7 Days in the Art World

Written by Sarah Thornton

This was the first book about art that I'd properly read in years, and I have it to thank for kickstarting an interest in both art and the art of critiquing art (lol). The culture surrounding the art world is a curious one, whether you're at an auction like Christie's or la Biennale di Venizia (Venice Biennale), or even at a crit at CalArts, and learning about the art world through these seven days proved rather eye opening for me.

In particular, I think I understood better some of the motivations for artists, as well as the others that are sort of "invisible" and behind the scenes, the crucial gears that keep the well-oiled machine of the art industry running. I was also shocked at how many people seemed well-connected in the art world at the higher levels, auctioneers and critics, professors and collectors, much more than I thought.

The care that goes into even the act of critiquing is something that has now piqued my interest; I'm planning on reading "The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning" by Maggie Nelson quite soon, and I'm excited! There's a lot of context I'm missing (another thing I've learned, art is context), but I hope that piece by piece I can reconstruct my own lenses into this fantastical world, starting from this book onwards.