Making Art and Making a Living

Adventures in Funding a Creative Life

First Written 2026
Genre History
Origin US
Publisher Celadon
My Copy library copy
First Read July 15, 2026

Making Art and Making a Living

Notes

Louise Nevelson was in high school in 1918?? I thought she was much younger, like a generation or two younger.

Noted on July 15, 2026

I think the blurb I had read on this led me to think it would be more of a survey of artists working today. The history is interesting but I'd be much more curious if there was a 2026 artist edition!

Noted on July 15, 2026

A pop history that surveys (mostly) 20th century artists, and talks about how they actually funded their lives. Did they have other jobs? family money? allowances? inheritances? working spouses? patrons? Or you know, actually sell their work?

Noted on July 15, 2026

Quotes

She [Louis Nevelson] exhibited her work for twenty-five years without making a single sale, didn't have her first solo exhibition until she was forty-two years old, and didn't get her big break until her work was included in a 1958 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, when Nevelson was almost sixty.

Quoted on July 15, 2026

Ex Libris Kirkland is a super-self-absorbed reading journal made by Matt Kirkland. Copyright © 2001 - 2026.

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