7 Habits of Highly Effective People: The Art World Edition

Recently, an 11-hour flight whizzed by as I poured over the newly released and much-hyped The Beat and the Buzz: Inside the LA Art World — billed as “one-third a history of the Los Angeles art world since 1970, one-third about the psycho-dynamics of how people make it, or don’t, and one-third art world gossip and stories.” As I surveyed Richard Hertz’s 300+ page anthology of thirty-three interviews with the prevailing art world archetypes (artists, curators, dealers, and artists), I was perpetually reminded of a book I had read more than a decade ago: Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  Hertz’s revelatory interviews are essentially case studies of success in the art world, and thus offer their own guiding principles for how to be effective in this particular field:

Habit #1: Believe that art is the alpha and the omega
The terms passion, desire, necessity, and even religion were applied to art repeatedly in these pages. Emi Fontana and Edward Goldman go so far as to say that the art speaks to them. “Whatever else might be said of these stories, they are borne out of lives lived passionately” (Ezrha Jean Black) and lived with art as their starting and end point.

Habit #2: Network, network, network
One thing abundantly clear from these stories is that people’s connections and relationships were as pivotal to their success as education and experience. Networking with colleagues, friends, and friends of friends expands the possibilities infinitely; therefore, attendance at gallery openings, artist dinners, and museum fundraisers is an imperative. “When I met people, it wasn’t just out of thin air” (Arnold 305).

Habit #3: Carpe Diem
Often times, the difference between failure and success is simply answering the door when opportunity knocks. Seize the day. “We were walking down the street; it was one o’clock in the morning, and Ken said, ‘That’s where Robert Rauschenberg lives.’ The lights were on. We said, ‘Should we? Yeah, why not?’ We knocked on the door” (Grinstein 112-3).

Habit #4: Study, worship, and emulate John Baldessari (if you’re an artist) or Walter Hopps (if you’re anyone else)
While the thriving LA art scene couldn’t possibly have been hoisted on the shoulders of only two men, one can say with absolute certainty that they each, in their own way, left an indelible impact. With one or both mentioned (and highly praised) in nearly every chapter, if you’re looking for an Art World Idol, these two are more than worthy.

Habit # 5: Rise above the fear of not knowing “how”
Fear — of the unknown, of failure, of not knowing precisely how to achieve something — not only prevents success, according to artist Alexis Smith, it holds people back from even imagining. “If you are like Gagosian and are completely fearless, are not afraid of failure or of other people, and are driven by your own goals and have positive thoughts about what you want to happen, it will happen” (Berman 233).

Habit #6: Don’t try to reinvent the wheel; find your own niche
While we’d all like to be the next Larry Gagosian or Hans Ulrich Obrist, we must remember that they didn’t follow in anyone’s footsteps, but rather invented the roles of megadealer and supercurator. Movers and shakers find their own path. “I began to wonder why there wasn’t a Palm Beach gallery that had an aggressive international program and went to art fairs, a real gallery. I decided to investigate the possibilities” (Gavlak 108).

Habit #7: There isn’t a formula; carve your own path to success.
Aspiring curators shouldn’t presume that an M.A. from Harvard + Ph.D. from Bard Center for Curatorial Studies equals curating the Venice Biennale, nor should artists suppose that a B.A. from Yale + M.F.A. from UCLA guarantees Gagosian representation & a MoMA retrospective. Success in the art world is much more organic than formulaic, more like climbing a tree than a ladder. “I don’t see the art world as a rational system. It defies easy categorization. It’s a beast, a wild beast, and I’m enjoying the ride very much indeed” (Pally 300-1).

-By Rebecca Taylor