painters, playwrights, singers, songwriters, authors, and sculptors among many others. One of my favorite features of the book is the footnotes. They read like the author's own notes on reviewing his text. They help to connect the wide variety of insights where they overlap. I found it essential to the books utility.

The writing is direct and easily accessible for such an esoteric subject. Words are hard to apply to a process that is so far from linear. There is a lot of gut feeling in this and the exploration of what that means. Each chapter is self-contained, and they can be read in any order. I read them sequentially, finding that very satisfying despite the author's invitation to jump around. This is a book that is unique in its subject matter. I am not sure anyone else has set out to get at how art gets made in quite the same way. The author succeeds in drawing the reader into the often messy and hard to pin down process that is making art. Engaging and fascinating.

My rating: 5/5

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buried in the acknowledgments at the back of the book is Adam Moss's vision for what The Work of Art might be. He hopes for "a sort of interactive museum of creativity, with exhibits and wall text and talk wafting through its corridors."

He pulls it off. I read fast, but that isn't an option here. I've been in this book for a month, reading one or two conversations a day. There's so much to take in -- visually, in the well-written text and, one of my favourite features, in the footnotes embedded at various places on the pages, linking one artist to another or Moss talking to us, the reader, as we meander through the rooms of his museum.

Other reviewers have commented on even-handed representation of racial and cultural groups, and a broad definition of artist from chef to sandcastle builder to painter or writer. There are more unfamiliar than familiar artists in these pages, which is a refreshing change. No old masters because Moss couldn't talk to them! There's a strong tilt to queer artists, often underrepresented in books about creativity and also part of Moss's community.

If you are interested in reading about how various artists think, and/or you want to see work in development from nothing to something, The Work of Art is highly recommended. One caution: Don't attempt this one as an ebook. You'd miss the interactive museum experience entirely. Enjoy the print book. It's gorgeous.