We are more educated, she avers, more global and more affluent. In only seven chapters with each devoted to a day spent in a different segment of the art world, Sarah Thornton reveals its rarefied society and subcultures. After a few generic remarks about today’s art world, which she deems polycentric (less anchored in Paris and New York), the author considers why art has become so popular. 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. Her narrative moves gracefully across international boundaries, cultures, languages and genres. The term bohemian has a bad reputation because it's allied to myriad clichs, 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. She reveals the new dynamics of creativity, taste, status, money, and the search for meaning in life. Seven Days in the Art World Quotes Showing 1-25 of 25. 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. Contemporary art has become a mass entertainment, a luxury good, a job description, and, for some, a kind of alternative religion. 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 alternativ Named one of the best art books of 2008 by The New York Times and The Sunday Times : “An indelible portrait of a peculiar society.”-Vogue The art market has been booming. Named one of the best art books of 2008 by The New York Times and The Sunday Times : “An indelible portrait of a peculiar society.”-Vogue The art market has been booming.

Seven days in the art world