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Seven Days In The Art World

Sarah Thornton

3.60 · Rating details · 57,863 ratings · 707 reviews

Contemporary art has become a mass entertainment, a luxury good, a job description and, for some, a kind of alternative religion. Sarah Thornton's shrewd and entertaining fly-on-the-wall narrative takes us behind the scenes of the art world, from art school to auction house, showing us how it works, and giving us a vivid sense of being there. ...more

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Kindle Edition, 305 pages

Published March 8th 2012 by Granta Books (first published November 3rd 2008)

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Nov 01, 2013 Troy rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: art, read-in-2013

I hate this book. Or more accurately, 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. Or more accurately, 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's similar to a guidebook to NYC that focuses on the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the Statue of Liberty, etc. All interesting, I suppose, but really boring and obvious tourist attractions that capture nothing of the workaday quotidian NYC; the NYC that NYers experience. The world of tourists and the world of NYers rarely interacts, unless a fat-ass tourist is in a NYers way while they're walking to work. "Hey, I'm walkin' heah!"

The art world is a world. It's a group of people in constant communication, talking and sharing and part of a community. There are several worlds within the art world, and Thornton focuses only on Power Institutions. When she does focus on individuals, she focuses on the "Big Names" and "Art Stars," which I know makes sense for a guide book, but really paints a false picture about the world the book is supposed to guide us through. As a tourist guide, it's hard to focus on the cool shit that is happening in some hidden neighborhood, where artists or musicians or dancers or whatever are making something interesting, but if you're guidebook is anything more than a schlocky checklist, then that is where the action is.

She focuses on The Biggest Prize. The Most Influential Art Magazine. The Vastly Important Art Fair. And it's all bullshit. The value of art isn't created in The Auction, The Crit, The Fair, The Prize, The Magazine, The Studio Visit, or The Biennale. It happens in the day to day. It happens in the neighborhoods that those artists live in; in the worlds they inhabit. Institutions, blue chip galleries, the Biennials, etc., all come after the fact. And if they come before the fact, then the art world is fucked and dysfunctional (e.g. the long, sad, and boring time periods when Academic Art reigned).

Basically, this book implies that value filters down from the top, which isn't true. The author tries to temper that implication by stating, several times, that it is a very complicated dialog with many voices in the mix, but she leaves out the quotidian in favor of the sexy Big Events, which have everything to do with Money and Power, and very little to do with art.

A personal note: I have a few friends who are now successful artists, gallerists, critics, and curators. And I know a bunch of people who dropped out of the art world altogether (me included). And a few people who putter on with the occasional show or as an art professor at some university. But I watched the successful ascend, and it did NOT happen in The Auction, The Crit, The Fair, The Prize, The Magazine, The Studio Visit, or The Biennale. It happened in two places: in the studio and in "the social scenes that artists live in." Most of the time, art is lonely. Until you're successful, you will work alone, or, at best, in a studio near a friend, who is also working alone. The time in a studio is insanely private, until you need assistants (which is another fucked-up topic entirely). But tons of time is spent with peers at each other's studios, getting high or drinking and looking at each other's work. Or more often, at a cafe or a bar, talking about process and gossiping and, "Have you seen Person X's new work?" The value of art accrues in the interstices, hidden away from the "sexy" power machines that Thorton covers in her book. The value of art happens as gossip between artists. And that talk flows to peers who are roughly the same age who have galleries or write for obscure web art publications. And that talk about who is good coalesces and congeals. And only after that gossipy talk has formed into blocks does it filter up to Art Forum or a mid-list gallery, and only after years does that flow up to a spot at the Venice Biennale, or a prominent spot in a money gallery that can afford to go to Basel.

