Book Report

Book Report

Contemporary art has turned out to become a mass entertainment, a job description, and to others, it has become a luxury good.  Notwithstanding, contemporary art has also been viewed to be an alternative kind of religion. Sarah Thornton has written an entertaining and intelligent fly- on- the- wall narrative that takes people behind the scenes of the world of arts. It moves people from different art schools to the auction houses, showing them how it works. Thus, it has given us a precise sense of being part of the art world.  Sarah Thornton was born in the year 1965, and she is a writer, ethnographer as well as a sociologist if culture.[1] She has authored several books about the artists’ technology, design, and even art market. She wrote a common book known as “Seven days of art in the world” in the year 2008.  Most people have described the book to be an enduring work in sociology. I have different views of the book.

In addition to that, Sarah Thornton analyzes the seven distinctive facets of the art world currently in her book Seven Days in the Art World. I think that her analysis is accurate with the fact that the term art has different meanings according to different people. Personally, art is a mode of expressing and applying creative imagination and skills.  Art could be in a visual form, such as the making of sculptures and paintings, and at the same time, it could be emotionally created.

Sarah Thornton’s book is made up of several interviews that have helped the author to give the readers with data from what happens inside the world to her observations about art.[2] It also shows the different viewpoints that people have concerning art and the role that they play. The interviews are essential in the book.  Art is all about creativity, and people are creative in different ways. Hence, the book helps us know more about the world of art and how it operates..

Additionally, it was also interesting the way the book was opened with the chapter “The Auction.” The chapter is set in New York, where there is an auction that is being run by Christie. I have always thought that people pay a certain amount for art pieces, and if two or more people are interested in the same art piece, the highest bidder gets the art. It is significant that the power that comes with owning an art piece is the least important thing for people. However, it always ends up being the most crucial in the world we are living in. Money runs the world, and this is also present in the art world. I agree just like Thornton, that art is worth what other people are willing to pay for it. Most people who buy art pieces are lucky since the arts become very influential globally. [3] Nonetheless, I was bothered by how people viewed art to be a commodity. I was also concerned about how auction as not mainly about the art pieces that were being auctioned, but they were about the people who were attending the auction, the outfits they were in, and their financial status. Most people admired each other the amount of money that they were willing to spend in a piece of art and the art pieces they owned in the past instead of the insights they acquired from the pieces.

In the current world, art is being treated just like any other exchangeable commodity. It was interesting to see other people in the book viewing art to be an object of both monetary and sentimental value. When the author asked people in the auction about how they felt when selling art, an answer from Juliette Gold stood out.  Gold claimed that she felt as if she wanted to be hyperventilated and die and even felt as if she was being undressed. [4]It showed how much the art piece meant to her. Her answer made me think hard about how an individual would feel like dying simply because of selling something. I have nothing that if I sold, I would feel as if my whole world had fallen apart. People tend to invest a lot of money in a piece, and they have the piece for a long time since they are already attached to it. They feel that this art is part of them, and without it, they feel as if they are not the same people. The chapter points pout the difference between the meaning of art to the art dealers as well as the collectors. It also shows what the actual artists think about the act. I  have an undeniable belief that the business side of art is very different from what art is supposed to be since the artists will not show up in auctions. However, today the art world has been a market place where price defines the art and worth of artwork.

The chapter “The Crit”  is similar to what I think art is.  I believe that the most beautiful thing about art is not the price of a piece but the work that has been done by the artist. The work that is done by an artist is not necessarily what people see displayed in the canvas, but what goes around the heads of the artists is essential, and the process of completing the piece. In my opinion,  the artist is the most rewarded individual in the art world. Creating a piece of art is not easy, and some go to the extent of creating something that shows the daily lives of the people in the community. I  dislike the fact that, at times, harshness is exhibited in the process of an artist creating his art and even getting feedback from other artists.[5] From a personal perspective, I do not think that an artist would follow what other people tell him to. Still, they should think of the process of getting criticism and how necessary it is to build confidence and learn not to care what other people are thinking about their art pieces. I do not believe in the guidelines that claim that what art is supposed to be and what makes it a  perfect piece since, in art, beauty is considered to be in the eye of the beholder. People have different tastes, and people will always criticize the artists’ pieces since they have different opinions about them. Hence, artists should care about what other people say about the things that they created. The only critic that they should think is important is the changes that they hope to make on the art piece.  I believe that an excellent artist is never satisfied with his work since he or she has good taste, and he learns new things as he makes the new art pieces. They think that what they make is never good enough since they are amateurs and they feel that they want to be better artists. I considered this to be art, but I think the art market ruins it all. Creativity cannot be bought. Neither can it be sold. Notwithstanding, today, most people have bought and sold their creativity through their art pieces, and the world of arty has lost originality. [6]However, it is essential to note that the beauty if art is present in art schools that are filled up with people who are eager to show others that they can create pieces for their good and not for business reasons.

The book has taught me a  lot about art. I only knew art to be a form of creativity among people, and I never knew that auctions were part of the reason why art was changing since the art pieces lacked originality.  The book has inspired me to learn more about art and the art world. Most people believe that art is only based on how sculptures and paintings are created. They forget that things such as music are also art. The argument that has been brought by Thornton is on whether auctions favor or disregard the work of the artists and if auctions should continue to take place in the world today. The book was strong in the way the chapters were chronologically arranged, the clear statements written in simple language, and even the use of direct speech to prove a  point on how art is affected by the activities in the world today.

Reference

Thornton, Sarah. Seven days in the art world. Granta Books, 2008.

[1] Thornton, Sarah. Seven days in the art world. Granta Books, 2008.

[2] Thornton, Sarah. Seven days in the art world. Granta Books, 2008.

[3] Thornton, Sarah. Seven days in the art world. Granta Books, 2008.

[4] Thornton, Sarah. Seven days in the art world. Granta Books, 2008.

[5] Thornton, Sarah. Seven days in the art world. Granta Books, 2008.

[6] Thornton, Sarah. Seven days in the art world. Granta Books, 2008.