What Artists Do

It's easy to agree that artists make art. Still, it's not as easy to reach a consensus on what art actually is. After all, art is manifold and undefinable: with each work, an artist is able to make up different ways of materializing the concept. Thus, in What Artists Do, published by Cobogó, writer Leonard Koren, author of the worldwide hit Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers (published as Wabi-Sabi: Para artistas, designers, poetas e filósofos by Cobogó in 2019), discusses artistic creation through profiles of great names, examining how and why each of them create their own art.

Koren focuses on seven artists: Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, Donald Judd, On Kawara, Richard Serra, Christo Vladimirov Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude Marie Denat. Although their works encompass only a small spectrum of styles and materials, they’re able to represent quite varied artistic visions, paths and purposes. Some transform nothing into something, creating an entire universe of meaning, while others search for contemplation amidst a fast and noisy world or make people see reality in new, specific ways. And there are also those who create art precisely to determine what art is, convincing the audience to embark in their unusual concept of creation.

Although there are as many ways of being an artist as there are people in the world, what connects artists is content, spirit and methodologies entirely unlike any other kind of work. Koren shows this in an original manner, making his little book about art a work of art itself.

"This book is part of the premise that art is important because it's part of the nebulous and unquantifiable dimension of reality that we usually call ‘poetics’. Religion, magic and even love, beauty and other forms of irrational understanding also fit into this category. Poetics transcend life's practical imperatives — and it’s still one of the foundations of the identities we create for ourselves. Poetics are also, above all, a source of joy, hope, pleasure and reflection."

About the author
Leonard Koren is educated in Arts and Architecture. In 1976, he created Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, an avant-garde publication that became a reference for post-modern aesthetics. Koren is the author of various books, among them Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers (published as Wabi-Sabi: Para artistas, designers, poetas e filósofos by Cobogó in 2019), a classic about the beauty of imperfect, impermanent and unfinished things.

Specifications
Author Leonard Koren
Translator Alice Sant’Anna
Language Portuguese
Page count 128
ISBN 9786556910475
Format Softcover
Size 14 x 21 cm
Year 2021