This book is a snap shot of an art world that forgot (and continues to forget) that those massive Money and Cultural Institutions are barnacles on the vibrant ass of the art world. They, like the parasitical rich whose genitals are constantly slurped at, are after thoughts that claim glory, when the glory was already established. Yes, Art That Is Remembered will be remembered in part because of those boring Money and Cultural Institutions, but art that is good continues for centuries, long past the death of those institutions and rich people. More importantly, art is not accrued value through the barnacled institutions, but through the peer groups that the artists gestate in. And although that's a much harder world to guide someone through, that's the real world of the everyday, not the ridiculous world of the tourist looking at irrelevant relics to Power and Money. ...more

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Jun 10, 2012 Mary rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

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, the more interesting the book would be.

She loves describing what people are wearing, as in, "Gladstone is dressed entirely ...more

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Dec 09, 2011 Carol rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-art

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) -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 critiques, so I could relate. What bothered me was that after an artist creates their "work of art", it becomes a "commodity" for the self-centered, big money "collectors". It's not really about the art but about money and being in the elitist clique.

Initially I was reviewing each chapter until I got on the plane for a very long flight.
Chapter 1 is what is happening in auction world -- the supply and demand of art, the different types of collectors and what "3 D" reasons (death, debt & divorce) would make a collector sell his art, why some things sells and others do not and the buzz and excitement of the auction floor of her experience at Christies in NYC. I have experienced an art auction at Sothebys in NYC. It is fast, shocking at times, always surprising and addicting! It was interesting to see a list of 9 living female artists who are now getting over a million dollars for their work. Paintings are still #1 medium especially with a "buxom female" being more popular than a male nude.

Chapter 2 is all about "the Crit" (a seminar where MFA students present their work for critique from peers as well as the teacher). Thorton went to CalArts to observe Michael Asher who has been doing this with art students since 1974. It is an informal group with deep discussions. A crit can be painful when artists try to rational and defend their work. CalArts education is more focused on cerebral than talent of the hand. Interesting to me was Mary Kelly (a feminist conceptualist, who taught at many large institutions like CalArt, UCLA) who thought that it is fine for artists to have crits where they give an account of their intentions, but it shouldn't be the only way. Kelly says to her students "Never go to the wall text. Never ask the artist. Learn to read the work." I think everyone should "read the work" because we are all different and no two people will process the artwork the same.
...more

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Jun 01, 2014 Lance Charnes rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: readers who still miss Robin Leach

Shelves: reviewed, nonfiction-art-culture

This is an anthropological study of a murky subculture given to bizarre rituals, riven by tribal conflict and prone to madness...the 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 madness...the 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 to the extraordinarily rich in a single evening; a crit session at CalArts, where future artists learn how to disengage their thinking processes from the real world; opening day of the Venice Biennale, the art-themed amusement park for the very wealthy; and four other close encounters with the contemporary art scene. Her you-are-there approach is both vivid and clear. When we're not in the thick of things, she's telling us about conversations she's had with the market's movers and shakers that help explain what's going on. This is a reality show begging to be made: the camera follows Our Heroine as she scrambles through superstar pop-artist Takashi Murakami's studios, then cuts away to a talking-head interview with a guy who happens to be a top dealer or the publisher of the most influential art magazine in America, who explains it all for you.

This book features a huge cast of characters. Owing to the incestuous nature of their world, they all know each other, attend the same parties, used to work in each others' galleries or newspapers, sometimes are (or were) married to each other, and speak the same obscure dialect of English. Thornton (a sometime reporter for The Economist) does a good job differentiating the major players enough so that we can remember who they are when they pop up here and there. This crowd of characters is another reason this book really wants to be made into a reality show: instead of hillbillies with big beards or New Jersey midgets with precancerous tans, Seven Days gives us a magazine publisher whose suits all come in primary colors, an art professor who teaches by not saying anything, megarich collectors, Turner Prize finalists who don't know whether they really want to win, and any number of other kinds of exotic fauna.

The fifth star is missing because Thornton's prism has only seven sides, which leaves out a lot of the spectrum. While it's gratifyingly strange to spend time in Murakami's bizarre world, he's hardly a representative example of the non-celebrity working artist. We meet marquee-named dealers flitting about the edges of these vignettes, but never see what they do on a day-to-day basis, nor do we learn what life is like for the other 95% of gallerists and dealers. We're briefly exposed to the concept of private collectors starting their own museums to show off their prizes; it would have been interesting to watch that process play out in front of us. My own particular area of interest -- art crime -- never even gets mentioned; surely Thornton could've found a detective or insurance investigator to shadow for a day?

