Seven Days in the Art World读后感摘抄

　　《Seven Days in the Art World》是一本由Sarah Thornton著作，W. W. Norton & Company出版的Hardcover图书，本书定价：USD 24.95，页数：304，特精心从网络上整理的一些读者的读后感，希望对大家能有帮助。

　　《Seven Days in the Art World》精选点评：

　　●"Artists have huge egos, but how that manifests itself changes with the times. I find it tedious when I bump into people who insist on giving me their CV highlights. I've always thought that wearing badges or ribbons would solve it. " ── John Baldessari

　　●社会学家眼中的艺术市场／世界，当代艺术的［know the city］果然名不虚传。

　　●就当来看艺术圈的八卦，因为在《疯狂经济学》里面已经被刷新了一下眼界，再看到这本书对其中的人物以及拍卖会就感到如此的亲切。

　　●对contemporary art的现状、构成市场各个环节的介绍

　　●很好的一本书,不管是从事这个行业,或是自己想做艺术家的都应该读,知道艺术市场怎么运作,才会知道怎么样更好的推销自己

　　●可读性强，细节很多，作者以一个中立观察者的身份记录她的见闻。

　　●特纳奖评委写文章抱怨其他评委，还有村上隆的工作室的段落都有点好笑

　　●a good art world intro book.

　　●从大众文化的评论角度切入进来看当代艺术的每个环节，少有的我看懂的英文书。作者Sarah Thornton就是给大众周刊写文化栏目的那种作者，并不是艺术圈的人，她被称为是“英国最时尚的学术人”。中国是不是也可以有本这种书呢~

　　●藝術市場的田野調查 喜歡評論課那一章 挺想去上那樣的課

　　《Seven Days in the Art World》读后感(一)：Seven Days Gossip in the Art World

　　Art World是个小世界。

　　在这个世界里，那么一撮人相互认识着，并且共享一些不为外人所知的秘密。

　　面对这样一种结构，一切想要挤入核心力争上游的艺术家、入门级买家、媒体记者，以及仍处于初级阶段的机构从业者，都会迫切地想要通过获取情报，使自己在起跑线上占据有力位置。Sarah这本书以冲上前线的姿态，带来了关于大洋彼岸艺术世界的第一手资料。台湾的译者十分应景地把书名翻译成《艺术市场探秘》，使中文译本一经推出就如同飓风般地席卷了宝岛艺术界 。对于还在花时间上微博，试图通过茶余饭后的八卦打探行业内幕的人来讲，这本书将可以极大地满足你一探究竟的愿望。

　　作者Sarah Thornton是加拿大人，后在英国学习艺术史及社会学，现为《经济学人》的首席艺术记者。她在这本书中以人类学的研究方法入手，对艺术界进行了大量而深入的观察和调研。

　　整本书的讲述方式很有趣。构成艺术世界的几个部分被作者拆解开来变成为七日行程指南 ，内容涉及到纽约Christie’s的拍卖、加州艺术学院的艺术评论教育、瑞士巴塞尔博览会、特纳奖、 《Art Forum》杂志、村上隆工作室和威尼斯双年展七个部分。作者在后记中写道，这确确实实是她2004年到2007年间走访艺术世界的记录，尽管这七天并不是连贯进行的，但她所提及或引用到的人物、事件及艺术作品都是真实地存在着的。活跃在艺术世界的艺术家、画商、收藏家、策展人、评论家及拍卖行专家像纽带一样穿行在各个章节中，使散落的局部形成为一整块紧密相连的体系。一些隐藏在幕后的人物也在这本书里浮出了水面，比如说Christie’s拍卖行首席拍卖师Christopher Burge，给皮诺（Francois Pinault）作收藏顾问的Philippe Segalot，重要的收藏家夫妇Don & Mera Rubell，泰特美术馆馆长Nicholas Serota，Art Forum出版人Knight Landesman，以及艺术评论家Jerry Saltz和Roberta Smith等等，他们在Sarah生动而细节性地刻画下，彰显出独特而鲜明的个性。

