How to Be an Artist

by Bill Drummond

An investigation into the meaning and value of one art item, from a provocateur of the art and music worlds

 

Celebrated musician and artist Bill Drummond turns his attention to the world of modern art. Several years ago he bought a photograph by the Turner Prize–winning artist Richard Long for $20,000. After owning it for some time, he decided to cut it up into 20,000 individual pieces, and then sell them off at a dollar a piece. This book tells the whole story of Drummond’s relationship with modern art, and in particular how this process changed it, in a typically fascinating and discursive way. In his numerous musical incarnations, Drummond has combined global success with a fiercely independent slant. As an artist, his work, over the past 30 years, has examined the cultural landscape through a diverse array of forms.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Memoir

200 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Patty · Rating 1 out of 5]

awful. this is not, as advertised, about art. it's about a rich guy and his carpet. not a carpet in the sense of the big lebowski, where it really is an aesthetic question (it really brings the room together) but a rug that the author has had custom made and thinks is really cool and neat and isn't he clever for having had it made? and it's about the same dude, driving up and down the highways of england, naming the roads as he goes (M90, A9) and remarking how dull the drive is. ocassionally he throws the reader a bone, and mentions some sight that is located somewhere along the highway, but without actually saying anything about it or describing, just noting it's there. sometimes, too, he throws in a personal anecdote, usually on the scale of "we could stop here and get really tasty raspberries, but there isn't time." very occasionally, one of the "big questions" arise. these are on the same level/scale as those available to you in the infamous/famous Insane Clown Posse video. I highly recommend that you just watch this video, and leave the book on the shelf.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-agl0...

i haven't finished it, and i will, so i'll reserve my rating until i'm done in case he somehow magically, like magnets, turns this around.

**finished it. the last 50 pages were better than the first 100, but not better enough to make much difference. we finally had an aesthetic discussion on page 97, "I love perimiter fences because they make life more interesting."

[Tosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

"$20,000" is a combination of a travel journal (via the United Kingdom, and whatever that means to a British citizen), aesthetics, art, pop music, and the hard-to-answer question "what is an artist?" Bill Drummond is a man of great charm, but I find it a bit of a head scratcher why he's so interested in the subject matter of "Artist" in today's culture.

For one he seems to fighting the public image of an artist, which seems to me kind of silly. I understand the concerns and the problems that goes with those concerns, but art is really like breathing. Even the most intellectual of artists Marcel Duchamp questioned the role of the artist in contemporary times. And there is also a guilt feeling from Drummond regarding the money worth of such art or the making of art with respect to the financial world.

And also to reach the "common" man and woman while doing art. The beauty of pop music is an art form that is attracted to the masses. A painting can reach a lot of people, but it doesn't have the same affect as a commercially pop song. But the mediums are so different, that I think its hard to compare the two.

Drummond came from an art background and then went into music making and its business. And I think it is the business aspect of music as well as the visual arts that fascinates him. And in turn it becomes his 'art'.

The question is it good art? Drummond thinks a lot about this, but I think its impossible to answer because art is very subjective. It means different things to different people. You can define an aesthetic or theory on a page, but still people will react in their own ways towards a piece of music or art on a wall. Drummond is also very British in that he thinks what other citizens will react to his work. He's very funny, thoughtful, and I kind of disagree in how he looks at art - but I am happy to spend some time with him while he searches his soul and inner-thoughts on the subject of the role of the artist.

[Mark Rice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Opinions on Bill Drummond vary wildly. To some, he is an opportunistic and shameless self-publicist willing to do almost anything to draw attention to himself. Others believe him to be a visionary, a creative genius who turns everything he touches into art: music; painting; photography; conceptual ideas; literature. I'm in the latter camp. One of the things I like most about Bill is that he thinks big. In fact, he thinks mythically. He doesn't start a creative project without first having an absolutely clear understanding of: (a) why he is doing it; and (b) the symbolic meaning of the finished product. Sometimes only Bill himself fully appreciates what he's trying to achieve with a particular piece of work, but that doesn't diminish his enthusiasm one bit.

'$20,000' affected me in the same way that Drummond's previous books did: after seeing art through his eyes - or through the filter of his mind, at least - I once again stepped into a world full of promise and beauty, an arena of mythic possibilities.

Bill goes to great lengths to avoid actually enjoying himself, but many of his artistic statements are rich in irony, and obviously the products of a finely tuned sense of humour.

From creating timeless music with the KLF to producing the greatest heavy metal album of all time (Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction's 'Tattooed Beat Messiah') to embarking upon world-adventuring voyages of personal and artistic discovery, Drummond's intrepid and irrepressible creative drive is an inspiration. Thank you, Mr Drummond, for changing my worldview for the better.

[Godzilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've dealt with this Bill Drummond book far sooner than I normally do. Ordinarily I spot a book by him, snap it up with a sense of urgency and then deny myself the pleasure of reading it for weeks if not months.

This is self-denial of pleasure - his books always absorb me, make me question things, and generally inspire me to think differently about those things.

As the book warns, this is basically a second edition of the How To Be An Artist book, also by Bill Drummond. This version has no accompanying photographs, but is expanded upon and deals with issues after the original book.