Seven Days in the Art World is a cook's tour of the contemporary art scene's 1%, the part that generates headline nine-figure sales, receptions full of the glitterati, and incomprehensible statement art that will be coming soon to a museum near you. Don't expect to learn much about the workaday market and the not-famous people in it. Look at it as true-life science fiction -- a visit to a world full of alien creatures populating a parallel Earth on the opposite side of the Sun. ...more

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Jul 05, 2009 Arwen Downs rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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 ...more

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Jan 09, 2012 Lobstergirl rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Lobstergirl by: Börte Üjin

Shelves: art

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 ...more

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Aug 11, 2008 Heather rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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. Her account is gossipy and educational. What could be more fun? ...more

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Feb 25, 2009 Bill rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, essays

Very good book about how the art world operates, from auctions to dealers to collectors.

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Oct 09, 2009 Jim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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 loo ...more

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Aug 31, 2017 Sergio rated it really liked it · review of another edition

If you want to understand the art world and how money commands it, that's a good start! ...more

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Jan 23, 2016 Justin Evans rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history-etc

A fun, deceptively sophisticated jog through one very small aspect of "the art world." And that aspect is, overwhelmingly, the economic. This is a book about how rich people have nothing to do with their enormous amounts of money, so they spend it on objects that may or may not be of any aesthetic value. But they are great status markers. I mean, would you even go to someone's party if they didn't have a Jeff Koons? No way, right?

The first few chapters--one at a contemporary art auction, when a ...more

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Mar 02, 2018 Karyn rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, fine-arts

The marketing and legitimizing of current art for the wealthy elites is repulsive to me on almost every level.
Recommended for those with a strong stomach and ability to tolerate this focus on the privileged few, who may or may not have any regard or insight into artistic legacy.

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Jul 14, 2010 Lydia Presley rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, 2010

This book almost went in my unable to finish shelf. First, a bit of history about this book.

The book club I attended chose this book for July's read. It was a complete accident that this book got chosen as we are, technically, a Fiction Book Club. But the cover looked interesting and it was out of most of our normal "comfort" zone, so chosen it was.

I think my perspective on this book was changed from what it might have been due to the book I had read just before it. Since I had just finished a b ...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Richard rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Not necessarily for everyone, but if you are interested in art and how money moves and hype works in the art world it is a delicious and well researched close-up look into all aspects of the art market.

Thornton's book takes a look at the art college, the gallery, the auctioneer, the art show and of course the modern artist's studio to look at the modern art game from many angles.

What impresses is the great level of the interviews with genuine and weighty insiders. The author must be well connec ...more

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Dec 03, 2008 Vtlozano rated it liked it · review of another edition

An entertaining tour of the contemporary art world: from auction to artist to museum to art magazine to art fair. Occasionally lapses into a bit of anthropological analysis, but stays mostly in a strong, detailed, and enjoyable descriptions of the funny animals in the art zoo. Strong reportage.

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Oct 18, 2017 QueenAmidala28 rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-lit, non-fiction, world-literature

Technically a 4.5. New topic for me but loved every bit of it. "The Studio Visit" with Murakami was my favorite interview - yea I am partial to anything and anyone Japanese but Thornton did a great job at highlighting Murakamis work and not just this crazed always on the move with huge productions- type artists. She focused on the studio as it pertains to the art work as she did with the Art school, the auction house and Biennale. More to come .... ...more

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Jul 15, 2020 Tamara rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: art

The 'Auction' chapter was really fun, but it got a bit tedious towards the end. I didn't know any of the names either, which wasn't a problem, but I wish she gave a bit more background on herself and her influence. She went to so many big events, yet I didn't really know what her role in any of it was (except for author obviously). As a fellow Canadian, I would love to know how she gained access to the elite art world. ...more

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Jun 10, 2010 Sofia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: People interested in the art world mechanics

Shelves: art

Posted on my book blog.

