Seeing Through The Eyes of Artists and Art Fiends

Bianca Bosker is a journalist who really gets into her subjects.

And she was curious about the world of contemporary art.

So she spent five years working in galleries and taking entry-level jobs, doing things like working in artist studios.

She became a security guard at the Guggenheim Museum, all in hopes of getting a better understanding of that world, which is very, very insular.

And the result is their new book. It’s called Get the Picture. And it’s very funny, particularly about the language of the art world, which if you’ve spent any time around it, you know, can be impenetrable sometimes.

They use terms like indexicality and iconicity. And in one case, Oscar tells a curator that this performance art piece that they just saw was boring.

And the curator says, it wasn’t boring. It was durational.

Oh, I’m hanging on to that one.

Durational.

This has been a durational meeting.

Thank you.

Yeah.

That’s good.

That could be a great euphemism, you know, in the workplace.

Oh, my.

And here’s one other thing to hang on to.

Her line from the book that goes, art devotees spoke like they were trapped in dictionaries and being forced to chew their way out.

I’m imagining like the alien monster.

That book, again, is called Get the Picture, a mind-bending journey among the inspired artists and obsessive art fiends who taught me how to see.

And it’s by Bianca Bosker.

Well, chew your way to a telephone, 877-929-9673, or share your impenetrable jargon with us and email words@waywordradio.org.