About the Book

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 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. 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.

Product Details

Media: Paperback Book, 287 pages

Language: English

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (Nov. 30th, 2009)

ISBN-10: 039333712X

ISBN-13: 9780393337129

Dimensions: 5.56 x 8.20 x 0.80 inches

Shipping Weight: 0.56 lbs

• Categories: Contemporary Art History (1945-)