September: Reading about Artists
Five novels and a non-fiction read to immerse you in the world of art
How long can you look at one picture?
Late last year, I read Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. Burkeman calculates that the average human life span is about 4,000 weeks though we often assume it’s much longer. The sooner we embrace the limits on our time, work with them rather than against them, the sooner we can relieve ourselves of the subconscious denial that feeds creative neglect.
It was instrumental in changing how I prioritize my time, putting an end to a mindset that kept me from writing and sharing— and sometimes from reading books, too.
It’s often not true that we don’t have time to do the things we value, or to create. But when we have 15 or 30 minutes we could spend doing these things, we can find ourselves impatient with the reality that the more meaningful or creative an activity, the less willingly it consents to being hurried.
Burkeman cites an exercise Harvard art historian Jennifer Roberts requires of her students to develop the power of patience and resist the urge to hurry: observe one picture for three hours, no Starbucks runs or checking socials. Make notes about how what you see evolves, and the questions or speculations that come up.
As untrained (stunted?) as I am in visual literacy, this seems intimidating. Yet the idea of it has not left my mind. Maybe I will finally try it this month. Are you in?
Let’s read some books about art and artists, these people who extend their four thousand weeks of life through their work— or die trying. In reverse order of publication:
Exhibit
R.O. Kwon
Riverhead, 2024
It has been a couple of months since I had something sexy and unhinged on my list, so here you go. Photographer Jin Han meets injured ballerina Lidija Jung at a party. Sparks fly. There’s a family curse, supposed to be kept secret, which Jin can’t help but share with the person who has cracked her life and desires open. It’s dedicated “To people kept out of the record” and the epigraph comes from Clarice Lispector’s The Hour of the Star which I read earlier this year, so I’m curious what that’s all about.
Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See
Bianca Bosker
Viking, 2024
Journalist Bianca Bosker, author of Cork Dork, has made a career of skeptical forays into fields where tastemakers set the rules. In her latest book, she persuades her way into gallery assistantships and artist studio visits, despite the general reluctance of the who’s who of the New York art world to open up.
From “International Art English” to the questions that serve as a shibboleth to sort a “good person” from other potential collectors, she reveals the coded, exclusive world of those obsessed with maintaining the appearance of art’s purity. And she also uncovers another side—people who make great sacrifices to create and also to help artists emerge so that they might be able to sustain their creative lives in the face of late stage capitalism. This is my current audiobook and it’s been perfect for adding a little je ne sais quoi to my commute and household chores.
Martyr!
Kaveh Akbar
Knopf, 2024
It’s time to give this bestseller and likely awards contender a try. Poet Cyrus is obsessed with martyrs, which leads him to examine the mysteries of his past. Through a painting in a Brooklyn art gallery, and an encounter with a terminally ill artist, he discovers his mother may not have been who or what she seemed. I’ve heard it’s heavy material, as it deals with themes of violence, loss, and addiction, and I hope the lighter notes within this list will balance it out.
So Much Blue
Percival Everett
Graywolf, 2017
This will be my second Percival Everett novel this year, after reading James when it came out in March. It has been described as a “coming of middle-age” story, as abstract painter Kevin Pace reflects on three phases of his life. He’s keeping his latest painting, like his past, a secret. It’s been described as deadpan, suspenseful and tender, which sounds like a perfect combination to me.
how to be both
Ali Smith
Anchor Books, 2014
I’m a little more than 100 pages into this book, and I still do not quite understand what is going on. No matter. I am enjoying its humor and whimsy so far, seeing the world through the eyes of Franchesco, a 15th century Italian painter from a brickmaker’s family, whose expression of gender leaves some enthralled and others confused. There’s a modern day component, which I understand from the copy will become clear when the perspective shifts in the second half of the book. It reminds me a bit of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, updated for today’s social mores. For now I’m trying not to learn too much more about this 2014 Booker Prize finalist and 2015 Women’s Prize winner because I want to experience more of its surprises firsthand.
The Bone People
Keli Hulme
Penguin Books, 1986
Remember when I said I was moving to New Zealand? I received all kinds of recommendations of books by Kiwi authors which I’ll incorporate into my lists for the rest of the year. The Bone People won the Booker Prize and the Pegasus Prize for Literature and polarized the critics. An unorthodox trinity of a part-Maori part-European artist estranged from her art, a boy saved from a shipwreck and his Maori foster father with elements of mystery, romance and social commentary. I’m intrigued.
It’s Book Award Season
The National Book Awards longlists will be announced September 10-13, with The New Yorker.
The fool’s errand of speculation is underway. The
podcast had a fun episode recently in which and offer their predictions of the Fiction award longlist, using a rather baroque scoring system they agreed is likely to result in negative scores for them both.If you want to play along—with a slightly simplified system of scoring because I don’t have THAT much free time— I’ve created a Fiction longlist and a Nonfiction longlist prediction ballot. Complete it by 11:59 p.m. PT on September 9 because cheaters never win and winners never cheat.
Win what, you may ask? I have no idea. Substack/BookStack glory?
If it turns out that only
of and I play, I hope she’ll chat with me about it and we’ll give you all a good laugh about our failed predictions.If a lot of people want in, I hope to highlight a few top ballots and also some valid but sadly inaccurate attempts by other good sports.
In the meantime, we’ll discuss book awards of all kinds in upcoming Friday threads.
So tell me…
What picture could you look at for three hours? Bonus if it’s in Arizona and has a comfy bench in front of it. I’m looking for ideas to complete the exercise.
What are you prioritizing this particular week among your four thousand on this Earth?
Which of the books on this list intrigue you?
How long can you look at one artwork?
How about,
how many times can you look at one artwork and find new images and potential messages and meaning?
Ok...maybe leave that for another day!
The prompt to look at an artwork reminds me of Terry Tempest Williams’ meditative book, Leap. It’s based entirely on her encounters with H. Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights triptych (in Spain). I don’t know what I would look at that long, but here’s a review of TTW meeting the assignment: https://januarymagazine.com/nonfiction/leap.html