A Review of Get the Picture by Bianca Bosker

 

Get the Picture by Bianca Bosker

Brief, non-spoiler review:

I really enjoyed Bianca Bosker’s Get The Picture! I think you will too if: 

• you’re interested in what happens behind the scenes in art galleries, at art fairs, and in artists’ studios

• you’ve wondered what makes something “art” (and what makes it “good” art)

• you’re interested in a non-cynical take on why art matters 

Less brief review with spoilers:

Synopses about this book caught my interest, but I wasn’t planning on reading it because I thought that since I already do “get the picture,” the author wouldn’t have new info for me. I changed my mind after reading a few particularly positive blurbs about the book, and I’m glad that I did.

I had trouble at first. Bosker’s account of working with gallerists and art fairs was not the most pleasant part of the book, and I found myself wanting to shake her as she continued to doubt her own taste and look outside of herself to determine which art she should value. I had to remind myself that as a person with more than a few years of art education and art world experience as an emerging artist under my belt, my confidence in my own “eye” (Bosker discusses the development of her “eye,” or her personal taste in art, throughout Get the Picture) was something I was taking for granted.

As Bosker works on her eye, she repeatedly asks herself (and others) versions of the questions, “Do I like this artwork?” and “Should I like this artwork?” (Which can also be phrased as “Is this good art?”) She questions multiple gallerists, artists, art fair participants, art collectors, museum bigwigs, museum attendees… the list goes on. 

More and more, I noticed her surprising lack of cynicism as she moves through various art worlds (there are more than one, and Bosker notes some connections between them). She began to win me over with her dogged earnestness, but it was her multiple discussions of one of the art world’s greatest taboos: beauty, that made me root for her. 

By the end of the book, Bosker absolutely does “get the picture,” mentioning that she seeks out art viewing because she hopes to “fall in love.” When she discovers the pleasure of seeing via her experiences of color constancy I knew she had gotten what she came for. Her ode to a Brancusi sculpture at the Guggenheim seals the deal: not only does she get it, but she wants to help museum goers (and her book’s readers) get it too, in a way that is so genuinely without ego, it is a joy to read.

Bosker’s take on art, why it matters, and the ways it makes its way (or doesn’t) to all of us via the art world(s) is comprehensive and even-handed. The book is not all sunshine and roses, but darker aspects of how and why art is commodified serve to make the author’s account of her evolving love affair with art that much more compelling.

Have you read Get the Picture? What did you think?