In the world that surrounds us, there are many smaller "worlds" that regular people don't usually have access to. Some, like the medical or forensic experts world, are explored through popular TV shows and mass media culture, so that the general population, not exactly being a part of it, still feels like they have some access and knowledge of it (even if it is of a highly romanticized, flawed and fictionalized account). Such a thing doesn't happen with the art world, the Posted on my book blog.

In the world that surrounds us, there are many smaller "worlds" that regular people don't usually have access to. Some, like the medical or forensic experts world, are explored through popular TV shows and mass media culture, so that the general population, not exactly being a part of it, still feels like they have some access and knowledge of it (even if it is of a highly romanticized, flawed and fictionalized account). Such a thing doesn't happen with the art world, the internal workings of which remain virtually shut off from outsiders (with a few exceptions).

Sarah Thornton, the author, is a sociologist who adopts a "cat on the prowl" method rather than a "fly on the wall" one, that is, she immerses herself in the world she is studying, searching for situations and exploring them to their full potential. The access she obtains is remarkable, with some of the major players in the art world as interviewees, and the reporting of a few events that few people ever get to be a part of. This book is divided into seven parts, each depicting "a day" in a different part of the art world: the Auction, the Crit, the Fair, the Prize, the Magazine, the Studio Visit and the Biennale.

I bought this book because, even though I'm technically a part of the art world she describes (I'm taking a Master's degree in Museum and Curatorial studies), there are still a few parts of it that are a mystery to me. The art world is rather schizophrenic, with intense contrasts and polarized beliefs and actions, and the book does a great job presenting this: for example, we have the very rich people who believe art is a commodity versus very poor art students who abhor words like creativity and never speak about money. There's a delicate balancing of these conflicting beliefs, and it's fascinating to see the mechanics behind that balancing.

However, I have to say that the tone of this book was one of exaggeration. In all these stories, the volume is turned up high, and the people described and their actions seem at times so extreme that I started to wonder if they were not caricatures of themselves. It makes it seem like there is no place in the art world for balanced human beings or actions. This is far from the truth (again, I speak from my own personal experience); this probably happens because it's much more interesting to show the extremes than to make space in the book for less sensational situations.

There was also a lot of name-dropping, a few of which weren't familiar to me, so I read this with a search engine in front of me. I actually loved that, since I like learning about new artists and critics, but I imagine that it can get tiresome for some people.

All in all, this is a fascinating book if you're interested in the mechanics of the art world, with an easy to read (but still interesting) language, based on a remarkable research work. Definitely worth it.
...more

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Sep 03, 2019 Kunal Sen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Demystifies the strange and complex world of Contemporary Art by looking at it not as an insider, but as a keen observer who is pretending to be an insider. Though she takes the perspective of a social scientist and an anthropologist, her knowledge of art history and her respect and appreciation of contemporary art practices makes the book not only useful but also a pleasure to read.

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Nov 10, 2008 Ron rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, reportage, cultural-studies, art, ethnography

Thornton plunges into a full-immersion study of seven radically different environments of the art world, from a Christie's auction to an open crit session at CalArt, from the Japanese studios of Takashi Murakami to the Venice Biennale, and records what she sees and hears. Several sets of wonderful stories emerge, with occasional overlap as a few figures move from one scene to another, but for the most part these are highly disparate snapshots which demonstrate that there is no one "art world," b ...more

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Mar 25, 2009 Judy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

If you are confused by the contemporary art scene, this book is a great introduction. It does not explain the art itself, just the art WORLD. Each chapter represents a "day" (or several) at a different art-related location: an art auction at Christie's in New York, a criticism session in an art class at California Institute of the Arts, the Art Basel Fair in Switzerland, the awarding of the Turner Prize in London, a day at ArtForum (the most respected art magazine in the US), a visit to the stud ...more

