Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See

Bosker narrates her first day working as an assistant to Julie Curtiss, an rapidly rising artist. Curtiss is a petite but formidable presence, whose initial warmth belies the intense pressure artists often place on their assistants. Bosker is aware of the precarious nature of such positions, noting that artists typically hire and fire assistants based on intuition rather than formal criteria.

Located in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Curtiss’s studio occupies a former printing press building amid industrial neighbors. The space itself presents numerous challenges, including inadequate heating and electrical limitations. Curtiss insists on repainting the floor before beginning new work, viewing the studio’s condition as integral to her creative process.

Born to middle-class parents—a librarian mother and a Vietnamese American father who worked as a technical photographer—Curtiss initially struggled to envision herself as a professional artist despite her education at an elite French art school. She supported herself through various jobs, including roles as an assistant to established artists Jeff Koons and KAWS, while developing her artistic practice.

After years of limited success, Curtiss secures representation from Anton Kern Gallery, a prestigious establishment that typically works with more established artists. This professional advancement brings significant financial success, with her first solo show selling out completely. However, this success introduces new complications: Curtiss’s work begins appearing at auctions, with pieces originally sold for modest sums now commanding significantly higher prices without any financial benefit to the artist.

Bosker highlights the darker aspects of Curtiss’s success. An article in Artnet documents the dramatic price increases of Curtiss’s work while also publishing anonymous criticisms from art world figures who question her originality and compared her unfavorably to deceased artists Christina Ramberg and Domenico Gnoli. The harassment extends to social media, particularly Instagram, contributing to Curtiss’s anxiety and insomnia. Despite her professional achievements, Curtiss expresses uncertainty about the sustainability of her success, revealing the psychological toll of rapid art world recognition.

Bosker’s first assignment as Curtiss’s assistant is to prime several canvases, which is more challenging than anticipated. Despite her previous artistic endeavors, Bosker struggles with the precise requirements of applying primer, requiring multiple attempts and guidance from Curtiss.

The narrative transitions to describing Curtiss’s preparation for upcoming exhibitions, including a solo booth at the Parisian art fair FIAC. Curtiss needs to produce approximately nine paintings for this event, along with additional pieces for other shows and art fairs. Curtiss approaches her work with methodical dedication, arriving at her studio each morning with a consistent routine.

Bosker focuses on Curtiss’s creative process as Curtiss develops a painting featuring a woman seated at a table. When Curtiss encounters difficulties, she seeks reference materials online and eventually uses Bosker as a model. This experience allows Bosker to observe how artists make strategic decisions to enhance their work’s impact, such as adjusting the seated figure’s angle to create ambiguity about whether the viewer is a voyeur or an unwitting observer.

The chapter also discusses Curtiss’s painting of a row of bathroom stalls with feet visible beneath the dividers. Curtiss explains that this piece emerged from considering the tension between social conventions and biological necessities in public restrooms. Bosker receives permission to assist with painting this piece, applying black paint to create a checkerboard floor pattern. However, Curtiss later discards this version and begins anew with an altered composition.

Bosker reflects on misconceptions about artistic collaboration. She notes that while popular imagination often depicts artists as solitary geniuses, historical evidence shows that collaborative art production dates back to ancient Egypt. The romantic notion of the isolated artist emerged in the late 18th century and was reinforced by the Impressionists. In contrast to this myth, Bosker observes that contemporary artists frequently employ studio assistants, continuing a long tradition of collaborative artistic production.

Bosker recounts her experiences watching Julie mix paint to achieve a specific shade of gray. While Bosker initially finds Julie’s process excessive—using 11 different colors to create gray—this moment helps her understand how artists see color more complexly than others.

To better understand visual perception, Bosker attends the Visual Science of Art Conference in Leuven, Belgium. At this gathering of scientists studying art and vision, she learns that human visual processing is not purely mechanical like a video camera. Instead, the brain actively filters and interprets visual information based on expectations and past experiences. A physicist at the conference explains that vision is essentially a form of hallucination, as the brain constructs what one sees rather than purely recording it.

In a meeting with Rebecca Chamberlain, a psychologist studying art perception, Bosker gains insight into how artists develop different ways of seeing. Chamberlain explains that while most people’s brains automatically adjust to changing light conditions to maintain color constancy, artists can override this mechanism. This ability allows artists to perceive subtle color variations that others might miss.

The chapter then shifts to examining humanity’s historical relationship with color. Bosker describes how civilizations went to extraordinary lengths to obtain certain pigments, from Romans forcing convicts to mine toxic mercury for red pigments to Europeans grinding up actual mummies to create a specific shade of brown. She notes that the development of synthetic pigments in the 19th century revolutionized artists’ ability to work with color.

Bosker’s time with Julie transforms her perception of color. She begins noticing subtle variations in seemingly monochromatic surfaces and experiencing color more intensely, proving to her that exposure to art can fundamentally change how people perceive and experience the world.

