I have never understood contemporary art. The exclusivity of the art world in general has always been my biggest hang-up of liking art. Bosker absolutely nailed this feeling, and I'm so glad I was not alone in appreciating art, but not understanding modern art. This book not only made me feel seen in that regard, but also made me excited to explore the art world as it is today.

CORK DORK is my most-gifted book by a long shot -- but I think Bosker's new one might usurp its title. Funny, thoughtful, at times a little wild: if you have ever wondered about art, the art world, and why we all care so dang much about both, this book is for you!

I couldn't get enough, and as soon as I finished I read her first book, Cork Dork. The author does a great job at showcasing the contemporary art world from all sides.

A very descriptive read about artists, art, and how to look upon art. Certainly a good read for those invested and interested in the art and making art.

Bianca Bosker dives into New York City's contemporary art scene. What is "art", what is "good", what defines "success" in this arena, who has a say in the discussion? These are some of the questions Bosker ponders in her months-long research where she works in galleries, at art shows, sells art, works for artists, becomes a museum security guard, all the while attending as many art-related events as humanly possible.

This is her journey. It's not a how-to guide to art appreciation. She throws herself into the experience and the result in Get the Picture is a fascinating peek behind the curtains. A tiny peek. Many were reluctant to let a journalist/writer (gasp) into their midst. But she persevered and we see her gaining confidence in the environment, learning to trust her eye, finding beauty and art (awe) in her surroundings.

I would have finished this book a lot sooner if I hadn't stopped every few pages to look up artists and the works being described, the galleries and collectors. Those images complemented Bosker's narrative nicely.

My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Viking for the ARC.

Get the Picture was a really interesting read. I loved the behind the scenes of the art world and it makes me want to seek out more books like this one.

What a fun romp! What Cork Dork did for wine, Bosker now does for the equally impenetrable world of fine art in this rollicking, jaw-dropping, surprising nonfiction tale.

I didn’t like this book. It started Ok but soon it was pretty obvious to me that for some reason the author was feeling the need to be funny and her voice became frankly annoying. It felt too contemporary all the time: long enumerations, pretty shallow societal criticism, the type that condemns social privilege from a place of… well privilege!( the Princeton University type of privilege, no less) I do celebrate the idea of “infiltrate” the Art world in order to understand what makes an artist and their work unique and special, and what to look for in a piece of art. The writing is good but again, enough with the smarty punch lines and the funny similes.

I cant even begin to fully understand and appreciate the patience and dedication Bosker had while delving into the art world. I would've peaced out very early on.... because I didn't get the picture. Well, I still dont get the picture but I can say that Bosker's writing was fun and her experiences in the artsy fartsy realm were both amusing and interesting. Informative maybe, though I still feel lost when it comes to understanding the beauty or "wow factor" of a lot of art out there. HOWEVER, noone has ever sat on my face so maybe that's the missing link?!

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Viking for the eARC!

I was a huge fan of the author's first book, Cork Dork. Her insights into the world of wine and sommeliers were excellent, educational, and enjoyable to read. So knowing that, I thought who better to explain the world of contemporary art? It's an area of art that I absolutely do not understand. I have several artist friends, including my wife, who also do not understand it.
Unfortunately, I was let down by this effort of Boskers. I found no hidden insights, knowledge, or explanations to help me. Perhaps there are none? Perhaps contemporary art is unexplainable. Perhaps it is produced by those former children whose parents told them that they could be anything they wanted to be? And they want to be artists, so, by god, they are artists and who are we to question their work?
The author really, really tried. She sacrificed her time and energies to this project. And she is definitely a good writer. But I have to wonder, after all the effort, if she too is not confused and wondering just what the "artists" are trying to say?
I'm not giving up on this author, and I look forward to her next effort.

This is a generous four stars from me. This book was frankly too long. I did really enjoy the looks into contemporary art from the perspective of gallerists, artists, museum guards, and collectors, but the book faltered when it tried to tie in digressions on the science or psychology of art. There are writers that have the chops to do that seamlessly and with thought-provoking writing, but this felt tacked on. Still, for a book that falls into that genre of immersive stunt memoir, there were some really great stories and observations.

I've been having a hard time writing this review. Did I learn about the art world and it's idiosyncrasies? Did I learn to appreciate contemporary art? Do I feel confident I understand the fuss and culture of the art world? I honestly don't know.

I read and loved Bosker's first book on the world of wine and sommeliers and I think I was hoping too much for a repeat of being hand held through what seems to be an opaque world and at the end understanding (generally) what's going on in what seems like an elite world. But with the art world there seems to be opaque-ness for the sake of being opaque that requires you to just buy into the culture without any objective explanation. I felt just as outsider and confused at the end of the book as I did when I started with an additional layer of annoyance than I started with. I'm sure this is partly because Art is not objective - unlike wine or music there isn't really a set of guidelines or things to practice to understand it better, art is more of an every moving target of culture, elitism, and money that seem to make it's world go round. No amount of investigating or training can gain you entry if you just want to passingly understand it. And I think I just have a hard time respecting a world that wants you to feel othered and excluded.

