Want to be more creative? I have chosen 5 books that will help you transform your outlook
There are thousands of books about creativity and artists. It can be overwhelming to know what books to read and where to start. This is not an end-to-end book-list, but more of a subjective list of books that I have read and have been personally influenced over the years and I wanted to share this with you.
1. Ways of Seeing, John Berger
Have you ever wondered why we might perceive things before words?
Like many, I first read Ways of seeing whilst a student on my foundation course. It was a must-read (and still is) for students studying Art & Design. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. John Berger describes quite original ideas at the time on how we reconstruct perceiving the world via imagery, making language inadequate to express in the way we see the world and quite importantly, how the print and reproduction of the original made art more democratic. If we fast forward now to 2019, with the ever-expanding usage of the Internet, we can see this that the image has become even more democratic, shareable and less elitist and exclusive. Hence this book is still valid today.
The chapter about how men and women have been represented differently in paintings blew my mind and that one line; “men act, women appear” has changed my understanding of representation from oil paintings to everyday advertisements. Women have often been depicted to exhibit their sexuality self-consciously, accused of vanity by associating with symbols such as mirrors and beauty tools, yet they were seldom the ones behind this representational tradition, as men pretty much dominated the arts.
Ways of Seeing is great if you enjoy visiting art exhibitions and understanding why we perceive things the way we do
Here is a video link to the documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pDE4...
2. The philosophy of Andy Warhol, by Andy Warhol
What goes on in an artist’s mind?
I have always enjoyed reading about artists and what they think. This book really influenced me a lot over the years and have read it several times and keep going back to it where Warhol’s unapologetic ideas on capitalism, consumerism, fame read as an autobiography. Here are some quotes from Warhol that I have found inspiring over the years. There are loads more, but these are some of my favourites:
Let the mundane interest you
“You need to let the little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you.”
On making artwork
“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”
People wanting a change
“When people are ready to, they change. They never do it before then, and sometimes they die before they get around to it. You can’t make them change if they don’t want to, just like when they do want to, you can’t stop them”
Don’t worry about other people
“Don’t pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches.”
The line - "I never fall apart because I never fall together" has always resonated something in me.
3. The art of looking sideways by Alan Fletcher
What can propel instant creative inspiration?
The art of looking sideways is a really good, visual book for getting ideas and developing a better visual awareness that can apply to graphic designers as well as artists. Alan Fletcher provides 72 chapters on various themes of ideas, anecdotes, quotes, observations and insights into life, that play with the aesthetic, artistic and general human experience. This is another book I often refer to and has an almost timeless feel to it. You can open any page and become immediately engaged and inspired by it. It is random, fun and thought-provoking.
“If your mind is too open people can throw all kinds of rubbish into it.”
― Alan Fletcher
4. Sculpting in time by Andrei Tchaikovsky
Do you want to reshape your thinking about art and aesthetics?
Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky created some of the most amazing cinematic film shots I have ever seen. His deliberate scenes move at a slow pace with panning motions and long takes. I read this book a few years ago and was taken back by how passionate he felt about art and philosophy with modern man’s uncaring attitude about his spiritual well-being and everything in the modern world has become purely just for entertainment. What I like and am inspired by is; Tarkovsky's insightful account into his own methods, ideas, and philosophy on being creative. It’s a challenging book that will challenge you and shape your thinking. Even though I don’t know much about film studies, I do appreciate his thirst for creativity and how it can transfer and be implemented to other creative channels and generally life itself.
“My objective is to create my own world and these images which we create mean nothing more than the images which they are. We have forgotten how to relate emotionally to art: we treat it like editors, searching in it for that which the artist has supposedly hidden. It is actually much simpler than that, otherwise, art would have no meaning. You have to be a child—incidentally children understand my pictures very well, and I haven’t met a serious critic who could stand knee-high to those children. We think that art demands special knowledge; we demand some higher meaning from an author, but the work must act directly on our hearts or it has no meaning at all.”
― Andrei Tarkovsky
5. The Art of Seeing: An Interpretation of the Aesthetic Encounter by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
How do you optimise CREATIVITY at work with the concept of flow?
I read this book recently and can say how much of an eye-opener it was. The idea of aesthetics has been written hundreds of times, but for me, what I found interesting as a visual artist were two key points that Czikszentmihaly mentions that many of us should be aware of. Firstly, understanding the concept of ‘Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience’. ‘Flow’ is an activity that is intrinsically rewarding and works when we are fully engaged and focused in an activity, in control and having the freedom to be in the ‘zone’, hence a state of flow. Even though I had experienced many times this feeling of ‘flow’, I will add that by reading about it and it has helped me to be being more creative and directive towards productivity. When we hear Jackson Pollock say; “Painting is a state of being”, it becomes clearer to what he was trying to say and what he meant. Secondly, Czikszentmihaly makes a strong argument about the importance of visual literacy and how it should be taught much more in schools. If we think of advertisements or imagery on social media, with the constant pressures to be ‘happy’ and ‘have it all’, our understanding of imagery is still quite limited and many of us don’t question the encounter with the image. Better awareness of this could help us all in the long run.