(Part 2) Best business of art reference books according to redditors

I have a fair bit of art in my home.

Favorite artist is definitely either Granville Redmond or Erte

Edit: Oops forgot to answer your last question.

The only part of my background that got me into this was a lifelong love of art. I didn't know anyone and had no way into the industry. If you're interested I'd recommend reading this book which helped me a fair amount.

Wat? What are you arguing? Is this another attempt to bring up the analytic vs. continental debate? Why not just argue why mac is better than windows in there too, just to make this more exciting.

Where did I argue that continental philosophy has superior tenets to analytic philosophy? All I said was accusing a philosopher or his/her work of obscurantism or not understanding his work isn't a valid criticism. It's like saying quantum physics is based on too much obscure theory and because I can't penetrate it, it's a waste of time.

And, mind you, philosophers on both sides of the 'aisle' for a lack of a better term have been accused of obscurantism including Plato and his Noble Lie, Kant, Wittgenstein and Marx who accused German Idealist of being obscurants but was later accused of the same by Popper and Hayek. Basically it's become a political term that's akin to politicians accusing each other of not telling the whole story or hiding the facts, which is a telling a sign in philosophy to say the least.

Personally speaking I'm in no way wishing to disparage the methods and rules by which analytic philosophy is conducted. But at the same time I'm very thankful that my university at the undergraduate level through political theory (not the philosophy department) introduced me to continental philosophy and pointed out how truths need to be examined post-hoc. Many postmodernist philosophers whose works I currently admire are Judith Butler at UC Berkeley, for her studies challenging gender relations, and Gayatri Spivak a 'follower' of deconstructionism, who teaches at Columbia, and who speaks of the subaltern of the former colonial world addressing Chomsky's point that intellectuals in the third world are shut out of philosophy, but she blames it on the metaphysics of Kant and Hegel in A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present. Here's the pivotable essay one can use to introduce oneself to Spivak's post-structural interpretation on post-colonialism: Can the Subaltern Speak?. Based on the current continental philosophers' work I believe post-structuralist philosophy is inherently subversive which makes analytic philosophers defensive about their own work. But that's just my opinion.

And I still say Macs are better.

Getting into galleries is not easy. They are usually looking for several specific things. You might want to have him read this book to give him a sense of what galleries want.

A few things that I notice is that there is a somewhat similar style, but the subject matter is all over the place with nothing that seems to connect it too well. Just look at your favorite compared to the majority of his work on his site. I think he would probably have the best chance with his dreamscapes, specifically #2, #3, and #5. If he started doing more like that, more consistently, he might have a solid portfolio to take to galleries. The other thing is that his oil techniques need improvement. They just look a little amateurish. You might have him look into taking workshops or classes with artists whose technique he admires.

He should keep doing the descriptions of his work, however. The message in his work is a little hard to understand without it, so it's important that he explains it. An example is your favorite piece. One might think that it's promoting Marxism (which would turn away a lot of people who could afford his work), but upon reading the description, one would understand that it's not the case.

I think he has talent and I think that with more work on his style and technique, he could do quite well for himself. It just seems that it may be a few years until he reaches that level.

That said, galleries may not be the best option for him anyway. If he's good at self-promotion and marketing, he could do it all without galleries and sell directly to buyers. Then he could paint however he wants, as long as he makes up for his weaknesses in marketing strength. I've seen plenty of artists that weren't gallery material do quite well for themselves.

I have a pdf of South Asian Technospaces if you want it.

As far as I can tell Techno-Orientalism tends to deal mostly with perceptions of East Asia more than South Asia but there might be a few excerpts that are helpful.

Have you looked into Subaltern Studies at all? A friend of mine has recommended the work of Dipesh Chakrabarty
. I would look through the bibliographies of the theorists associated with the movement.

If you're interested in critical accounts of South Asian immigration, I can recommend Vijay Prashad's texts The Karma of Brown Folk and the more recent Uncle Swami. You can PM me for both.

This is more what I was thinking of, but that looks like a good source too!