Comments on: Some of my favorite non-fiction book recommendations for continuing your art education

By: Feel Better About the M Word — Art Biz Blog

Feel Better About the M Word — Art Biz Blog — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:01:41 +0000

[...] Marketing is something that direct-mailers and telemarketers do. They didn’t teach marketing in art school and you certainly won’t read about it in art history books or artist biographies. [...]

By: Art Marketing Action + Podcast: Devote 15 Minutes a Day to . . . — Art Biz Blog

Art Marketing Action + Podcast: Devote 15 Minutes a Day to . . . — Art Biz Blog — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:50:25 +0000

[...] Reading about art [...]

By: Alyson Stanfield

Alyson Stanfield — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:35:31 +0000

Penelope: The Scully book is a good one. I haven’t read it cover-to-cover, but it has good stuff in it. His retrospective is still one of my favorites of all time. I’ll have to check out The Painter’s Studio. I’m a fan of Mehretu’s work.

By: penelope rothfield

penelope rothfield — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:02:33 +0000

If you are a painter I think you would love to read “Sean Scully: Resistance and Persistence, Selected Writings” ed by Florence Ingleby and “Inside The Painter’s Studio” by Joe Fig. In the “Painter’s Studio” by Fig, there is a quote from Julie Mehretu that I find very inspiring–she said, “Really follow the work and go really deeply and honestly into your work and yourself as an individual. Your work should take care of you. Make really good and really interesting work and go after that instead of trying to find some formula to guide your work by. You are the best guide for your work and its path.” It is very good to read these words esp. after a critique…I agree with the tip of the day (work at for 15 minutes in your studio)–EVERY DAY I do something even if it is just reading about art–I do something to stay connected and it helps me a great deal…Thanks for your blog and newsletter..it is very useful.

By: Casey Klahn

Casey Klahn — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 04:36:24 +0000

Alyson, the (daunting) books by Spurling about Matisse are the subject of my posts right now. I am reviewing the books, in case you want to see if they’re worth the effort. My answer to that: yes!

By: Alyson B. Stanfield

Alyson B. Stanfield — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:51:38 +0000

Rebecca: Thanks for another recommendation. Boy, I ordered 5 books (or 6!) today and I’ll be well stocked for the rest of the year, but what a great resource everyone has been. And, Rebecca, this one is totally new to me.

By: Rebecca Crowell

Rebecca Crowell — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:37:50 +0000

I recommend the three memoirs written by sculptor Anne Truitt–Daybook, Turn and Prospect. I’ve read and re-read them at different times in my life, finding that her experiences so often resonated with corresponding stages in my own art life. Not that I’ve had her famous career!! But that isn’t the main narrative anyway–instead it’s the little stories and observations about life as a artist, the studio struggles and equally so her life outside the studio, her feelings surrounding exhibitions and sales of her work. Her descriptions of being a young mother while determinedly making art were very inspiring to me in my 30s, for example. She wrote in a very personal, warm but always professional voice. I read Daybook and loved it before I ever saw a single one of her sculptures, so familiarity with her art is not a prerequisite.

By: Alyson B. Stanfield

Alyson B. Stanfield — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:31:45 +0000

Goodness! So many more to read. I must get started now.

By: Mimi

Mimi — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:31:58 +0000

Can’t resist chiming in with Jonathan Harr’s “The Lost Painting – the Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece”. The New York Times wrote: “Captivating…the real-life story of the rediscovery in the early 1990s of one of the Italian artist Caravaggio’s most sought-after paintings…Harr does a dexterous job of building narrative tension.” This book read like a thriller! I was given it on Christmas Eve 2007 and I refused to stop reading on Christmas Day – barely managed to make dinner. Enjoy!

By: Christine DeCamp

Christine DeCamp — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:04:25 +0000

Ohhhhh-I LOVE books. I just finished Susan Landauer’s “Elmer Bischoff: The Ethics of Paint”—it was quite interesting & was a catalog from an exhibition mas well, so lots of great pictures. Here are some of my “old fathfuls”–books I have read & re-read–some many times. Musa Mayer “Night Studio: A Memior pf Philip Guston” Louise Nevelson “Dawns and Dusks” Henry Miller “Paint as you Like and Die Happy” Patricia Hills “Alice Neel” Nicholas Fox Weber “Balthus” Janet Kaplan “Unexpected Journeys: The Art & Life of Remedios Varo” “Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr” James Elkins “What Painting Is” Mark Levy “Technicians of Ecstasy: Shamanism and the Modern Artist Enjoy!