Daniel Wiener, Yellow Paint Flecking My Teeth, 2017, Apoxie-Sculpt.
Daniel Wiener, who recently presented exceptional new work in �Doubled,� a two-person show at Studio 10 in Bushwick, sent a note in response to our summer fiction series. �Lately it seems that art and artists have been appearing more frequently�in fiction, and writers are�doing a better job both with contemporary artists and those who are long gone. Here is a�list of books that�readers might enjoy�as part of the Two Coats emphasis on fiction this summer.� Thanks Daniel, for taking the time to compile and share�this list–excellent choices.
In�Pat Barker’s�second trilogy, Life Class, the books include Life Class (2007), Toby�s Room (2012), and�Noonday (2015). The characters are based on artists of the time, whereas her more well known Regeneration trilogy is more concerned with writers. Though dealing with depressing subject matter, all six of the books are utterly absorbing, and I would highly recommend them for summer reading.
Not quite about fine art, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay�is�a terrific�yarn�about�the birth of a comic book as well as a canonical novel of American immigration.
A coming of age novel that takes place in Soho in the 1970s about a twenty-something woman who aspires to be�a great�artist and a revolutionary.�Kushner includes both real and fictional�artists and vividly captures�the artists� work and milieu. The author is too young to have lived through the era, but she worked at Bomb for quite a while before finishing this�book.
We are Water is a�mediocre romance with topical subject matter. One of the main characters is an artist who embodies just about�every cliche of the artist ever invented.
When it first came out, this�book sparked a debate about unlikeable women characters. The main character is an art teacher who longs to become a�well known�artist. She loves�and�envies the famous conceptual artist with whom she shares studio space,�and projects�her longing onto the artist and her family. Messud, like Kushner, does�a good job getting inside the life of the artist.
A beautiful book about Ottoman painters of the 1600s and the tension�between Persian tradition and Western influence. Pamuk has a deep understanding of this subject, and his descriptions (really recreations) of the spirit of Persian painting, so different from our own, is enlightening.
This is an amusing�murder mystery and satire set in the flashy New York art world of the 1980s. Lots of fun if you don�t mind reading about serial killers.
How to Be Both – Ali Smith This is a great book, divided into two�sections in which the first tells the story of a special relationship between a�girl from the present and an artist from the 15th century. A�painting, and the act of painting, are�protagonists.
�The Last Painting of Sara de Vos -�Dominic Smith A fun read. From the press copy:�”In 1631, Sara de Vos is admitted as a master painter to the Guild of St. Luke’s in Holland, the first woman to be so recognized. Three hundred years later, only one work attributed to de Vos is known to remain – a haunting winter scene,�At the Edge of a Wood, which hangs over the bed of a wealthy descendant of the original owner. An Australian grad student, Ellie Shipley, struggling to stay afloat in New York, agrees to paint a forgery of the landscape, a decision that will haunt her. Because now, half a century later, she’s curating an exhibit of female Dutch painters, and both versions threaten to arrive.”
Please, readers, feel free to�add more�suggestions for novels about art, artists, or the art world in the Comments section.
Daniel. Thank you, I love this kind of list as well as another opportunity to gaze into your molten faces.
In “Sentimental Education” Flaubert gets inside the aesthetic foibles of a painter. And painting alongside Lily Briscoe in Virginia Wolf’s “To the Lighthouse” is like a class at the studio school. Stu. Sch. alumni informed Mary Gordon’s “Spending.” Oh so many more…
I want to suggest Knut Hamsun’s ‘Hunger’, about a starving and prolific writer. Every struggling artist should read it. Really great and uplifting, funny.
and ‘Concrete’, by Thomas Bernhard (one of Hamsun’s literary heirs), also about a struggling writer… one in different financial circumstances, but also struggling as he can’t ever seem to get started.
and Daniel I have also really enjoyed following your work on Instagram etc.
Even though making art is often an experience that happens in the solitude of one's studio, it rarely occurs in a vacuum. Artists rely on each other for support, reinforcement, inspiration, and challenge, forming communities to avoid feeling like fish out of water in this world. Tim Gowan was one of those artists who cherished […]
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Two Coats of Paint is celebrating National Daughter’s Day by honoring Lena, who some of you may recall was the mastermind behind our Social Media Services Project a few years ago. She has since opened her own business @honeyhomeofbeauty in #OldMysticCT. Love you @lena.alohalani ❤️🏆❤️ Daughter, visionary, and muse.
