I'm Not an Artist

Romanticised notions of how one becomes an “artist” have long been questioned. So why do we still fetishise them in popular culture, turning a blind eye to the politics of exclusionism that characterise the art world and conforming our creative potential to well-trodden stereotypes?

I'm Not an Artist is a critical appraisal of the role of the artist through time and an account of how successful artists have conquered their spot in the history of art, from the rise of the Renaissance artist star to the multiplicity of artistic identities we see in the creative landscape today.

Entertaining, informative, and packed with important but lesser-known stories about how artists became famous, it examines the cultural importance of the professional label “artist” and invites readers to “give up the artist myth” in order to rediscover creativity beyond the stronghold of institutions, markets, trends, and cultural clichés.

It’s a book about art, artists, art history, and the art market as well as the role creativity plays in our lives and how outdated power structures and professional labels are a hindrance to unlocking creative potential. Openly engaging with the contradictions and paradoxes that currently define the relationship between artists, the education system, and the art market, the book proposes an eco-cultural model that can allow artists to reconfigure their identities, and in the process tilt the art world's axis.

By turns a critical framework for examining what constitutes the term “artist”, an alternative art historical account, and a no-holds-barred guide to how the art world really works, this boundary-breaking book challenges existing practices, methodologies, and metrics of success, calling for a fairer art world that is non-elitist and multicultural. It allows readers to critically position themselves in today’s art world in a clear, ethically grounded, and responsible way.