Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton
Summary:
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.(
My Review:
This book almost went in my unable to finish shelf. First though, 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 book on the world of pianos (rebuilding, repairing, musicians – both composers and performers) I was already aware of a world out there where names were given that others not immersed in the music world wouldn’t necessarily know. So a low rating on the book was raised because I understood that I was not Sarah Thornton’s “prime” audience.
That said, she still came across as condescending. She dropped names quite liberally in a few chapters (specifically the chapter dealing on the magazine) and was pretty rude to a few of the people she talked to in the book. I didn’t like the person writing the book but I appreciated the material, even if it wasn’t something I shared a lot of interest in.
That said – I was very interested in the first chapter.. and actually a chapter we discussed in our book club that I hadn’t read yet.. and read following the discussion – the studio. There were some really, really dull chapters that I had to push myself through and there were chapters that had some interesting parts.
I would say if you are interested in art and willing to do some googling to look up names and art pieces, then sure.. check out this book. But see if your library has it first!