　　如果是关注内幕，读者首先可以挑出来细读的是“拍卖”和“博览会”两个章节。从拍卖师面前布满秘密符号的笔记书到资本雄厚的大画廊如何在拍卖会上掌控价格，以及什么人从喷气式飞机下来在巴塞尔博览会买了什么，在此都能被窥见一斑。大多数人都有看完一场拍卖或者博览会后丈二和尚摸不着头脑的经历。尽管这是收藏家在公开场合露面购买艺术作品，但如果缺乏相应的背景知识，就会像Sarah笔下局促地站在媒体席上记录拍卖号牌的新手记者—— 一番徒劳后，什么人买了什么作品以及高成交价背后的必然性和偶然性， 都还是些缺乏解释的迷面。Sarah在解密层面上， 从拍卖专家口中打探出什么尺寸、题材、色彩的作品能受欢迎；但更重要的，她从深层次的社会学角度解读出收藏家的购买动机和心理状态。只是遗憾的是，她让我们看到除了代表品味，社会地位，对于一些有钱有闲的人，“收藏艺术品越来越像是购买服装”一样的换季时尚行为。

　　“工作室访问” 也是比较有意思的章节，讲述的是Sarah和Blum & Poe画廊的Tim 和Jeff ，以及洛杉矶MOCA一行人参观村上隆日本工作室的故事。村上隆在这里被比喻成工作室员工的恶梦。他本人其实是一个极勤奋的工作狂，对工作和流程很有一套管理方式，但他对作品质量的完美追求几乎到达了令人发指的程度（但这同时也是他能成功的关键）。他的片断式英文并不妨碍他与西方策展人和画商的交流，Sarah在不经意地对飞机座位地描述上，还暗示出了这种重要级艺术家在艺术生态中所占据的主导性地位。

　　关于加州艺术学院的艺术评论课和特纳奖的评奖机制，作者在写作上稍微有点平铺直叙。但由于这两部分花了很大笔墨在写国外年轻的艺术家以及他们对待创作的态度，或许可以让国内迅速进入到市场的年轻艺术家们能够有所借鉴。至于Art Forum一章，则因为Sarah是他们网站内容的长期写手，让人有种距离太近而不够客观的感受。比较巧妙的是，在最后一章里，所有人物又都在威尼斯双年展上齐聚一堂，由此展现出各个环节的相互作用以及整个体系的运作方式。

　　总的来说，这并不是一本特别严肃或者让人读完就能立刻上手的指南类读物。但它对我们这些西方艺术世界的局外人来说，仍然是一份很具有洞察力的社会学报告。

　　《Seven Days in the Art World》读后感(二)：笔记

The auction

Art world is a “symbolic economy” where people swap thoughts and where cultural worth is debated rather than determined by brute wealth.

Why has art become popular？

1. We are more educated than before.

2. Although educated, but read less.

3. Art cross boarders.

4. Art became so expensive.(but also safe asset？

MBA in art world. “It is not by chance that I went from cosmetics(L’Oreal) to art. We are dealing with beauty here. We are dealing in things that are unnecessary, dealing with abstractions.”

Buyer illusion. “People are over-informed and undereducated. They have this veneer of knowledge. They look at painting and they see its price. They think the only value is the auction value.”

Liquidity. “Without auctions, the art world wouldn’t have the financial value it has. They give the illusion of liquidity.” Buyer may fear could be “but what if no body wants them.”

Always a story behind consignment. For people who are passionate about art. Selling is often associated with a sense of a loss, and this is compounded when the selling is spurred by the loss of a loved one.

Artforum杂志于1962年创办于旧金山，1965年迁到洛杉矶，1967年搬到现杂志总部纽约。 Artforum致力于极简艺术和观念艺术的报道，以严肃的态度评判当代艺术的发展，在历史和哲学的语境中，审视当下,为评论界提供了一个平台。

价值中立原则. 萨拉·桑顿告诉记者，“在我所研究的领域，有一个‘价值中立’的原则，所以对采访者我会很中立地不作评价，会公平、客观地来采访。因为采访者中有些彼此是不喜欢对方甚至是处于敌对状态的，这是在这一行研究中有历史的一个重要传统。”

引用：

1. 书籍简介 http://blog.sina.cn/dpool/blog/s/blog_56b0d2b90100yhy7.html

2. 艺术小碗 | 我们是做艺术⾏业的，但我们不是艺术家 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/P5g-2oiqa70xmIs68ATGvA

3. Most expensive pairings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings

Books：

33 Artists in 3 Acts (2014)

In Club Cultures: Music, Media, and Subcultural Capital (1995)

　　《Seven Days in the Art World》读后感(三)：小世界

　　Last week, I occasionally opened Phillips de Pury's autumn auction catalogue. Damien Hirst's butterfly painting "Observation" struck my eyes at once.