Latest post, link in profile / Elisa D’Arrigo: Between the beautiful and the grotesque / Contributed by Kay Whitney / There is a fundamental paradox at work in Elisa D’Arrigo’s ceramic objects – while they are unmistakably beautiful, they break every standard for what is considered “beautiful.” They are small, shambolic, eccentric objects lacking symmetry; they are not overtly colorful and don’t attempt to please. They are humble, not loudly announcing nor applauding their own appearance; understated and private, the viewer must come to them. Rather than exhibiting the mechanical surfaces of a wheel-thrown or machine-made object, her forms bear the imprint of her hands and in that way reveal the processes of their making. If there is any other artist with whom her work could be compared only George Ohr, the “mad potter of Biloxi,” comes to mind. His small “puzzle mugs” demonstrate the same sensibility — simultaneously humorous and serious, their extraordinary eccentric surfaces and coloration are reminiscent of D’Arrigo’s, exposing a shared aesthetic. Link in profile
“Something darkly set itself at our senses’ five thresholds without stepping over them,” a cinematic two-person show @bonnierskonsthall with Tulsa Lovell and Sara-Vide Ericson, is a haunting mediation on the past, the future, and the inexorable force of nature. In terms of craft and content, unlike anything I’ve seen in NYC. Or is it? Images are tagged.
Snapshot: Overlooking the Central Baltic Sea from @fotografiska.stockholm. We saw the @shirin__neshat and @therealpeterlindbergh shows — strange combo, but both moving in their own way. The place is dark and loud — more like a nightclub than a gallery. The bar on the top floor is beautiful.
Latest post, link in profile / Inside: Arthouse art house / Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / The set-up of Vasilis Katsoupis’ slickly but somewhat facilely resonant feature debut Inside is deceptively simple. A high-end art thief is helicoptered onto the roof of a luxury Manhattan high-rise and, with the aid of a techie accomplice, hacks into the security system of an absurdly opulent penthouse, owned by a high-end art collector who is evidently away for a season or two. The thief is targeting several of Egon Schiele’s signature vampy drawings and a singularly valuable self-portrait. Link in profile
Swedish-born and UK-based, artist, activist, writer and eco-feminist Monica Sjöö (31 December 1938 - 8 August 2005) fought for freedom from oppression, but especially for women’s rights. “THE GREAT COSMIC MOTHER” @modernamuseet is her first retrospective. Swipe for the image that was considered blasphemous and obscene in the 1970s.
Rejecting abstract art as a Western male privilege, she asked: “How does one communicate women’s strength, struggle, rising up from oppression, blood, childbirth, sexuality – in stripes and triangles?”
In the studio of Prince Eugen Napoleon Nicolaus of Sweden and Norway, Duke of Närke (1 August 1865 – 17 August 1947) was a Swedish painter, art collector, and patron of artists. Swipe through for a wide angle of his attic studio. Yes, it has a water view :) #stockholmartist #Waldemarsudde #Djurgården #princeeugen #landscapepainting
Thanks. I am glad you have been able to publish this and thanks for the “shout out”. Much appreciated.
Daniel. Thank you, I love this kind of list as well as another opportunity to gaze into your molten faces.
In “Sentimental Education” Flaubert gets inside the aesthetic foibles of a painter. And painting alongside Lily Briscoe in Virginia Wolf’s “To the Lighthouse” is like a class at the studio school. Stu. Sch. alumni informed Mary Gordon’s “Spending.” Oh so many more…
Yes thank you Daniel!
I want to suggest Knut Hamsun’s ‘Hunger’, about a starving and prolific writer. Every struggling artist should read it. Really great and uplifting, funny.
and ‘Concrete’, by Thomas Bernhard (one of Hamsun’s literary heirs), also about a struggling writer… one in different financial circumstances, but also struggling as he can’t ever seem to get started.
and Daniel I have also really enjoyed following your work on Instagram etc.
Great list! I would add “Chinese Takeout” by Arthur Nersesian.