Review - Steal like an Artist by Austin Kleon
Stealing is a crime?
In continuation of Department 45’s review of top rated and recommended Art business books we, continue the series with “Steal like an Artist” (ISBN: 978-0-7611-6925-3) written by Austin Kleon in 2012. The latest version of this book has an updated appendix written after the pandemic which adds commentary. What first strikes a reader is the format and delivery the book gives. Its format is very visual. It contains many of the authors own art works, drawings as well is light on overall text. The messages are often delivered quickly and with focus. As someone who commonly reads text heavy fiction and non-fiction books the light formatting and visual descriptions was a very notable feature of the book. One that helped convey the messages very strongly and keep my focus, in a very positive way. Now this is a simple book, its messages are strong but it’s light on content from a volume and science perspective. However, it’s message is valuable.
“Art is theft” – Pablo Picasso
The book gets to its point quickly and in a wonderful brief fashion, it speaks through expertly choose quotes and references. That all things effectively have already been done, seen, said, or made before, and therefore, stealing is both natural, real, and frankly the way many greats have become great.
Our author speaks of his own story in creative industries and shows his realizations and own cases of inspiration or theft. The messaging in the book goes to tell the read that stealing, not only is natural and common it’s encouraged. The inspiration, the evolution of previous work and artists is often how things are created and growth is achieved. The book has a progression over its chapters that both tells us that we can take inspiration from others, to how we can structure our own creative processes and gives tips and tricks in how to ensure that we continue our development.
It has a wonderful range of quotes from creatives across times and mediums that allude to the same factor that using prior work as a starting point is natural and the source of much success. The author does take a moment to clearly define that theft of ideas, inspiration is natural to the artistic journey plagiarism and fraud clearly are not the message here.
Summary
The brief book left me with a lot of content and more thoughts than bigger books on these subjects have. It let me reflect on my own creative method and reinforced some of my own processes that I found I had in common with those suggested.
This book is a great complementary read for those readers that find conventional textbook like books daunting or those who have a strong visual learning method. I appreciate greatly how difficult it is to convey complex ideas in simple methods and am impressed in how this book does that.
This is absolutely a recommended read for creatives and artists. It was for me.
If you’re looking for more reviews on Art business books or articles for small business owners in the creative space, please follow us on our website (department45.eu) and our Instagram @department45.eu. Also, if you would like help in an upcoming business endeavor or a sense check of your upcoming projects, we would be thrilled to speak to you, reach out on our email at timh@department45.eu.
