Intimate New Memoir from Artist Barbara T. Smith

For over 50 years, Barbara T. Smith has been at the forefront of artistic movements in California.

Her work across many mediums explores concepts that strike at the core of human nature, including sexuality, physical and spiritual sustenance, technology, and death. In this memoir, Smith weaves together descriptive accounts of her pioneering performances with an intimate narrative of her life.

The Way to Be (Getty Research Institute, $40) covers the years 1931 to 1981, up to the artist’s 50th birthday, amounting to a comprehensive catalogue of her early work. It reveals the personal stories and events behind her performances, as well as the challenges she faced in an art world dominated by sexism and machismo. Drawing on Smith’s archive at the Getty Research Institute, this enthralling memoir presents previously unpublished notes, documents, photographs, and firsthand accounts of her life and practice, as well as her more recent reflections on the past. The Way to Be demonstrates Smith’s lasting contributions to the field of contemporary art and provides an engaging commentary on a recent period of great cultural and political change.