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Jan 01, 2020 Irene rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: visual-arts-fashion-history

In Seven Days in the Art World, Sarah Thornton follows the money in the contemporary art world. Imagine reading a series of Vanity Fair articles and that is this. The highlight of the book is also its Achilles’ heel. Thornton spent five years researching and interviewed 250 people for the book. She gained access to a lot of power players so while there are some amusing quotes, she leaves it up to the reader to make their own conclusions about the paradoxes and contradictions inherent in the cont In Seven Days in the Art World, Sarah Thornton follows the money in the contemporary art world. Imagine reading a series of Vanity Fair articles and that is this. The highlight of the book is also its Achilles’ heel. Thornton spent five years researching and interviewed 250 people for the book. She gained access to a lot of power players so while there are some amusing quotes, she leaves it up to the reader to make their own conclusions about the paradoxes and contradictions inherent in the contemporary art market. I wanted her to go off but oh well. If you ever came across the art documentary, Blurred Lines: Inside the Art World (also by a Canadian!), the documentary follows the same ground (auction house, fair, dealer etc.) and even interviews some of the same people, but it is much more insistent about regulating the art market as a solution for the art market bubble, although it too, ultimately, falls short of pointing a really critical finger at inequality in the art world.

Thornton does an excellent job of demystifying how art is sold, what events matter in the art world and why that is so. I really enjoyed Seven Days in the Art World. There were some things I thought would have been cool to see: a behind-the-scenes look at one of the top museums in the world - Tate? MoMA? - and seeing what their concerns were, perhaps technology and social media and how they are disrupting the way we experience art for good and bad. A vibrant art community of young, emerging artists that were not so institutional such as the Turner Prize candidates, would have been cool to see, to see their concerns and their support groups. The Crit chapter was supposed to show young artists having this rite-of-passage moment at the end of their MFA program at a prestigious art school, but we didn't really get those genuine discussions of art. It focused on art students that would not likely be artists - one of the students was a guy who, due to family stuff, basically didn't prepare for his project but off they go. Incidentally, it made me hate art students.

Thornton said in one of her press interviews that she kept some of the bullshit that the sources said because it was entertaining. Some of my favourite lines come from self-important but insecure collectors, but I really enjoy these for how earnest the speaker is to be both serious and blase:

“People like to talk about themselves and to show that they know what they know. I’m fighting that urge right now - I have to fight the impulse to try to impress you that I am important.”

“Georges Perec wrote a novel without the letter e,” he added. “I think we can learn from that.” ...more

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Jul 10, 2018 Prima Seadiva rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, the-arts

Audiobook. Reader okay.
It appears that the "art world" like so much of our culture today is driven by corporate values of status, pretentiousness, money and commodification.
It's not a world that appeals much to me.
One of the most interesting things for me was how much of this change has occurred post WWII.
Another thing that caught my attention was how in the Crit chapter life drawing was denigrated as useful only for designers. When I went to art school life drawing and other basic skills were ...more

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Jul 30, 2019 Julie Harding rated it really liked it · review of another edition

If you are obsessed with art, like I am, then this book is fun and informative! A little bit out of date perhaps, but very useful nonetheless.

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Aug 21, 2019 Gahermi class 5-12 rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book is so amazing.

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Apr 10, 2018 K rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, non-fiction

"Art is religion for atheists" was a new idea by me, so that was fun. I got a little lost with the names and just sort of let the venues of each chapter wash over me during walks. It gave me bits to think about, and honestly left me a little despairing of having any part in "true art" since I'm not a quadrillionaire. Why buy anything but posters, really? But... the crit chapter and bits elsewhere still gave me motivation to dabble and support "what I like," whether the arbitrary actors of the ma ...more

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Oct 15, 2020 Sydney Steib rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Really loved her approach to the most exclusive aspects of the art world. It was very engaging and made the most elite aspects of a very diverse and multi faceted industry easy to understand and follow

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Jan 05, 2012 Abbi Dion added it · review of another edition

A terrific read. Some of Thornton's interviews contain breathtaking definitions and questions of art and/or the artist.