While Curtiss is painting in her studio, she becomes increasingly worried about the rapid inflation of her artwork’s value in the secondary market. One of her paintings, initially sold for $600, is resold at auction for $106,000. Subsequently, additional pieces reach prices between $250,000 and $400,000 at auction.

This dramatic price escalation poses a significant threat to Curtiss’s career longevity. Bosker notes that in the art market’s paradoxical logic, such rapid value increases often signal potential instability. Collectors who quickly resell artwork, known as “flipping,” can damage an artist’s reputation by suggesting a lack of confidence in the work’s future value. Bosker learns about previous artists who experienced similar trajectories, such as Anselm Reyle, whose market collapsed after his prices increased by over 1,000% in one year, ultimately leading to his retirement from art-making at age 44.

The situation creates numerous practical and emotional challenges for Curtiss. She receives messages from collectors threatening to auction her work unless she can demonstrate upcoming career achievements. Some collectors, including a couple who run an artist residency in Italy, decide to sell their pieces at auction rather than wait to purchase new work through her gallery. These actions particularly frustrate Curtiss because she prefers collectors to resell through her gallery, which would allow her to maintain better control and potentially earn a percentage of the resale.

The chapter also illuminates the administrative demands of being a working artist. Bosker, who serves as Curtiss’s studio manager, handles various tasks including scheduling shipments, updating Curtis’s professional documents, managing correspondence, and dealing with insurance matters. These responsibilities reveal to Bosker how being an artist requires not only creative work but also significant business acumen.

Bosker touches on Curtiss’s path to becoming a professional artist. Curtiss attributed her success partially to timing: Her figurative work aligned with both political movements promoting women artists and social media’s preference for representational art over abstraction. However, Bosker notes that Curtiss’s dedication to her practice, strategic decision-making about exhibitions, and active participation in the art community are crucial factors in her professional development.

Bosker spends time in Curtiss’s apartment helping organize photos for a gallery while Curtiss prepares for an upcoming lecture at the School of Visual Arts. During this preparation, Curtiss reveals her artistic influences by searching through images online. Her references span multiple mediums and eras, including scenes from Psycho, works by Marcel Duchamp, and paintings by Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres. As Curtiss examines these works, particularly Ingres’s portraits, she demonstrates to Bosker a unique way of viewing art that focuses on specific artistic choices rather than historical or social context. This approach emphasizes direct engagement with visual elements like brushstrokes and composition.

Curtiss explains to Bosker that she aims to create images that will embed themselves in viewers’ minds, becoming part of their psychological landscape. This goal informs her artistic choices, such as her decision to paint simplified, iconic versions of objects rather than realistic representations. Curtiss’s work draws inspiration from Carl Jung’s concept of archetypes, attempting to tap into universal images that exist in human consciousness.

Bosker discovers research by experimental psychologist Johan Wagemans that provides scientific support for Curtiss’s artistic philosophy. Wagemans’s study explains how art functions by creating subtle deviations from viewers’ expectations, suggesting that people’s brains actively seek out these prediction errors in artwork. This scientific perspective helps Bosker understand why certain artworks become compelling and memorable.

The chapter concludes with Bosker’s reflection on how Curtiss transforms her perception of beauty. This shift manifests in Bosker’s newfound appreciation for unexpected subjects, exemplified by Curtiss’s fascination with the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Brooklyn. Curtiss’s enthusiasm for this industrial structure’s aesthetic qualities leads Bosker to reconceptualize beauty as a force that draws people closer to life’s various aspects, rather than merely representing conventional attractiveness.

Bosker examines how public criticism and social media harassment affect artistic vulnerability through her experiences with Julie Curtiss. The chapter begins when Curtiss encounters Jack, Bosker’s former employer, at an art exhibition, prompting Bosker’s anxieties about her professional reputation.

The narrative shifts to focus on the increasing online harassment Curtiss faces as her artwork gains prominence. Critics attack Curtiss’s credibility, attributing her success to her previous association with KAWS rather than acknowledging her independent talent. Bosker notes that these detractors express particular disdain for new collectors and Asian art buyers, reflecting issues of elitism, sexism, and racism in the art world. She comments that even The New Yorker participates in this dismissive attitude, publishing a critique that implies Asian audiences were responsible for diminishing artistic standards.

The hostile environment affects Curtiss deeply, leading her to reduce her social media presence and eventually request privacy in her studio, ending Bosker’s stint as Curtiss’s assistant. Bosker notes that while Curtiss seeks to make art accessible to diverse audiences, her detractors view art appreciation as a zero-sum game.

Drawing on neuroscientific concepts, Bosker argues that art serves as a tool for expanding human perception beyond routine patterns of thinking. She connects this to Curtiss’s ability to find artistic inspiration in ordinary urban scenes. Through references to Aldous Huxley’s writings about psychedelic experiences, Bosker suggests that exposure to art can create similar perspective shifts, enabling people to experience life more fully by breaking free from habitual patterns of perception.