
Bronsteen sent along his tongue-in-cheek how-to-do-it book after we put up a post about it based on some promotional material. I find the book even more interesting than I had expected, not because he gives good, funny advice, but because Bronsteen uses the “advice” as a subterfuge for effectively skewering art world excesses that defy common sense and common values.
Amongst my favorite bits of commentary, posing as advice, are:
“Rule #82: Expose yourself in the name of art,” in which he references the masochistic and nudist path to satori taken by Marina Abramovic; and
“Rule #83: Become a butcher on your way to an M.F.A.” in which he references blood orgiast Hermann Nitsch (image from one of Nitsch’s events; for artblog’s Nitsch commentary, check the Hermann Nitsch thread list in the left-hand column).
“Rule #42: Strike while the iron is hot,” in which he references Jeff Koons, who made 3,000 cheesy multiples of a “Puppy” vase on a pedestal, thereby taking advantage of the good press he got for his giant “Puppy” installations. Take that, Cerealart (top image, Jeff Koons’ puppy vase tschotschka).

The book is not as consistently witty and global through all 136 rules–some are fairly petty and specific, like “Rule #34: Pour salt into a rug,” but there’s plenty here for a laugh and a little perspective. As I mentioned in my previous post, Bronsteen, 79, followed some of his own advice and it’s done well by him from a marketing point of view.
I must say my favorite parts of the book were the back-cover promotion blurbs from the living and the dead–from Christo to Leonardo–and the legal disclaimers at the front of the book followed by one-liner book titles that Bronsteen lists as his so-called credentials.
What Bronsteen has in spades is marketing charisma which has taken him pretty far in a competitive art world that doesn’t know s_ _ _ from shinola sometimes (see Rule #27: Turn s_ _ _ into shinola,” in which Bronsteen turns his 500+ rejections into a wall of art. He writes, “I also made it into The Guinness Book of Records as the Most Rejected Artist in the world.” I would guess, however, that some artists might have even more rejections; they just haven’t taken their rejections to Guinness).