Lives of the Artists

I am a general reader and a general lover of the visual arts, who often finds contemporary conceptual art difficult to keep up with. I turn to books like Lives of the Artists in an attempt to keep current and for interesting conversation. Lives of the Artists, with its emphasis on the artists' lives rather than art genres and trends makes it more interesting conversation than edification, but that's okay.Tomkins, art critic for The New Yorker, had years of articles from which to choose, and he chose biography as his organizing theme, a la Giorgio Vasari, of the movers and shakers in the contemporary international art world. His selection skews to the most controversial, provocative and/or innovative: Jasper Johns, Maurizio Cattelan, Cindy Sherman, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, James Turrell, Julian Schnabel, John Currin, Richard Serra and Matthew Barney. Tomkins does a good job of introducing the artist in a current scene, before cutting to the back story to scribe the arc of career, inspiration and critical reaction. This mostly works, though the first profile in the collection, of Damien Hirst, had the ring of a VH1 "Behind the Music" rock star story. Tomkins provides updates on each career, current as of 2008 when this book was prepared. Alas, there are no illustrations, no images of the subjects' work or of them.One thing I could not help but notice about the collection: though the author notes in his preface that there are thousands of working artists living and producing in New York City alone, and he had years of his own profiles to select from, he chose a line-up that is starkly white, and with the exception of Cindy Sherman, male. Women mostly appear as bit players in these stories, as girlfriends, wives, muses, studio assistants and, in a couple of instances, "porno" subjects. Is this representative of the world of art right now? It feels more like the night before the women's and civil rights movements injected a more inclusive diversity into our cultural reflection.

Capsule reviews of the lives and works ten important artists. No pics, which a critic quoted on the back cover claims to be an advantage. Yeah, yeah -- none of those distracting images! With the internet that's not a big disadvantage, but it's certainly more distracting to get up and google than to turn the page.Written in a breezy, well-informed style which I generally like -- I've read a number of Tomkins' books -- but several non sequiturs slipped by his editor. I occasionally got the feeling that the text had been dictated, with minimal revisions. But lots of good facts and impressions, from an author who has spent, in some cases, decades getting to know his subjects.

I love this writer. He has a bit of everything, intelligent, but not pretentious. Insightful and just enough juice. He has a sense of the times and ART. I LOVED Living Well is the Best Revenge, How can you not love that Title. I use it all the time to get through difficult times.This is a tremendous read, RICH and extremely resourceful. The subjects are all intelligent, successful human beings, a great study and the work is brilliantly portrayed, VIVID. Tomkins is an extremely visual writer. Brilliant.This is also an important piece of work for the Arts. Its a testament to the times of the artwork and the lives of the artists. Great Work.

I love this book. A great look at wildly different artists who have made their mark in Western culture and, thanks to Calvin Tomkins, in me. Interesting, intimate, personal but never fawning or self-conscious.One really big complaint though...not the writing but eBook technology: why is "performance" always spelled "per for mance?" Many other words were consistently mangled. Several sections were marred by this kind sloppy formatting that I seriously doubt was seen in the "analog" version. I think I deserve my money back. I'm sure if I submitted a manuscript with these kind of errors to Amazon, I'd be laughed out of a contract. Fix it!

This book is sires of articles that goes in depth at the artist themselves and why they do the art that they do. Even though that there are no pictures of the art that Tomkins is talking about, he describes the art so well that there isn't any need to look it up (I say this because I have two degrees in Art History, but if its a person who isn't to familiar with art then they should look up the artwork). This book was extremely entertaining and almost read like a movie!

Tompkins gets to know the artists, he visits their homes and studios, he parties with them and meets their significant others. He is not judgemental. He doesnt offer his opinions and for the duration of his essays I felt as if I had a window into the thought process and lives of the artists. This book is well worth reading if one is interested in art, especially contemporary art, and want to know about the artists who create it. It is readable, well written and fun.

Almost everything written about art & artists is pretentious garbage. This writer actually seems to realize that visual arts cannot be described philosophically.

Great book！ I do like the writing and conversation with different artist. It is worth to read it. I will read again when have more time.