How to Write a Fine Artist Bio?

Some wonderful fine artists existed in the past and exist today, so if you want to write about them, first you should read some rules on how to write a fine artist bio.

Writing biographies is different than sitting down and writing a creative piece. Biographies in general, no matter who you are writing about, will take some more time because you will have to conduct research and interviews, if possible. You might find that some of these steps apply for writing other types of biographies, while others are specific to artists on fine artists.

Choose Your Subject

Just as an artist chooses a subject for his or her painting, you must decide on a focus for your biography. Trying to jam dozens of fine artists into one piece is not going to work. Of course, you could comprise an anthology of fine artist works with a little biographical information about each artist. However, that is not really the type of biography we are talking about here.

Research

Even if you know a lot about a particular fine artist, you are still going to need to conduct research if you are going to write a bio about the fine artist. You might not know everything off of the top of your head, or there might be information that you would never know unless you asked. Furthermore, if you want to get your biography published, it would not be a bad idea to verify your information with a source and then to include those sources and references somewhere in the back of your book.

Aside from conducting research through an Internet search engine, there are other ways to find out information about the artist.

• Conduct interviews with the artist. Many artists go relatively unknown throughout their lifetimes, but that does not mean they are not good artists. However, this step does present a problem if you cannot contact the artist or if the artist is deceased.
• In either of those cases, you could conduct interviews with people who know or knew the person. Try to find out if there are any living children or other relatives who would be able to provide you with some sort of information on your subject's life. These types of testimonies are wonderful and valuable because they come directly from someone who knew the person.
• Studying the time period in which they created their art and see if they were an influence of or influenced by that time period. When we look at art, we often talk about the historical context, so you will want to know what that means for your subject.
• Read other books about the artist. If a biography has already been written, this is your chance to find out what people already know and take that information a step further. If a biography has not been written, that does not mean that written sources about the subject do not exist. A book could have been written that mentioned some of the artist's works without it being a true biography.

Writing a Fine Artist Biography

After all of the research has been gathered, you need to sit down and write the story. How exactly you choose to write is really a matter of personal preference, because everybody has a different writing style. Of course though, you will want to make sure your work is organized. Here are a few ways that you might organize the tale:

• Chronologically. This method is the most popular way for organizing stories. You will start at the beginning of the subject's life and go all the way up until the end. If the individual is not dead, you will give insight into what the person is up to now.
• In media res: This phrase translates to "in the middle of things." You will start a crucial moment that occurred at some point in the artist's life. Then you will go backwards to the beginning and eventually come back to that middle moment. After that, the story will continue in chronological order.
• Topically: Perhaps the person has dabbled in various fields of fine arts and you want to demonstrate each of them separately. Therefore, you could write separate chapters on each of the disciplines in which the person has dabbled.

Include Examples of Their Art

We have saved what is perhaps the most important step for last. If at all possible, try to include samples of art that your subject has created. This step is the one that will really set your biography apart from other types of biographies. By including pieces of art within the text, your reader will not just have to take your word for it that this individual was an incredibly artist worthy of a biography. The reader will be able to see the power for him or herself, and that is a truly admirable quality of a written piece.