I don't think that any of this is Bosker's fault, this is a very well written and researched book. I think maybe I am just not someone who is going to "get it". I think between the art episode of Ruins Everything and my basic understanding of cult psychology/language I have just a hard time buying into the art world's pitch - especially contemporary art. And reading this book, to me, felt a bit too much like a pitch for a religion I actively didn't want to join so it was hard for me to get through. So in the end the book is fine. It's not the guide I wanted, but it was fascinating nonetheless (and frustrating).

I think it takes a considerable amount of courage to admit, as the author does in the introduction, that “a lot of the [contemporary] art I saw was barely recognizable as art". And yet it is a very common sentiment. I myself stopped trying to "understand" what I saw in galleries and museums - I just decided that I liked some of it and was left indifferent to the rest. But Bianka Bosker does not give up so easily. With a level of obsession worthy of a medieval knight-errant, she sets out to explore the art world and comes back with a most strange tale to tell.

It is hilarious, but also very insightful and informative. I loved her writing, her uncanny ability to capture things in perfect phrases. The book is full of keen observations (“I’d noticed that art devotees spoke like they were trapped in dictionaries and being forced to chew their way out") and deep dives into the history of art and the human connection to it. In all its intensity, it was a slow read for me, I had to take breaks - but each time I returned to it, I was immediately captivated.

Thanks to the publisher, Penguin Group Viking, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

Journalist Bianca Bosker immersed herself in the NY art scene, dedicating herself to appreciating and understanding it and conveying how we can engage more deeply with Contemporary Art. She concludes with a feeling of enlightenment. Contemporary Art began in the late 1960s to early 1970s and continues today. Today's Art is culturally diverse and technologically advanced. Often experimental, it may use photography, video, or computer-generated images to challenge traditional art values. It can include non-figurative painting, theatre (performance art), street/graffiti art, and sculpture. The sculptor often uses recycled or discarded objects (trash) in his creations. She mentions an artist who was dismayed that a bag of garbage he planned to display as Art was thrown out as trash. It is an art form that has few rules or boundaries.

Bosker inserted herself into the world of galleries, curators, museums, critics, collectors, and artists. It was a mostly closed, secretive, eccentric, and snobbish social circle that was difficult to join, and journalists were distrusted. Individuals with no art training were regarded with contempt as Schmos.

Bosker began working as an assistant to a small gallery owner who told her how to dress and present herself. He complained that her presence made him appear 'uncool.' Later, she was an assistant to a female painter. She attended gallery openings, participated in selling Art, and became a security guard in a museum. She was introduced to Concept art, where the idea or concept was considered more important than the finished product. For example, a tower of three kitchen appliances was Art because it represented what a government provided to immigrants in the artist's youth. However, the general public was left puzzled without this knowledge.

This was a slow read for me. It was fascinating and led me to pause often and Google artists and their works in colour. I began the book bewildered by what is called Art in the present world of contemporary Art and its artists, and it ended equally baffled. I studied art history, but before modern Art transitioned into contemporary Art, This may have started in the late 1960s or early 1970s when Marcel Duchamp displayed a urinal tipped sideways. People decided it must be a work of Art as it was in a museum. This trend now designated that anything could be considered an artwork if that was how it was promoted. I have almost no access to art galleries now, but when I did see Contemporary artworks, all I could think was, "Why?"

Each time a member of the art world revealed a profound truth to Bosker, later, another member told her a contradictory truth on the same subject. In what alternate reality could two opposite truths exist? Apparently, in the world of Art. Bosker learned to view and discuss Art dispassionately without any show of emotion. Not until she worked with an exuberant painter and accompanied a pair of enthusiastic collectors did she begin to relax and enjoy the experience. Many she met were antagonistic towards Art that the public considered beautiful and accessible and not aimed at producing shock value. Some works might be regarded as obscene if not labelled Art and if displayed outside art venues.

She attended a session of Performance Art where a scantily clad woman with a big behind sat on
Bosker's face. The performer sold videos and the woman's used underwear online. Bosker met with her over coffee and debated whether her act could be considered Art or exhibitionism. Later, Bosker planned to sponsor her performance, but COVID broke out. She felt lost when museums, galleries, and her contacts in the art world were cancelled.

She writes about her research into what constitutes beauty and the types of paint, brushes, metals, and other materials used by today's artists. In conclusion, she has learned a deeper meaning of Art and ways to view and enjoy it better.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this informative and thought-provoking book. It is due to be published on February 6th.

Contemporary art is a stumper to most people and for good reason. At any given exhibition, one might see a giant cage with wires individually wrapped in faux fur or a crushed oil barrel, two of many examples I saw at Art Basel Miami. At a gallery opening, journalist Bianca Bosker describes a plasticky black seagull dangling near the floor.

