Old in Art School

By: Nell Painter

Narrated by: Nell Painter

Following her retirement from Princeton University, celebrated historian Dr. Nell Irvin Painter surprised everyone in her life by returning to school - in her 60s - to earn a BFA and MFA in painting. In Old in Art School, she travels from her beloved Newark to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design; finds meaning in the artists she loves, even as she comes to understand how they may be undervalued; and struggles with the unstable balance between the pursuit of art and the inevitable, sometimes painful, demands of a life fully lived.

How are women and artists seen and judged by their age, looks, and race? What does it mean when someone says, "You will never be an artist?" Who defines what "an artist" is and all that goes with such an identity, and how are these ideas tied to our shared conceptions of beauty, value, and difference?

Old in Art School is Nell Painter's ongoing exploration of those crucial questions. Bringing to bear incisive insights from two careers, Painter weaves a frank, funny, and often surprising tale of her move from academia to art.

A Library Journal Editor's Pick for Spring.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2018 Nell Painter (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Excellent if you are an artist

I thoroughly enjoyed and related to Nell as she meandered through the art world, artists and art itself. It is uplifting to hear someone else going through the same Via Crucis as I have. This book was well worth the listen while I worked at my own art.

Good book for artists

While I don't agree with everything she said, it was interesting to hear the experience from her perspective.

My Favorite Book on the Artist's Journey

This is the best book I have ever read on the topic of "becoming am artist," because the author delves into questions so many others ignore. The author asks, "What is art?" and "Who or what is an artist?" with authenticity, vulnerability, self-reflection, and some measure of objectivity about "the Art World."

The book is read by the author who does a a five star job.

I really liked her voice, honesty and how her personality came throufh

I had no dislikes. If I had to choose something it ended too soon. Yes

Her story

It's a scathing and enlightening review of art school, presented masterfully and resentfully by one who endured it and succeeded in spite of its rituals. I particularly enjoyed her telling of her own story alongside the history of black women artists and black families and slavery all over the world.

Needed This

A beautiful and intelligent quest on the question “what is an artist?” In a place outside of modernism, capitalism, racism, patriarchy, and ageism.

wouldn t change a thing

memoir that is honest, insightful, and funny, told magnificently in author s own voice - with passion from the heart and thinking from a fine mind!

Fascinating

Thank you for this book. Anyone interested in the arts will likely enjoy this book. Her journey through the rigors of art school was fascinating. Also, for anyone over a certain age that is considering a radical shift here is a fine role model. And for youth who are interested in expanding their view of their chronologically older peers, this will open your minds. There’s so much this book has to offer that I haven’t touched on here. Read it! ❤️

I, Hypocrite

This book could have been so good if Nell Painter wasn’t such a narcissist. She railed against racism while herself being a big racist. She was so certain that in every situation people were against her for being black, (not to mention female and older), even when someone asks her a simple question at her university, are you taking a class here? It’s a personal insult to her. She’s convinced it was because she was black. After all these years she still holds a grudge about it. It is this way of thinking that keeps racism alive in America.

She is an intelligent but self absorbed woman. I am not particularly fond of her art but I do like some of it. It’s the idea she has to always push back on what she believes is the stereotype of white people art, constantly, that makes her art ho hum, but she doesn’t seem to realize that.

Her idea that the Renaissance was just white Europeans taking food out of the mouths of poor people tells me that she has no real understanding of what the Renaissance was all about and why ‘church art’ was created.

Nell’s greatest fan is Nell herself, and although I do admire her pursuit, I wish she was just more a little more likeable.

Just about perfect for my time of life

Such a pleasure to listen to Nell Painter’s journey, full of her insights and struggles. While my “Old in Art School” experience occurred when I was 30, I am now 74. My life experiences happened in a different order but I recognize well the culture shock of a 20th Century person encountering and trying to understand 21st Century values and esthetics.
Painter describes the artist’s process with a detailed clarity that should be required reading for undergraduate and graduate art students, as well as art history students, curators and collectors.
In particular, I urge mature artists to read this book. It will bring great enjoyment and realization that we are not alone.