Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See

Journalist Bosker (Cork Dork) takes an energetic jaunt through the elitist and competitive world of contemporary art. Seeking to understand whether art can make for a “richer, more uncomfortable, more mind-blowing, more uncertain... more beautiful” life, Bosker finagled an internship at a rising art star’s Brooklyn gallery; sold astronomically priced photos at Art Basel Miami; curated a Hong Kong art show (“What makes art ‘good’?” she asked herself again and again as she tried to sift “crap from grade-A culture”); and studiously observed sculptures as a security guard at the Guggenheim museum (she resolved to spend at least 40 minutes “befriending” each statue). In the process, Bosker came to view art as a means “for appreciating life, but also a practice for creating a life worth appreciating,” one that helps “fight our instincts to truncate and elide, and in doing so, to notice more, appreciate more, empathize more.” Combining gossipy detail with philosophical musings, Bosker vividly depicts a pretentious world full of moneyed buyers and cliques while simultaneously giving due to the devoted artists, gallerists, and enthusiasts whose creativity enriches and expands their lives. Connoisseurs and neophytes alike will be charmed and captivated by Bosker’s boundless curiosity and astute powers of observation. (Feb.)