Get the Picture
A Mind-Bending Journey among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
In Cork Dork, Bianca Bosker trained her insatiable curiosity, journalist's knack for infiltrating exclusive circles and eye for unforgettable characters on the wine world as she trained to become a sommelier. Now she brings her whip-smart yet accessible sensibility along for a ride through another subculture of elite obsessives.
In Get the Picture, Bosker plunges deep inside the world of art and the people who live for it: gallerists, collectors, curators and, of course, artists themselves - the kind who work multiple jobs and let their paintings sleep soundly in the studio while they wake up covered in cat pee on a friend's couch. As she stretches canvases until her fingers blister, talks her way into A-list parties full of billionaire collectors, has her face sat on by a nearly naked performance artist and forces herself to stare at a single sculpture for an hour straight while working as a museum security guard, she discovers not only the inner workings of the art-canonization machine but also a more expansive way of living.
Encompassing everything from colour theory to evolutionary biology, and from ancient cave paintings to Instagram as it attempts to discern art's role in our culture, our economy and our hearts, Get the Picture is a rollicking adventure that will change the way you see forever.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Bosker (Cork Dork) takes an energetic jaunt through the elitist and competitive world of contemporary art. Seeking to understand whether art can make for a "richer, more uncomfortable, more mind-blowing, more uncertain... more beautiful" life, Bosker finagled an internship at a rising art star's Brooklyn gallery; sold astronomically priced photos at Art Basel Miami; curated a Hong Kong art show ("What makes art ‘good'?" she asked herself again and again as she tried to sift "crap from grade-A culture"); and studiously observed sculptures as a security guard at the Guggenheim museum (she resolved to spend at least 40 minutes "befriending" each statue). In the process, Bosker came to view art as a means "for appreciating life, but also a practice for creating a life worth appreciating," one that helps "fight our instincts to truncate and elide, and in doing so, to notice more, appreciate more, empathize more." Combining gossipy detail with philosophical musings, Bosker vividly depicts a pretentious world full of moneyed buyers and cliques while simultaneously giving due to the devoted artists, gallerists, and enthusiasts whose creativity enriches and expands their lives. Connoisseurs and neophytes alike will be charmed and captivated by Bosker's boundless curiosity and astute powers of observation.
