Ways of Being: Advice for Artists by Artists

by James Cahill

How do you be an artist? How do you become one in the first place, and what sort of advice should you heed along the way? Is art a 'career', or a vocation? Do you need a studio or a dealer, and how do you find one? Are artists too competitive? How do they come up with ideas, and what is the point of the private view? Does financial success—or the lack of it—change an artist? What are the advantages of getting older? How do older artists look back on their earlier work, and is it possible for an artist to ever retire?

Based upon advice from a huge roster of artists, dealers and curators; and encompassing every stage of an artist's life—from early works, to debut shows and mid and late-career—this book answers all the key questions that every artist has at some point asked themselves.

Genres: Art

168 pages, Paperback

Published August 28, 2018

Reviews

[cantread26 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dad got this for me and Chella at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona saying that he and mom didn’t have much advice for us as artists, so thought this might be a useful book :,) So sweet :,) But unfortunately this book was SO CONFUSING. And I do not just mean the content made it confusing but the UI/UX of the book was confusing. You would read one quote and then suddenly it would be printed again even larger right below and you would read it again and be like what. Also it was unclear why the artists who were quoted were chosen… it ranged from Marcel Duchamp to David Shrigley yet felt like it was missing a lot of people in between. Pretty much the same artists were quoted over and over giving honestly unhelpful musings on their lives and the art world. The data visualizations were also so hard to understand? I do not recommend it. But, my favorite quote was a Duchamp: “What I have in mind is that art may be bad, good or indifferent, but, whatever adjective is used, we must call it art, and bad art is still art in the same way that a bad emotion is still an emotion”.

[Mirabella. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had little interest in this book initially, it was gifted, but I read the whole thing this afternoon and it’s excellent. Sections on getting an art studio, joining the art world, going to art school, approaching galleries, making art friends etc advice all from major artists themselves. I adore this book now.

[emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had some nice quotes and short stories from other artists. Nice to hear how they got started or became successful.