Seven days in the art world /
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 narratives, Sarah Thornton investigates the...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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New York :
W.W. Norton,
[2008]
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| Edition: | 1st ed. |
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| 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 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. |
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| Physical Description: | xix, 274 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-265) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780393067224 (hardcover) 039306722X (hardcover) |