A spread from Artifacts: Fascinating Facts about Art, Artists, and the Art World
What were the names of Henri Matisse’s cats? How many jobs did Agnes Martin have before becoming an artist aged 30? Which French artist collects prosthetic arms and legs? The answers to these questions and other fascinating facts, are all included in Artifacts, a compendium of arty figures and findings presented over five chapters including “Art Studio”, “Art School” and “Art Museum”.
“The publication is a carefully curated selection of hundreds of such miscellaneous yet fascinating findings, each one a pinhole through which we can see a more nuanced view of the world of art ,” say the book editors. Below is an excerpt outlining Leonardo da Vinci’s advice to budding artists (answers to the above: Coussi, Minouche and La Puce; 35 including tennis coach and cherry picker manager; Sophie Calle).
Taken from Leonardo da Vinci’s collection of writings A Treatise on Painting (Trattato della pittura), first published in France in 1632.
• Artifacts: Fascinating Facts about Art, Artists, and the Art World, Sara Bader and Rebecca Morrill (editors), Phaidon, 176pp, £16.95, February (hb)
