Poor Artists A Quest Into the Art World

This debut book by the popular collaborative team—heralded as one of the first truly new critical voices of the 21st century— blends real-world experience and poignant storytelling into a provocative and heartfelt portrait of the life of an artist today.

At a moment in which working as a professional artist is an increasingly unattainable luxury, art criticism duo The White Pube investigate why so many artists try anyway. Labeled “the Diet Prada of the art world” by British Vogue, in Poor Artists, writers Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad ridicule a contemporary art world that has turned art into artworks, art schools into art universities, and creative expression into cut-throat competition.
Poor Artists follows aspiring artist Quest Talukdar as she embarks on a surreal journey into the creative industry, where she must decide whether she cares more about success or staying true to herself. Featuring dialogue from anonymous interviews with real people who have all had to ask themselves the same question— including a Turner Prize winner or two, a recluse, a Venice Biennale fraudster, a communist messiah, a ghost, and a literal knight—The White Pube tell the story of art like never before.

THE WHITE PUBE is the collaborative identity of UK-based critics Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad. The pair have been turning heads since 2015 when they began publishing provocative art reviews and essays online from their art school studios. They have earned themselves an international cult following due to their innovative writing style, their honesty and irreverence, as well as their willingness to challenge the pale, male, stale art establishment. The White Pube have worked with art schools, galleries, and museums around the globe. This is their first book.