New & Novel Reads: Art & Artists

Here at abcreads, we don't know much about art, but we know what we like.  And what we like is to read about art and artists!  Here are some of our catalog's most recent acquisitions: rituals, concepts, tributes, and one inspiring speech.

 

Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey

How artists work, how they ritualize their days with the comforting (mundane) details of their lives: their daily routines, fears, dreams, naps, eating habits, and other prescribed, finely calibrated "subtle maneuvers" that help them use time, summon up willpower, exercise self-discipline and keep themselves afloat with optimism. Artists considering how they work--in letters, diaries, interviews, beguilingly compiled and edited by Mason Currey. Portraits that inspire, amuse, and delight and that reveal the profound fusion of discipline and dissipation through which the artistic temperament is allowed to evolve, recharge, emerge.

Sorted Books by Nina Katchadourian

"Sorted Books is many things at the same time: a series of sculptures, or photographs, or site-specific installations; a collection of short stories, or poems, or jokes; a work in which the 'found object' is subject alike to chance and the most painstaking choices; a delicate conceptual game with the horizontal and the vertical. But it is first of all an act of reading." -- from the introduction, by Brian Dillon.

Artful by Ali Smith

Presents a meditative collection of writings on the nature of art and storytelling and incorporates tribute elements to iconic writers and artists throughout history.

 

Make Good Art by Neil Gaiman

In May 2012, bestselling author Neil Gaiman delivered the commencement address at Philadelphia's University of the Arts, in which he shared his thoughts about creativity, bravery, and strength. He encouraged the fledgling painters, musicians, writers, and dreamers to break rules and think outside the box. Most of all, he urged them to make good art. The book Make Good Art, designed by renowned graphic artist Chip Kidd, contains the full text of Gaiman's inspiring speech.


All descriptions are taken from the book's listing in the library catalog, under the tab "More Details".