3 Books You Should Get Instead of Going to Art School
Today I'm going to be going over three books I think you should buy instead of paying to go to art school! I paid to go to art school for four and a half years and if there's one thing I wish I could tell my younger self, it would be that you don't need to spend a lot of money to get a good education in art.
All right, So first up, we have
Museum Studies, An Anthology Of Contexts Second Edition. This book is a collection of the history and ideas and ways of viewing art in different contexts. This book is definitely not a requirement for anyone trying to be an artist, but it's been extremely helpful for me in my own artistic journey when trying to think about my work and the context it is going to be viewed in and the viewer's relationship to the space they're in and the work itself. This type of book can be really helpful if you're trying to write a proposal or a letter of intent for a specific installation or a residency or anything along those lines. Now, if you're someone who is interested in a career, in galleries or museums, if being a curator or director of programing is something that sounds interesting to you, then this book is essential. You can find this book used online in one of those college secondhand websites for around $40 - $50. If you tried to buy it new, it would cost you almost double, and I'm sure you could probably find a digital download somewhere.
Up next, we have Art in Theory 1900 to 2000 and Anthology of Changing Ideas (Art writers love the word “Anthology”). Like the name suggests, this book is a collection of the major art history movements, ideas, and artists, all from the 20th century. I have a lot of my own personal Post-it notes in this book. I use it to reference constantly when I'm trying to research for art projects or an idea that I have that I want to explore that may be related to a previous art history movement. This is my go to book for research and ideas and learning about 20th century art history. Art in theory is really great because I think a third of art school is just learning history, ideas, and understanding your place in the context of the broader art historical landscape. If you plan on taking any art history courses, then this book is probably going to be assigned to you. It has essays and letters from famous artists. It goes into the psychology of the different movements and really what each of the key figures was thinking about when they were starting those movements and making their work in those time periods.
A quick caveat. This book definitely tells art history from a Western European and North American perspective. So just keep that in mind when you're going through it or if you're going to pick it up. If you're looking to get information on movements outside of the traditional Western canon, then definitely find a different book. Same as story as Museum Studies, you can find this book used online at some college website for around 20 bucks. It's 1000% more affordable than any art history class I've ever taken.
And last but not least we have The Profitable Artist, A Handbook for All Artists in the performing Literary and Visual Arts, published by the New York Foundation for the Arts. This is probably the best book that I've picked up since graduating from art school. Like I said, it's published by NYFA, which is a state arts organization. The Profitable Artist is the ultimate handbook for artists. It covers all the subjects you think you learn in school, but don't really.
Subjects ranging from:
Planning and goal setting
Legal intellectual property
Business
Budgets
Personal finance
Marketing
Fundraising
Grant research and writing
It's all in this book. My favorite thing about it and really all of these books is that they are not something you need to read, cover to cover to get the most value out of it. You can pick them up and read whichever section you're ready for it and you can reference back to them when you need to. These are all great books to have on your shelf at all times.
The Profitable Artist, is a very affordable book. It's $20 brand new from NYFA if you get the paperback version.
You can get all three of the books we covered here for less than $100 if you get them used! That's cheaper than any single course or class you can usually take for an art history or art business or just critical thinking course in general from any university.
There you have it. My top three books to read instead of going to art school. You can find links to the books below.
Museum Studies Art in Theory 1900 - 2000 The Profitable Artist
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