Art Rules: How Great Artists Think, Create and Work

The best thing about rules is that you can break them: here are over 100 mantras for anyone interested in creating great art.

What can we learn from great artists? When we hold their practices up to the light, what do we see – and how might those encounters reshape our own thinking about art?

Delving into the attitudes, working practices and mantras of artists hailing from the eighteenth century to the present day, Art Rules distills over 100 insights into the lives of artists inside the studio and out. This book is animated by questions: How do artists think about creativity? What forms can process take? How might artists craft a personal definition of success?

Drawing upon art historical research and artist interviews, the accessible takeaways on these virtuosos’ varied practices pack a punch. ​This lively compendium offers up a wealth of perspectives from an international, intergenerational group of artists working across media.Art historical heavyweights including Louise Bourgeois, Marcel Duchamp, Frida Kahlo and Henri Matisse appear alongside relatively newer names such as Kerry James Marshall, Ana Mendieta and Mika Rottenberg, as well as exciting artists on the rise like Emilie Louise Gossiaux and Madeline Hollander. 

Some of the insights may seem more practical, while others trend conceptual; some may unearth existing knowledge, while others may come as a surprise; some will stay with you forever, while others you’ll only need to try once. Art Rules allows readers to either dip in at random or read from cover to cover for lessons in how great artists think, make and work.

Cassie Packard is a Brooklyn-based writer and cultural critic with bylines at publications including Art in America, Artforum, ArtReview, BOMB, frieze, Hyperallergic and Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. She has contributed to art books and catalogues and is the recipient of several fellowships.