"A protest against forgetting" - Eric Hobsbawn, quoted by Hans Ulrich Obrist
"[...] do you choose somebody to make history or do you confirm history?" Andrea Rose
"I was taught that one of the defining premises of modern art was its antagonism to mass culture [...] I could argue that Takashi is working within the system only to subvert it. But this idea of subversive complicity is ...more

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Sep 15, 2019 Aaron Hertzmann rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book is an excellent browse through parts of the toniest parts of the art world. It has the feeling of having gotten the chance to mingle with and asking probing questions of many big players at significant event since. I found it fascinating.

Most of the negative reviews I’ve read are from people who expected something different or something more, to be (as the title somewhat promises), about all of the art worlds (which sounds impossible to me), and for it to be more than an ethnography, w ...more

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Jul 20, 2018 Castles rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: art

I liked this book very much. Sarah Thornton's writing is clear and interesting in a sense it's really easy to read and hard to put off your hand. It's an interesting journey through today's art world. From the artist's studio to museums and galleries, the Biennale's crowd and art collages.

Thornton's journalistic qualities and a sort of new-journalism type of writing, help her in this book to investigate some of the most fundamental questions about art in this modern age. it's funny how the most I liked this book very much. Sarah Thornton's writing is clear and interesting in a sense it's really easy to read and hard to put off your hand. It's an interesting journey through today's art world. From the artist's studio to museums and galleries, the Biennale's crowd and art collages.

Thornton's journalistic qualities and a sort of new-journalism type of writing, help her in this book to investigate some of the most fundamental questions about art in this modern age. it's funny how the most basic questions she asks artists and students like "So what is art", get some angry and irritated looks instead of a decent answer.

Her critical view puts things in perspective, and I can guess why some of the people dealing with art today might not enjoy her subtle sting she sometimes adds to the situations she's so colorfully describing.

For example, the MFA student session at CalArts describing the sloppy students and their politically correct debates is just hilarious. What seems to be over-privileged MFA students who adore their teacher as a god, spending the entire day napping or eating pizza at class through different lectures and so. One has to ask what are they leaning anyway. I'm not sure if that was Thornton's intention but she sharply describes how American capitalist art acts through the garbage the students leave after the session. is that a symbol (or and art pieces) of what are they really doing there, turning self-absorbed art debates into piles of fruit and pizza's leftovers.

The press conference with reality show victim is also another highlight moment in the book and described so surreal and smart.

Another thing I really like about Thornton is how she first describes every new character she meets in the book, always describing what he wears or his body features.

I was wondering why the rating of the book is not higher. I'm not sure but I can guess that some folks of the art scene really don't like the subtext that comes out of this book, her subtle ironic review of the art world in post-modern times, and that sometimes you can't help but wonder if this whole thing is a sport of rich people with way too much time money on their hand, buying and selling each other air. But the way she writes and the places she goes to, in my opinion, actually does a lot of service to today's art world, making it look like a scene you really want to be a part of.
Excellent book for art lovers and surprisingly - also if you're interesting in good new-journalism writing style.
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About Sarah Thornton

Sarah Thornton

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Sarah Thornton was the chief writer on contemporary art for The Economist. She holds a BA in art history and a PhD in sociology.

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“The term bohemian has a bad reputation because it's allied to myriad clichés, but Parisians originally adopted the term, associated with nomadic Gypsies, to describe artists and writers who stayed up all night and ignored the pressures of the industrial world.” — 31 likes

“Although the art world reveres the unconventional, it is rife with conformity. Artists make work that "looks like art" and behave in ways that enhance stereotypes. Curators pander to the expectations of their peers and their museum boards. Collectors run in herds to buy work by a handful of fashionable painters. Critics stick their finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing so as to "get it right". Originality is not always rewarded, but some people take real risks and innovate, which gives a raison d'être to the rest.” — 10 likes

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