Seven Days in the Art World

Posted on 15 February 2017 by Sarah Thornton

Named one of the best art books of 2008 by The New York Times and The Sunday Times London An indelible portrait of a peculiar society Vogue The art market has been booming Museum attendance is surging More people than ever call themselves artists Contemporary art has become a mass entertainment, a luxury good, a job description, and, for some, a kind of alternative religion In a series of beautifully paced narratives, Sarah Thornton investigates the drama of a Christie s auction, the workings in Takashi Murakami s studios, the elite at the Basel Art Fair, the eccentricities of Artforum magazine, the competition behind an important art prize, life in a notorious art school seminar, and the wonderland of the Venice Biennale She reveals the new dynamics of creativity, taste, status, money, and the search for meaning in life A judicious and juicy account of the institutions that have the power to shape art history, based on hundreds of interviews with high profile players, Thornton s entertaining ethnography will change the way you look at contemporary culture 8 illustrations. New Read Kindle ePUB Seven Days in the Art World Author Sarah Thornton – kino-fada.fr I hate this book Oraccurately, I hate what this book focuses on.Now I need to state that my hatred is pretty moronic The book is titled Seven Days in the Art World, which very clearly labels it as a tourist s guidebook, so it might as well be labelled Lonely Planet Art World, or Let s Go Art World, or How to Travel the Art World with No Money and Without Leaving Your Couch It s Seven Days, which is the length of time most tourists give to some foreign locale In seven days, you won I hate this book Oraccurately, I hate what this book focuses on.Now I need to state that my hatred is pretty moronic The book is titled Seven Days in the Art World, which very clearly labels it as a tourist s guidebook, so it might as well be labelled Lonely Planet Art World, or Let s Go Art World, or How to Travel the Art World with No Money and Without Leaving Your Couch It s Seven Days, which is the length of time most tourists give to some foreign locale In seven days, you won t really experience the destination, but you will see the same ridiculous highlights fellow tourists from the U.S., Germany, Australia, and the UK have seen.What I hate is the tourist highlights she focuses on It ...For someone who writes about the art world and art market for many publications, Thornton asks some pretty lame questions She seems, overall, clueless about art Her deep, probing interview questions are What do artists learn at art school What is an artist How do you become one What makes a good one Seriously.Granted, the less the reader knows about art, I imagine, theinteresting the book would be.She loves describing what people are wearing, as in, Gladstone is dressed entirely For someone who writes about the art world and art market for many publications, Thornton asks some pretty lame questions She seems, overall, clueless about art Her deep, probing interview questions are What do artists learn at art school What is an artist How do you become one What makes a good one Seriously.Granted, the less the reader knows about art, I imagine, theinteresting the book would be.She loves describing what people are wearing, as in, Gladstone is dressed entirely in black Prada Everything is written in a forced prese...Overview It s a book about 7 different environments of the art world an auction at Christie s in NYC below a MFA crit session at CalArt below a visit to the Basel art fair Switzerland the Turner prize in London a visit to Artforum magazine a visit to the studio of Japanese artist Takashi Murakami a trip to the Venice Biennale Overall it was an easy read, but as an artist it bothered me I have been to an art auction at Sothebys and have personally, gone through many criti Overview It s a book about 7 different environments of the art world an auction at Christie s in NYC below a MFA crit session at CalArt ...This is an anthropological study of a murky subculture given to bizarre rituals, riven by tribal conflict and prone to madnessthe world of contemporary art Sarah Thornton, our intrepid guide, comes at this woolly subject from different angles seven of them, to be precise, each set in a different city shining a light on the major clans and customs The result is a surprisingly engaging account of how the frothiest end of the art market works or doesn t , written in a way that a non ins This is an anthropological study of a murky subculture given to bizarre rituals, riven by tribal conflict and prone to madnessthe world of contemporary art Sarah Thornton, our intrepid guide, comes at this woolly subject from different angles seven of them, to be precise, each set in a different city shining a light on the major clans and customs The result is a surprisingly engaging account of how the frothiest end of the art market works or doesn t , written in a way that a non insider can understand.Thornton spends a day inside the New York branch of Christie s, one of the three major auction houses able to sell tens of millions of dollars worth of art in a single evening to the extraordinarily rich a crit session at CalArts, where future artists learn how to disengage their thinking processes from the ...Thornton s narrative seemed to lose a little of its zest as it wended to a close Early chapters on a Christie s auction of contemporary art, and a visit to the Art Basel fair were most interesting It was instructive to learn how buying from a gallery is different from buying at auction, for example But chapters on Takashi Murakami, the magazine Artforum, and the Venice Biennale were relatively lustreless, and Thornton felt too much in the narrative she spoke a lot in the first person, it was Thornton s narrative seemed to lose a little of its zest as it wended to a close Early chapters on a Christie s auction of contemporary art, and a visit to the Art Basel fair were most interesting It was instructive to learn how buying from a gallery is different from buying at auction, for example But chapters on Takashi Murakami, the magazine Artforum, and the Venice Biennale were relatively lustreless, and Thornton felt too much in the narrative she spoke a lot in the first person, it was clear she had established friendships with many of the main players she was interviewing, and it was hard not to think of h...I got to read an advanced copy of this book and write a blurb about it for the magazine Sooo, not only did reading this book make me feel extremely cool, it was also a really enjoyable read Thornton is a cat on the prowl in the most important and impenetrable centers of the contemporary art world H...I am sure that most readers of this book also chose it because we will never be able to attend a Christie s Post war art auction, the Venice Bienniale, or the Basel Art Fair except vicariously through Sarah Thornton Lucky for us, she does so with grace and wit and every other attribute I would wish to exhibit when in attendance at one of these prestigious events Not to mention her uncanny knack for never forgetting an important face or name, which would certainly be my first failing point The I am sure that most readers of this book also chose it because we will never be able to attend a Christie s Post war art au...Mua vui c ng c m t v i tr ng canhIn spite of her apparent hopes that this book might be a ethnology of the art world, it comes across a group of magazine articles that describe seven events an auction, an art fair, a biennial, etc and how they contribute to the economics of the art world, how things are sold, and how reputations are established.Being relatively ignorant about any of this, I was surprised to discover that galleries at the upper echelons don t just sell to the first person willing to write a check, but loo In spite of her apparent hopes that this book might be a ethnology of the art world, it comes across a group of magazine articles that describe seven events an auction, an art fair, a biennial, etc and how they contribute to the economics of the art world, how things are sold, and how reputations are established.Being relatively ignorant about any of this, I was surprised to discover that galleries at the upper echelons don t just sell to the first person willing to write a check, but look for a collector who plans to enhance the reputation of their artists through lending the art to public exhibitions and through his own reputation.Equally interesting, although not quite as informative, are the numerous semi profound statements scattered throughout the book by various art world characters One says ...

English
15 February 2017

Sarah Thornton