Reading About Art - by Joanne Mattera

Keep yourself informed and aware of the larger art world and choose your own writing approach to reflect how you fit into that world. Joanne's guidelines here will prove invaluable. - H.E.

As an ongoing project, read about art in various literary forms:

. First-person comments: See how artists let you into their work via statements or interviews.

. Reviews: Critics write objectively and, by definition, analytically.

. Essays: These are think pieces. Essayists typically balance observation with critical thinking, often connecting the dots between artists and/or genres.

. Features: A feature writer may incorporate all of the above in some measure, typically in a more conversational tone.

. Profiles: An aspect of an artist’s life and work. Individual profiles get published in magazines; a group of profiles may be bound into an anthology. There’s typically less about the what and why, more about the who.

. Biography: The full view, warts and all.

. Academic writing: Thesis writing is its own genre. Stay away from it unless you are working toward a degree.


Many thanks to Joanne Mattera for this contribution.  The Joanne Mattera Art Blog has tremendously helpful advice for artists in her Marketing Mondays column.