HeyJaredBlackbird Rook’s Substack
Weekly updates from Blackbird Rook - the diary of an art advisor.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 13
- Latest publication
- Sep 30, 2026
- Audience
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- Earliest in this view
- Aug 26, 2026
Latest issues
A Collector’s Note - October (opens the original)
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Four paintings I was particularly excited to show collectors this month - these notes sit somewhere between a recommendation and a record of what I’ve been sharing. Some of what I do involves thinking about particular works for particular people, taking account of what they already own, but also where their interests might be taking them, but much of what I do involves me sharing what I’m excited about. A collection needs room for that… buying another version of something you already like is und
A Good Story Is Usually Bad News for Someone (opens the original)
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When I worked in television, I nearly always had a good answer to the question, “What did you do today?” I might have spent the day on an estate in south London trying to find someone connected to a series of murders. Or in Manchester looking for the mother of a baby who had been abandoned at birth. Or an evening in some dodgy “bar” in Berlin with British builders who had gone to Germany looking for work, and found themselves being mistreated by people who, as we dug further, seemed to be the Du
A small milestone (opens the original)
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Blackbird Rook has just reached 100 paid subscribers, which apparently means Substack now considers it a Bestseller.When I started writing this, I didn’t know who would read it, but it’s gradually found an audience of artists, collectors, advisers, curators and people who just want to understand more about how the art world actually works.The paid pieces let me think further about collecting, galleries, artists’ careers, estates and the market, including the awkward bits that aren’t usually disc
Before You Say Yes to the Gallery (opens the original)
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Getting a gallery used to be the goal. It definitely was when I left art school. You made the work, had studio visits, put things into group shows, tried to get people interested and hoped that eventually a proper gallery would approach you. Then, ideally, they would take away all the unseemly business of selling things. They would find the collectors, organise the exhibitions, take the work to art fairs and talk to people you would rather not have to talk to. You could retreat to the studio and
The Painting I Haven’t Made Yet (opens the original)
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I was reading Jon Ronson’s book The Castle and found myself thinking about painters. One of the things running through the book is a description of the structures people build around themselves in order to make their lives coherent. The stories we need to believe about who we are, what matters, what we’re doing. Those structures can become absurd or unhealthy, but they can also be what gets you through. Artists need something like that. Not a castle, but a temporary shelter from the perfectly re
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