A savvy assessment of how artists can, and should, function in the marketplace.
In defense of artists of all varieties, most of whom face daunting challenges in making a living.
Cultural critic Deresiewicz astutely examines the state of the arts in contemporary culture, arguing convincingly that to be an artist is not to be a practitioner of a “secular religion” but instead a producer within a market economy. His book, he writes, “attempts to make visible…the two things that the arts have long concealed about themselves: work and money.” Drawing on articles, books, and essays by artists, scholars, and critics as well as 140 lengthy phone interviews with artists who work in music, writing, visual art, film, and TV—he profiles 25 in detail—the author paints a vivid picture of the challenges involved in making art, finding an audience, and being self-supporting as an artist. Noting that the term “fine arts” dates to 1767, he traces the cultural identity of artists from Renaissance artisans supported by patrons to Enlightenment creators of art “as an autonomous realm of expression” to bohemians who defiantly rejected the marketplace, as if the very idea of money tainted the purity of their endeavors. Today, artists working in every genre must be constantly aware, self-marketing to audiences or finding intermediaries, such as agents, to market them. Most artists, Deresiewicz shows, earn subsistence incomes, with their biggest financial pressure coming from rent, both for living, working, and performing. The author examines a wide range of topics relevant to artists’ lives, including MFA programs; the rise of Amazon and possibility for self-publishing; opportunities in TV, which is “rolling in cash”; the dearth of philanthropic support of the arts in favor of projects with social impact; and the internet, which has made art accessible, offering “unmediated access to the audience” but also putting artists in competition with many others.
A savvy assessment of how artists can, and should, function in the marketplace.Pub Date: July 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12551-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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