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 Idifficult,' Iuncooperative,' Iinflexible,' or even Iself-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."