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Poor Artists

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

'Let me stay there, let me paint. Let me go to bed when the sun comes up. I don't want life to sharpen me.'

Why make art? Faced with a capitalist system that has turned art into artwork and creative expression into cut-throat competition, why do so many artists try anyway?

In this eye-opening journey through the bizarre world of contemporary art, criticism duo The White Pube tell the story of art like never before. Poor Artists follows aspiring artist Quest Talukdar through childhood obsessions, art school lessons and her professional debut. In surreal encounters with other artists, Quest learns profound truths about money and power, and must decide whether she cares more about success or staying true to herself.

Blending imaginative storytelling with dialogue from anonymized interviews with real people in the art world who have all had to wrestle with the same decisions – including a Turner Prize winner or two, a few ghosts, a Venice Biennale fraudster and a communist messiah – Poor Artists is a powerful testimony to the emotional, existential and financial experience of artists today.

'A landmark for art writing' Nathalie Olah


©2024 Gabrielle de la Puente, Zarina Muhammad and The White Pube (P)2024 Penguin Audio Art Inspiring

Critic reviews

The art world memoirs for our Internet generation that none of us knew we needed but now we can’t 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 )
'I was surprised, challenged and affirmed - everything I love in a book . . . There are a lot of superlatives I could throw at Poor Artists, yet I finished the book overwhelmingly grateful that it exists. The White Pube continue to be a duo that add such a refreshing, thoughtful and critical but fun voice to an often stale art world. Poor Artists is that in tenfold (Travis Alabanza, author of None of the Above)
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 what’s glorious, about art and the world right now (Daisy Hildyard author of Emergency )
All stars
Most relevant
a book that is true about the expectations artists put on themselves. and narrated amazingly. love it

a must for qll that dare to create.

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One thing I enjoyed was how Poor Artists talks about art being controlled by the aristocracy and funded by them throughout history and talking about how the recession has made lots of safe commercial artwork that's easy to digest and gets us jobs where we fit in with what they want.
This has made me think about my own positionality within my practice and how I want to make work that's weird and
'aggressive' and raw and doesn't fit in.
Anyway go read it!

Empowering The Working Class

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Much anticipated reading matter and could not put it down. I laughed and cried at this book as it spoke to much of my own experience with the codified world of exhibitions, art school and the weight of others expectations on my practice. I recognised so many of the characters described here as my friends and acquaintances- and saw my own reflection in the mirror it held up. Such a valuable and heartfelt insight into what it’s like to be an artist in the 21st Century. A valuable reminder to keep on making in the face of adversity.

An essential allegorical journey for artists navigating the peaks and troughs of the contemporary art world

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This book resonated with me on every single level. As an artist, it’s given me direction. It is so honest, so refreshingly clear - I feel like I know how to move forward now. It’s like somebody took my brain out and examined it and put my thoughts / feelings into words! And I want the whole world to read this book, right now.

A call to action?

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…more then being an artist.

Thank you for let me realised that!

I’ll carry on no matter what.

I want to make art…

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