Poor Artists

(Hardback)

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Description

A moving, eye-opening journey through the world of contemporary art from one of the most innovative voices in the field At a moment in which working as a professional artist is an increasingly unattainable luxury, art criticism duo The White Pube investigate why so many artists try anyway. Labelled "the Diet Prada of the art world" by British Vogue, in Poor Artists writers Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad ridicule a contemporary art world that has turned art into artworks, art schools into art universities, and creative expression into cut-throat competition. Poor Artists follows aspiring artist Quest Talukdar as she embarks on a surreal journey into the creative industry, where she must decide whether she cares more about success or staying true to herself. Featuring dialogue from anonymous interviews with real people who have all had to ask themselves the same question - including a Turner Prize winner or two, a recluse, a Venice Biennale fraudster, a communist messiah, a ghost, and a literal knight - The White Pube tell the story of art like never before.

Reviews

The art world memoirs for our Internet generation that none of us knew we needed but now we cant live without. An indispensable read giving insights on an art world at the edge of collapse. Living for it -- Legacy Russell, author of GLITCH FEMINISM
This book might change the way you look at art, or change the way you feel it . . . I love the energy, deep humour and alive thought in Poor Artists, which zooms through galleries, universities, a hospital ward, and a spaceship, capturing what is tragic, and whats glorious, about art and the world right now -- Daisy Hildyard author of EMERGENCY
Praise for -- The White Pube
Their genre of embodied criticism aims to redefine what we consider worthy of our aesthetic attention making judgements about art with their guts rather than their heads, with feelings rather than facts -- Kitty Grady * Vogue *
Female duo the White Pube have the energy and opinions to liven up an art world full of stale, male voices their frank political stance is clearly resonating with a younger audience in a way traditional art publications arent able to -- Kate Goh * Guardian *
Their criticism verges on storytelling, and not only makes art approachable but offers a refreshingly current model for interacting with it -- Akash Chohan * SSENSE *
Reviews, essays, and podcasts on contemporary art that break down power structures within the industry, injecting the stuffy, exclusionary language of criticism with some much-needed personality (and lols) -- Lexi Manatakis * Dazed 100 *
The White Pube presents one of the first truly new voices in British art criticism in the twentyfirst century informal yet stylistically innovative, art historically rigorous without the staid academicism or florid pomposity of much established writing, the pairs mix of reviews, essays, podcasts, and social media posts are bound together with a singular critical voice grappling with contemporary issues of race, gender, sexuality, aesthetics and ethics -- Morgan Quaintance * e-flux *

Author Bio

The White Pube (Author) The White Pube is the collaborative identity of UK-based critics Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad. They have been turning heads since 2015 when the pair began publishing provocative art reviews and essays online from their art school studios and have earned themselves an international cult following due to their innovative writing style, their honesty and irreverence, and their willingness to challenge the pale, male, stale art establishment. Poor Artists is their first book.