Letters to a Young Artist

"This pocket-sized book contains a collection of two dozen letters all commissioned from established artists to a fictitious ""young artist,"" a recent art-school graduate who is struggling with the moral and practical implications of being an artist in New York. The ""young artist"" asked a selection of his heroes, ""Is it possible to maintain one's integrity and freedom of thought and still participate in the art world?"" Responding artists--including Gregory Amenoff, Jo Baer, John Baldessari, Jimmie Durham, Joan Jonas, Adrian Piper, William Pope Lawrence Weiner and Richard Tuttle wrote back with advice (Gregory Amenoff: ""Keep away from art fairs.""); encouragement (Joan Jonas: ""The answer is the Work. To Work. To care about the Work.""); and cautionary tales (Adrian Piper: ""Young artist, it is highly unlikely that you will be rewarded professionally for reaching this point. Nor will it make you popular. On the contrary: you will develop a reputation for being 'difficult,' 'uncooperative,' 'inflexible,' or even 'self-destructive;' and treated (or mistreated, or ostracized, or blacklisted) accordingly.'). Twelve of these letters were originally published in Art on Paper. This book expands considerably upon that project."Pindell, Howardena is the author of 'Letters to a Young Artist', published 2006 under ISBN 9780977368006 and ISBN 0977368009.