It does help if the viewers have context or a willingness to create their own. Bosker says concept is the fundamental issue that determines what is and isn’t art. It can also be a cudgel. Jack Barrett of 315 Gallery (now Jack Barrett Gallery) is the first gallerist daring enough to give journalist Bosker a peek into the contemporary art machine. Writers are pariahs in that business, and few would let her in. She said Barrett was down to earth one minute and critical the next, picking on her clothing choices, jewelry, and makeup. As a gallery owner, he is one of the components of context, and he said her very presence lowered his coolness. Apparently, The Aesthetic Self is an unsound Jenga tower, and journalists instinctively know which block to pull.

In defense of context, consider Puryear’s Big Phrygian. It might look like a red cedar cone that resembles a drooping garden gnome’s hat. With context, we know it is based on the “red cap of liberty” headgear worn by ancient Rome’s emancipated slaves. And for that reason, it is a powerful visual.

Puryear’s example is a good one for putting in the effort to gain visual literacy, but what about the performance art discussed in this book? While I can’t or won’t explain what one man considers art, I will say this: if he performed it in any public venue other than a gallery opening, law enforcement would be called, and X/Twitter would burst into a raging fire of anger. Then there’s the “butt influencer” whose followers make it clear that their interest in her backside is not of aesthetic origin. Some were hesitant about whether the woman’s act constitutes art, but Bosker glommed onto her because she made her wrestle with ideas about life. So does seeing the aftermath of a fatal automobile accident, but that’s not art. Bosker’s argument is lazy.

With all these headwinds, why bother with contemporary art or art at all? Because rigorous science suggests that engaging in art is central to our identity. Indeed, our predecessors were creating art before they invented the more utilitarian wheel. Humans seem to have a deep connection to the act of creating or viewing visual interpretations of our struggles, values, wants, needs, hopes and aspirations.

The staying power of art is its ability to transcend physical cravings and speak to that part of us that is, as Ernest Becker says, up in the stars, beyond the bounds of our heart-pumping, breath-gasping bodies. Our bodies are with us; the stars are not. An artist’s gift is to give them to us.

Many thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Viking and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Ah, the art world. Confusing, mystifying, snobbish? Sure, sometimes. This is a view from inside New York galleries, art fairs, the Guggenheim, an artist’s studio. Oh, and a performance in which people volunteer to have their faces sat on. Art or not? Is that the best question?

After having explored wine and sommelier service in Cork Dork, the author immersed herself, uncomfortably in many cases, in art. I love a good peek behind the scenes, and this story delivered.

Contemporary art isn’t there to soothe us. Make us think, maybe make us squeamish: these are more likely. I’ll remember some of the thoughts on approaching art.

Loved loved loved this book! I was worried about what type of book this would be when I started "Get the Picture" by Bianca Bosker, the usual thoughts of, is this going to read like furniture instructions, or a text book? But, I think within the first few paragraphs I knew I had nothing to worry about. In fact, I laughed aloud on more than one occasion. Boskers style and voice felt like my kind of humor, and just simply made it a more relatable read.
"Get the Picture" isn't all comedic, don't think I'm not taking it seriously. This book was many things to me, first it felt like investigative reporting, an attempt to pull back the cover on the world of art, artists, art galleries, gallerists, art shows, the market, museums, and its collectors. The taste makers. Then, it felt philosophical as to what makes art, well, art. Why do we like it? What is the science of it all? Is there a science behind it at all? Finally, it felt like a wonderful guide, not just on how to view, well, art of course, but your surroundings and the world around you as well. How to be open and expose yourself to it all. How to look at things.
The most surprising, for me, was the amount of names I was familiar with. Surprising to me because I didn't think I followed that corner of the world that closely? I guess things seep in.
Did I mention how much I loved this and what a joy it was to read? Do I want everyone to read it? You betchya. Not just my artistic friends. This felt like it was more than just about the art world. It could be used as a guide to immersing oneself, getting outside of your comfort zone and learning about any number of topics.
Would I love to meet Bianca and talk? Yep! Okay, I'd love to just sit and listen honestly. I can't wait to add this to my library and for you all to sink your teeth into it.

This was such a fun book -- one I totally couldn't put down. I would expect nothing less from the author of <i>Cork Dork</i>. I have to say: I'm not even particularly into art -- I just wanted to follow Bianca Bosker down whatever rabbit hole she was throwing herself into, and I was not disappointed. This books rides the perfect balance between pleasantly educational and laugh-out-loud funny. That's a rare artistic feat, if I do say so as an uneducated "Schmo" (<-- reference to the book; read it and you'll understand).

That said, I learned a lot about the world of modern art, including and especially the art <i>carnivale</i> that takes place right in my own [metaphorical] back yard: Art Basel Miami. Even though Bosker makes it sound amazingly entertaining, I think I'll continue my annual tradition of not going. But whatever your opinion on art, pretense, galleries, struggling artists, performance art (especially ass art), collectors, or beauty, this is a fantastic book.