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Irish Times

David Gentleman's Lessons for Young Artists: advice for living well, for people of all ages

Lessons for Young Artists Author : David Gentleman ISBN-13 : 978-0241692813 Publisher : Particular Books Guideline Price : £20 Is art a mysterious manifestation? Are artists somehow different, living strange and rarefied lives? How does a work of art come about at all? For David Gentleman, it is a simple question of just doing it. 'We make art because it's interesting, and it keeps us in touch with reality. And you get better if you stick at it,' he writes in the introduction to Lessons for Young Artists. He also mentions the often forgotten insight that 'art should be enjoyable'. But do you have to be young to appreciate this book? Most people would be young these days to Gentleman, who turned 95 this year, and has been drawing daily for nine decades. In fact, you need to be neither technically youthful or even have aspirations to a career as artist to benefit from this quietly, yet richly wise book. An engraver, stamp designer , book illustrator, polemic poster maker and painter, Gentleman is the unassuming face behind many images you may know surprisingly well. There is the series of Penguin Shakespeare book covers from the 1970s, the platform murals at Charing Cross Underground Station, and the iconic Stop the War Coalition poster from 2003, as well as his more personal paintings and drawings. READ MORE Alongside illustrations of all these are the 'lessons', and the book could equally be called Advice for Living Well, or even How Not to be Bored. For Gentleman, art is a practice of looking closely at things, of giving up perfectionism, of trying over and over again, of self-forgiveness and trust, and also of ethics – such as the time he declined a lucrative Post Office stamp design commission because Margaret Thatcher disapproved of his industry-critical approach. Detailed – although not exhaustively, or exhaustingly – under headings such as 'start small', 'travel light', 'don't put work off' and 'try and look at a subject from different angles'; a picture emerges of how to live a creative life in a world full of distractions and false goals. He is also spot on about dealing with procrastination: 'Sometimes,' he writes, 'you can feel so anxious about getting it right that you are reluctant to start.' Lessons for life, and plenty of good advice for young artists too.