　　I can’t be more familiar with it. The visually stunning work, alternately named "The Crown of Justice" is made out of thousands of real butterflies and designed purposely to resemble a strained-glass windows from a Gothic cathedral that almost seems to emit light. It was exhibited with another similar piece called "Disintegration (The Crown of Life)" at The Pace Gallery, Beijing from November, 2010 to February, 2011. I once sat before it the whole day, working on the shipment details, compiling condition report, receiving price inquiry and accepting visitors' praise.

　　I never thought I would encounter with it again in a catalogue in New York. This remarkable piece, along with other collection from a private collector will go on auction at Howick Place, London on 13th October, 2011. As the hammer drops, the butterflies will fly into another anonymous space. It’s only an episode in an art world that changes second by second.

　　In Sarah Thornton's book, art world is a small world, where a group of people meet with each others at all kinds of occasions and share with each others some gossips not known to outsiders. As Gladstone, an interviewee in Chapter 3 says:" Identifying people of consequence - it's an educated guess or a couple of phone calls. The art world is still a village."

　　In such a semi-enclosed structure, artists, entry-level collectors, journalists and art managers all desperately struggle to move toward the pyramid summit though acquisition of first-hand information. Seven Days in the Art World will satisfy the need of gossipers outside the circle who try hard to peep at the mechanism of the otherwise inaccessible and complicated contemporary art world.

　　arah Thornton has a BA in Art History and a PhD in Sociology. In this book, she brings the research methods in Sociology and Anthropology to the writing process. She spent five years researching, conducting more than 280 interviews, field studying and on-site observing. Finally, she condensed her findings into seven days or seven episodes in the art world. Even a person who has little knowledge about contemporary art would find it simple yet provoking. It is entertaining to jump from auction to art fair and from the crit to studio. One may gasp at how each part of the art world actually functions and gets crushed up to a whole picture.

　　It is also interesting to see how Sarah discovers people behind the scenes. The image on the cover of the book is a woman in black heels striding into a space, leaving only one of her pale legs for readers to linger on. Assuming the striding female on the cover of the book is Sarah herself, we follow her feet to the auction at Christie’s, post studio art class at CalArt, the Art Basel, the Tuner prize ceremony, the office of Artforum International, Takashi Murakami’s studio and the Venice Biennale, where we meet with prestigious figures in various settings. Artists, dealers, collectors, curators, critics and auctioneers, active figures in the art world wander in different chapters like performers on the stage, and together wave the segmented chapters into an integrated story. Christopher Burge (top auctioneer at Christie's), Philippe Segalot (Francoid Pinault's personal art consultant), Don & Mera Rubell (powerful collector couple), Nicholas Serota (Director of Tate Modern), Knight Landesman (chief editor of Art Forum ) all express distinctive and charming personalities under Sarah's vivid and detailed depiction. The appearance of the people, the conversation and the environment are very impressive. Someone has “jet-black hair and is dressed entirely in black Prada”, while someone else’s hair “stands on end, thick with gel”. Readers can even smell the perfume of one of the gallerists if they try hard enough. The magic art world turns into a real “village” in the final chapter when people appearing in the earlier chapters finally network with each others at the Venice Biennale.

　　Generally speaking, it is a useful guideline for readers who are beginners in the art world and also a good reference for art world freshmen to identify their specific interest. You can know that the art world does not exist for art’s own sake, that a successful artist is buttressed by a team of experts, and that a good art education is more about leading one to build the wholesome personality rather than teaching one to be creative. However, those who want to get deeper answers to questions - such as how to appraise artworks or how an auction is organized – may be disappointed. What’s more, those who want to explore gallery world, museums, non-profit art institutions and alternative spaces may find the book perfunctory. Sarah Thornton knows well the pros and cons of her book, so she adds “seven questions” at the end of the book to soothe our urge of clarifying some basic confusion. Want to explore further？ Do your own researches into the small and magic art world.

