Seven Days in the Art World

Starred review from June 16, 2008
The hot, hip contemporary art world, argues sociologist Thornton, is a cluster of intermingling subcultures unified by the belief, whether genuine or feigned, that “nothing is more important than the art itself.” It is a conviction, she asserts, that has transformed contemporary art into “a kind of alternative religion for atheists.” Thornton, a contributor to Artforum.com and the New Yorker
, presents an astute and often entertaining ethnography of this status-driven world. Each of the seven chapters is a keenly observed profile of that world's highest echelons: a Christie's auction, a “crit” session at the California Institute of the Arts and the Art Basel art fair. The chapter on auctions (where one auction-goer explains, “t's dangerous to wear Prada.... You might get caught in the same outfit as three members of Christie's staff”) is one of the book's strongest; the author's conversations about the role of the art critic with Artforum
editor-in-chief Tim Griffin and the New Yorker
's Peter Schjeldahl are edifying. Thornton offers an elegant, evocative, sardonic view into some of the art world's most prestigious institutions. 8 illus.

Starred review from November 1, 2008
Art and business, personal quests and personality cults, big bucks and the triumph of concept over beauty, being cool and in the knowthese are the cardinal points in the contemporary art world. Enter Thornton, an art historian and sociologist with moxie and a brilliant game plan. Willing to ask obvious questions, she infiltrates the seven circles of this competitive realm. An astute observer and stimulating storyteller whose crisp sentences convey awealth of information, Thornton marvels at the military precision of a Christies auction and the wild improvisation of an art-school critique. On to Art Basel, a major international art fair where the hard buy rather than the hard sell is the rule since an artists reputation is tied to those who own his or her work. Thornton witnesses the final stage in the judging and presentation of the Turner Prize, watches editors at work at Artforum, attends the coveted Venice Biennale, and spends a dizzying day with the wizardly artist-entrepreneur Takashi Murakami. Thorntons uniquely clarifying dispatches from the art front glimmer with high-definition profiles of artists, dealers, critics, and collectors, and grapple with the paradoxes inherent in the transformation of creativity into commodity.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)