"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are."
-Anaïs Nin
Welcome to the first installment of our suggested reading lists: a selection of notable biographies and memoirs of modern and contemporary artists, collectors, dealers and critics you could take to the beach. It's a rarely-boring, highly-personal journey into art history—and the books are characteristically not as heavy as exhibition catalogues!
The biographical approach to understanding works of art—or seeing links between artworks and the events of an artists' life—has taken a critical beating in the modern age. Historians and critics have chosen instead to pursue other ways of understanding meaning. However, the fact remains that biography continues to be relevant and fascinate, and it's arguably the root (and dirty secret) of art history. In fact, what is recognized as the first art-historical text was Giorgio Vasari’s 16th century
Lives of the Artists, an account of Renaissance art organized by biography.
The following accounts of art-world lives offer another reason as to why art keeps us endlessly, obsessively interested. (Again, the following is a
selection and by no means a complete list. Feel free to
tell us what biographies
you would add.)
Some suggested biographies...
J’aime Cheri Samba by Robert Storr and Andre Magnin