Seven Days in the Art World - Zainab Hussain 12GRO

SEVEN DAYS IN THE ART WORLD

A Book review - Zainab Hussain 12GRO

Hollywood, it has been said, is like high school with money: catty and status-obsessed, awash in insecurity and plagued by conflicting desires to stand out and to fit in. The same can be said about the contemporary art world, especially during the juicy and judicious boom years chronicled by Sarah Thornton in her book, “Seven Days in the Art World. ” Thornton, once described as ‘Britain’s hippiest academic’ by the Daily Telegraph, provides an account of seven disparate days spent in the excessive and increasingly loopy world of contemporary art, revealing the inner workings of ‘squabbling subcultures’ , as the author describes it.

The book is structured as an iconic journey through the seven subcultures, through 6 countries and 5 cities, clearly defining the key players in the art market: the artist, the auctioneer, the critic, the collector, and the curator. Thornton first gives us insular access at an adrenaline-fuel Christie’s auction, where bidding for a 1963 Warhol began at 8 million dollars. We are then whisked to CalArts in Los Angeles for an intense seminar with artist Michael Asher, conducting a “crit”: a collective critique of students’ proposals and projects. Then to Switzerland for an elite contemporary art fair, Art Basel, the prime place for closely guarded deals and competitiveness. The author takes us into the jury room for the Turner Prize at the Tate Gallery and inside the editorial offices at Artforum. “The Studio Visit” follows prolific Japanese artist Takashi Murakami through his three unorthodox studios. The Venice Biennale gives the author a chance to catch up on her lap swimming in the Hotel Cipriani’s 100-foot saltwater pool. accurate puts it: a ‘cat on the prowl’ , interviewing over two hundred and fifty people, including the likes of Charles Saatchi and Larry Gagosian. Naturally, many of these people are wary about what they say to Thornton, however she attentively listens. This approach and persistence clearly gained her extraordinary access to a shadowy world, not known for its transparency or openness. The author remains patient and curious until someone says something gratifyingly revealing. ‘Ethnography’ , she writes, ‘is a genre of writing with roots in anthropology that aims to generate holistic descriptions of social and cultural worlds. Its main research method, “participant observation” , is a cluster of qualitative tools, which include first-hand experience of the environment, visual observation, attentive listening, casual interviewing and analysis of key documents. ’ The writer uses her background in sociology to manage the ethnographic style and can depict everyday life in the art world so vividly. She describes everything: every lunch, every fashion statement, every object, for no other reason than to prove her presence there and immerse the reader. It is in this way, Thornton shows. that the work does not determine the way in which it moves through the art world, and that the latter proves to be the most significant aspect of its success.