The basic premise is that Drummond bought a photograph by the artist Richard Long for $20,000. He fell out of love with the picture and sought to resolve his feelings about it as a work of art.

To cut a long story short he decided to cut it into 20,000 pieces and sell them at $1 each. Then he was going to create his own artwork using the money raised.

I have a personal interest in this story, as I have purchased one of the fragments of the original artwork. As such this book gives me a greater insight into the motivation and method behind the whole project.

I look forward to the next installment in this series...

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard to know whether this book is made more or less enjoyable if you already know who Bill Drummond is. I have followed his work for years so was prepared for his mischievousness. I was less prepared for his open and honest thoughtfulness. As he described his epic quest to sell a Richard Long artwork that he had once bought and loved for the same $20,000 price that he had originally paid, I laughed a lot at the various side-plots, encounters, and inner monologues about art, the UK, journeys and the rest. Drummond is a genuinely funny and thoughtful writer.

In the end, the project becomes a bit unwieldy and less fun in the epilogues (saved a little by the very last story). Some of the deviations in Drummond's thought patterns become more about his new projects and he seems too distracted to see this through. But maybe that's part of the journey. Like the Long artwork, this project loses its joy over time. Above all that seems to be one of Drummond's obsessions: that art is transient and that it should be. Maybe that's why he loves Long's work so much, and why he stopped loving a photograph that immortalises it.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a bit conflicted about this. I love Bill Drummond, have done for a long time. I connected with his work with the KLF, and his book "45" is terrific, though his books with Mark Manning are less successful, for me certainly because Manning seems to be writing horror porn, which just gets wearing really fast.

But this book here really brings out Drummond's technique of shopping-list documentary journalism (this happened then this happened then this happened) interspersed with bar stool philosophy and rants about art. Here more than ever Drummond exposes himself to being criticized as a failed art student groping for credibility as an artist, whilst at the same time passionately denying any such desire. Personally I think art school just messed with his head, and/or he's been acting out a mid-life crisis since his late teens.

An enjoyable though not necessarily a compelling read. Essential for Drummond fans regardless, assuming there are such things as Bill Drummond fans out there.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

$20k is a fun, sometimes rambling, collection of short stories around the idea of tring to make a new art event/collective/geographic work on a very expensive photograph  of stone circles by Richard long purchased in the mid 90s.

 

The  story collection plays a bit like madcap Bill Bryson – fun anecdotes across northern Britain – its grim up north – interspersed with meditations on what art is or isn’t, or should be or shouldn’t.  Drummond continues to entertain throughout – the book never becomes dull although I wouldn’t necessarily thought I would have enjoyed the subject matter if I wasn’t already acquainted with Drummond’s myriad works.  Having not known about Richard long beforehand didn’t diminish my enjoyment – ultimately Drummond doesn’t really know hwo he is either. I enjoyed his overflowing creativity on display (or is he being derivative?) .

 

I read the third edition of this book, which included several epilogues  that continue the story of the Richard Long photograph., however still doesn’t complete the story.  To get the best out of this, you probably would need to know a bit about the KLF, his anti-art art of the 90s, and who the hell Gimpo is.

 

Cant wait to rip into Drummond’s other books

[Chris Aylott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sixteen years ago, artist Bill Drummond spent $20,000 on a photograph by artist Richard Long. After five years, he was tired of the photograph, and had an idea: Drummond would travel around Britain trying to sell the photograph to someone else for the original $20,000, then take the money from the sale to where the original photograph was taken and bury it. And thus began an odyssey that led to this book.

Is the act of selling the photograph art? How about the photographs he's taking of what he's doing? Or his sales pitch? Or the book, which talks about all of these things, with digressions into British -- or "UK'ian"-- geography and whatever else came into Drummond's mind as he wrote? I don't know if I know the answers to any of those questions -- but it's an interesting story, not least because ten years later he's still selling the photograph in a way you won't expect.

[Dazz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this as I own 2 of the 20,000 pieces and I knew what Bill had intended before buying this book so it was interesting to see a little deeper into his thoughts.
He does go off on a tangent sometimes, these tangents were usually relevant to some of his other work but sometimes they would serve no real purpose than show a little of how his mind works.
Some people will like it and other won't.
I do hope the last of the 20,000 pieces of 'A Smell of Sulphur in the Wind' sell sometime soon as the final version of this book will be more worth a read.

[Thorsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this, i love his conversational style of writing, which I think works well as a mechanism he employs to avoid sounding pretentious while still maintaing a high level of intelligent discussion and ideas, but which also enables him to really explore the creative process from an insiders perspective.

[Alan Fricker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Update of the previous "How to be an artist" if you like Bill then you'll like this.

[Keen Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy Bill Drummond's company, I find him quite an avuncular character who isn't quite the good influence he should be. He wanders around the British Isles here but an otherwise dull journey is really brought to life by the clarity and depth of his observations, the people he meets and the places he goes. I found the Richard Long encounter particularly amusing. A nice idea and a thoroughly enjoyable jaunt too.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drummond's adventures are always diverting. This one isn't quite as thought-provoking as 17, but there were enough references to Bristol and nature to keep me happy.