Interesting look into a murky world but tedious at times. There's nothing more worthy of exasperation than a pretentious art snob. ( )

I don't know that it was invaluably informative, but 80% of it was fun to read. My favorite chapters (in order): The Crit, The Auction, The Prize, and The Studio Visit. ( )

A fun, deceptively sophisticated jog through one very small aspect of "the art world." And that aspect is, overwhelmingly, the economic. This is a book about how rich people have nothing to do with their enormous amounts of money, so they spend it on objects that may or may not be of any aesthetic value. But they are great status markers. I mean, would you even go to someone's party if they didn't have a Jeff Koons? No way, right?

The first few chapters--one at a contemporary art auction, when at an MFA seminar, and one at an art fair--are really good. After that, it gets a little tedious, and nauseating, which is how people with so much money that they don't know what to do with it always make me feel, as well as people who structure their entire lives around giving said very wealthy people things to do with their money that aren't, e.g., paying taxes.

Thornton makes no bones about the topic of this book; it is an ethnography, it is not at all interested in making aesthetic distinctions, and you'll have to decide for yourself if Takashi Murakami is interesting and if his work is worthwhile. I have a hard time believing that anyone could finish reading the book, however, without making a pretty strong aesthetic judgment on the people Thornton's writing about. ( )

Sarah Thornton's "Seven Days In The Art World" is a subtly observed, meticulously researched, fly-on-the-wall account of the world of contemporary art. The "seven days" of the title are in fact the seven different arenas in which artworld professionals play their roles: the auction house, the university, the fair, the prize, the magazine, the studio, and finally the exhibition. Shuttling between these are the players: curators, collectors, critics, auctioneers, dealers, and of course artists themselves.

Thornton is an academically trained sociologist, and as such adopts an "ethnographic" approach to her subject. Like the anthropologist seeking to understand some remote indigenous tribe, Thornton realises that she is much more likely to succeed by adopting the neutral attitude of the "participant observer". So, rather than judge, challenge or criticise, she draws out the views of those she interviews by an open-minded sympathy. Mostly, then - with relatively rare digressions into commentary and editorial - the people and the differing views they express are allowed to speak for themselves. At times, this provides its own critique: the auction house specialist who bemoans the shallow taste of Park Avenue residents who are restricted less by budget than whether an artwork will fit in their elevator; the art magazine critic who recognises her constrained role as little more than press agent for the shows she reviews.

In practice, however, Thornton's strategic "neutrality" and lack of critical analysis translates into implicit support. As she ultimately admits, it is "the basic premise of Seven Days in the Art World that the work is important", and therefore the worthiness of contemporary art is never fundamentally questioned simply because "cynicism doesn’t appeal to me and disbelieving in contemporary art (as a category) strikes me as either nihilistic or retrograde." This is, perhaps, fair enough - as personal conviction - but as a result the justifications for the sort of provocative and extravagant contemporary artworks that many struggle to value or appreciate - the unmade beds and pickled sheep - go unaddressed and unchallenged.

If you're looking for a book that questions what art is, or a critique of contemporary art, then this isn't it. But if you are simply after a sociological insight into the rarefied and peculiar world of high-end contemporary art and how all the pieces fit together, then there is much here to admire and recommend.

Gareth Southwell is a philosopher, writer and illustrator.

I was hoping this book would give me a new appreciation for the Contemporary art world, but it is not to be...I read this on my kindle, but I seem to recall leafing through a physical copy in the store, and I do not recall any photos..This book needs photos, or you need to be able to access google to search the art she is talking about. I'm a sucker for anything auction related, so I enjoyed the auction section. ( )