Seven Days In The Art World (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
This is a moderately interesting view of many different aspects of the art world, including auctions, dealers, shows, and artists. This is by no means an in-depth examination, but rather a series of unconnected interviews with participants. As someone completely unconnected from the arts scene, I found it mildly informative. Someone involved in art on a daily basis would probably not find much of interest, however. I finished reading this a couple of weeks ago and have only just now got around to rating and reviewing. All in all I enjoyed the book, it gives a “behind the scenes” look at the art world and was pretty successful in portraying some aspects (a Christies auction, Art Basel, the Turner Prize, a visit to Artforum magazine) but was pretty disappointing in others (a day at a prestigious Art School, a visit to Takashi Murakami’s studio and the Venice Biennale). It does a good job of exploring the art market, the role of galleries, the buyers, the sellers, curators, what motivates collectors. I was at Art Basel and I think I enjoyed it much more having read the book. I was able to understand the dynami cs of the market and what drives some of the insane prices of contemporary art.With the exception of the chapter on the Turner Prize, I don’t think the author did so well when she looks into the world of artists. In particular I found the chapter of the visit to Takashi Murakami’s studio to be pretentious and did not really reflect the real world of really creative artists producing interesting and/or important work. And having seen his work at Art Basel, I definitely consider him overated and definitely given too much of a spotlight in this book. The marathon seminar or “crit session” at CalArts was too much of an intellectual exercise and again did not reflect what really goes on at most art schools.I definitely learned a lot and would recommend to anyone who enjoys art and has some knowledge about contemporary art. If you are interested in the life of artists or artists’ work this is not the book for you.
What do You think about Seven Days In The Art World (2009)?
Really enjoyed it. Insightful, well researched and written. It also made me laugh aloud.
—Hannab
Some really interesting and well-written chapters were offset by other mediocre ones.
—snowball123451
Thoroughly enjoyable. Interesting, story-style, 360 view of the art world.
—Jake
Many of the views are interesting- auctions, ArtForum, biennials.
—ebenezeradebiyi
