Get the Picture
A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See
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Get the Picture
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Narrated by:
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Bianca Bosker
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Written by:
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Bianca Bosker
About this listen
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2024 BY NPR, TIME, AND THE ECONOMIST
“Get the Picture is one of the funniest books I’ve read . . . Brilliant.”—The Washington Post
“A gripping and often hilarious investigation into the art world. . . . Bosker goes full Tom Wolfe.”—TIME
“Funny, whip-smart, and gorgeously written, Get the Picture will forever transform the way you see. . . . I loved every word.”—Suleika Jaouad, New York Times bestselling author of Between Two Kingdoms
The New York Times bestselling author of Cork Dork takes readers on another fascinating, hilarious, and revelatory journey—this time burrowing deep inside the secretive world of art and artists
An award-winning journalist obsessed with obsession, Bianca Bosker’s existence was upended when she wandered into the art world—and couldn’t look away. Intrigued by artists who hyperventilate around their favorite colors and art fiends who max out credit cards to show hunks of metal they think can change the world, Bosker grew fixated on understanding why art matters and how she—or any of us—could engage with it more deeply.
In Get the Picture, Bosker throws herself into the nerve center of art and the people who live for it: gallerists, collectors, curators, and, of course, artists themselves—the kind who work multiple jobs to afford their studios while scrabbling to get eyes on their art. As she stretches canvases until her fingers blister, talks her way into A-list parties full of billionaire collectors, has her face sat on by a nearly-naked performance artist, and forces herself to stare at a single sculpture for hours on end while working as a museum security guard, she discovers not only the inner workings of the art-canonization machine but also a more expansive way of living.
Probing everything from cave paintings to Instagram, and from the science of sight to the importance of beauty as it examines art’s role in our culture, our economy, and our hearts, Get the Picture is a rollicking adventure that will change the way you see forever.
©2024 Bianca Bosker (P)2024 Penguin AudioWhat the critics say
“[Bosker] has written a dark comedy of manners, and what she exposes here might be a new kind of country club mentality, where the cultural elite can no longer exclude people based on race, gender or sexual identity, so they come up with clever new ways to build moats around their little castles. . . . Get the Picture is one of the funniest books I’ve read about New York’s contemporary art scene . . . Brilliant.”—The Washington Post
“[A] plucky and hilarious account of years working as a gallery girl, studio assistant, and guard at the Guggenheim museum . . . [Bosker] doesn’t sit with and sift through her material so much as plunge headlong into it, gatecrashing cloistered ecosystems that want nothing to do with her, and emerging as a foremost expert.”—The Guardian
“Through her funny and fascinating experiences, [Bosker] does the seemingly impossible: sheds light on a strange world of beautiful things and the sometimes-ugly business around them.”—Town & Country