How does an artist create something from nothing? New York magazine editor-turned-visual artist Adam Moss poses this question to 43 creatives across a variety of media to satisfy his own curiosity and illuminate the artistic process for others. A specific piece of work forms the nucleus of each interview, most artists in mid-career, others — such as Stephen Sondheim, Tony Kushner, Gay Talese and Twyla Tharp — longtime masters of song, play, journalism and dance.
Visual artist Maria de Los Angeles is the author’s teacher. From his front row seat, he chronicles her conflicted desire to draw and paint. Her months of turmoil lead to new paintings Moss describes as “braver but also clearer” as well as a book of drawings titled True North.
Moss also documents the nucleus of Kara Walker’s powerful installation, A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, held at the abandoned Domino Sugar Refinery in New York City in 2014. The sphinx-like sculpture evolved from Walker’s diligent research, a power point presentation and “brainstorming” sketches. Louise Gluck dreamed the initial lines of her poem Song. And visual artist Tyler Hobbs explored lines and colours using computer coding and flow fields to create a limited edition print titled Fidenza.
It’s an ambitious book, dense with information and opinions and full of lively illustrations of artists’ napkins doodles, notebook entries and sketches. In must-read footnotes, the author reflects on voice, talent and motivation and cites many observed patterns in artists’ lives, such as the importance of validation. Readers are guaranteed to be inspired and sometimes awe-struck by this compelling study of how art comes from “nothing.” ■
The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing by Adam Moss is published by Penguin, New York, 2024
OTHER ART BOOK REVIEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
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- Surreal Spaces: The Art and Life of Leonora Carrington
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- Bianca Bosker: The Quest for the Meaning of Art
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