Sarah Thornton’s Seven Days in the Art World was chosen as one of the best art books of 2008 by the New York Times, The Sunday Times (London) and The Independent.
Seven Days has just been published in German, Italian, Spanish, French, and Dutch. It is forthcoming in Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (complex and simple characters).
Thornton’s most recent articles are “The Joy of the Slump” about Art Basel in The Economist and “Hippie Picasso” on Economist.com.
Reviews and Reactions
“Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton is a field guide to the nomadic tribes of the contemporary art world. The book was reported and written in a heated market, but it is poised to endure as a work of sociology… Where others would be content to gawk and gossip, she pushes her well-chosen subjects to explore the questions ‘What is an artist?’ and ‘What makes a work of art great?’” The New York Times
“The best book yet written about the modern-art boom… an excellent, vivid, wittily written book… a Robert Altmanesque panorama of… the most important cultural phenomenon of the last ten years….” The Sunday Times (London)
Seven Days in the Art World is an “exhaustively researched and intelligently written… refreshingly open-minded exploration.” Washington Post
“Thornton gives us a one-stop tutorial on an often insular subculture… Seven Days is light-hearted but sociologically acute, allowing us to both laugh at and empathize with those for whom ‘contemporary art has become a kind of alternative religion.’” Time Magazine
“This is an entertaining and lucid account of the mysterious ways of contemporary art… [Thornton] does well to resist the temptation to draw any glib, overarching conclusions. There is more than enough in her rigorous, precise reportage… for the reader to make his or her own connections.” Financial Times
“Finely wrought and thoroughly researched… [with] an ingenious structure… and spot-on characterizations… the author draws readers into the experience… [with her] infectious curiosity and meticulous reporting.” Artweek
Recent Publications and Events
- Thornton on "Hippie Picasso: Why the surge in demand for the late work?" http://bit.ly/2jQhDI 6 days ago
- Thornton published "The Joy of the Slump" about Art Basel in The Economist. http://bit.ly/KY3W3 2 weeks ago
- Thornton wrote about this week in the art market for Economist.com: http://bit.ly/r70U8 2009-05-16
- Thornton wrote about Christie's New York evening sale: http://www.artforum.com/diary/id=22826 2009-05-15
- Thornton on Sotheby's evening sale: http://bit.ly/KehnQ 2009-05-14
- More updates...
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“Seven Days in the Art World… seems destined to outlive its moment… Thornton offers an indelible portrait of a peculiar society, simultaneously cutthroat and curious… glamorous yet filled with people who would have been unpopular in high school.” Vogue
Seven Days in the Art World “will survive as a hard-thinking but high-spirited memorial… Thornton brings to light the bizarre machinery that keeps studio showbiz on the road, and in the headlines.” The Independent (“20 Best Books of the Year”)
“It’s like having your own spy in the art world. Thornton parachutes the reader into the fascinating nitty gritty of how it all works.” Alan Yentob, Creative Director, BBC.
A “brilliantly readable and wonderful and didactic-without-lecturing book.” Flavorpill
“A terrific book—detailed, gossipy, and insightful… By the end of the book, you almost understand how [Steve] Cohen could shell out $8 million for a rotting 14-foot shark pickled in formaldehyde…” BusinessWeek
“Underneath [the book's] glossy surface lurks a sociologist’s concern for institutional narratives as well as the ethnographer’s conviction that entire social structures can be apprehended in seemingly frivolous patterns of speech or dress.” ArtWorldSalon.com
“Thornton has performed the admirable service of preserving the extreme social comedy of the global art world, circa 2007, for historians of the future.” Bloomberg
“Thornton captures the essence, appeal, complexity and the mass of contradiction that permeates the rarefied art world, and often fascinates outsiders.” Reuters
“Entertaining… Seven Days in the Art World is cleverly divided into seven day-in-the-life chapters, each focusing on a different facet of the contemporary art world… Thornton is a smart and savvy guide with a keen understanding of the subtle power dynamics that animate each of these interconnected milieus.” The Herald Tribune
“If the art world… has always seemed a mystery behind a locked door, then here is the key… Thornton’s book is full of answers to the questions… Who are the people who pay $13m for a work of art? How do auctions work? How important are art critics? How do [artists] become successful?” Sydney Morning Herald