　　《Seven Days in the Art World》读后感(四)：Pry into the Secrets

　　ry into the Secrets

　　A book review of Seven Days in the Art World

　　As the ancient Chinese proverb puts it:” Dilettante watch the scene of bustle, while adept guard the entrance.” Sometimes the art world is boisterous and crowded, but in a flash, it can be incredible intimate and exclusive. The core members of the art club share top secrets and pursue mutual benefit. This “conflicted cluster of subcultures” is composed of different professions and institutions, which make it complex and layered. In the art world, Artists, dealers, auctioneer, scholars, curators and critics are keeping dynamic balance with each other. They form a world full of mystery and it distributes fatal attractions.

　　·Unique Structure

　　In the book Seven Days in the Art World, Sarah Thornton plays the role of a great teacher, an excellent guide and an intrepid explorer who takes us into this mystery. For the accurate and detailed information, the author investigated in six countries during five years. She conducted 280 interviews with some finest leaders in the art world, collected a large number of first-hand information and local internal documents. Instead a lengthy work, Sarah managed to distil her ideas into seven brief and forceful narratives happen in various fields of the art world. This unique style of writing greatly improves the readability of the book. Therefore, her work successfully keeps culture character, and walks into the folks, further win readers' like. For the general reader, it’s just like the "Entertainment Weekly" of the art world, which you can almost read anytime anywhere.

　　·Various Perspectives

　　From Christie’s evening sale at Rockefeller Center in New York to a legendary seminar at the California Institute of the Arts, from the opening day of Art Basel in Switzerland to the Britain’s Turner Prize, from the offices of Artforum International magazine in Manhattan to artist Takashi Murakami’s studios in Japan, Sarah depicts vividly a picture of the art world showing the breadth and depth of each territory. At first glance, these institutions are generally independent kingdoms, but actually they are closed associated with each other. Artists, dealers, auctioneer, scholars, curators and critics, these people set up communicating bridges between decentralized institutions, and firmly connect them. They provide a variety of perspectives in the realm of art. These different opinions can assist you in figuring out how it ticks, without obsessing.

　　ometimes the large amount of disparities within the same occupation surprised me a lot.

　　The avid collectors in Chapter 1, Jack and Juliette Gold (not their real names), for example, always hold different views toward the same phenomenon. They had a debate about the boom of art market. Juliette, as a Romantic, spoke about many more people were coming to understand that art could enrich their lives. Jack, the pragmatic husband, thought it was because art has become an accepted way of “diversifying your investment portfolio.” As to this question, I don’t think anyone has a perfect answer. But getting advices from a wide range of people is always the smart thing to do. Sarah’s book provides us a unique opportunity to experience countless perspectives. I feel quite inspired by some humble opinions. For example, the one from an anonymous Sotheby’s specialist explains, “We buy a pair of trousers and we wear them for three years and then move on. Is it right that the trousers sit in the cupboard for the next twenty-five years？ Our lives are constantly changing. Different things become relevant at different times in our lives. We are motivated by our changing sensibilities. Why can that not be applied to art as well？”

　　Enormous amount of information just hide behind the story telling. Each chapter focuses on one specific realm in the art world and introduces readers a bunch of key players in this area. Even though they seem unreasonable, irrational, and quite self-centered sometimes, I still like these people.

　　·Harsh Realities

　　The book takes a close look at what's going on behind the glossy exterior of the art world. With time you will enter the intimate territory inch by inch, discovering secrets there along with the author. The stories and realities show us the two sides of the art world, a bright side and a very dark one. It just amazes me that invisible rules are hidden everywhere and they can be brutal beyond imagining.

　　The following are just a few of those hidden secrets. Color, subject and size all can manipulate the price of a work in the auction. When gallerists are confident about demand for an artist’s work, they choose to place the work in the most prestigious home to manage the perception of their artists instead of selling it to the first comer or highest bidder. When traveling with artists Murakami, the seating assignment on a plane offers a near-perfect representation of the hierarchies of the art world. In the hierarchy of this world of money and power, the reporters are visibly at the bottom. The art market’s been so strong because there are few better options. If the stock market had two or three consecutive quarters of large growth, then, perversely, the art market might have a problem. These harsh realities are definitely surprise me. They make me wonder what I saw in the art world from the beginning.

　　I still live under the illusion that the art world is much more beautiful and pure. But let the book sound the warning bell for me. Sarah shuck flashy appearance of the dream world boldly and vigorously, which let the book get more appreciated. I need to be ready for the real world.

　　·Metaphor & Detail & Humor

　　y using appropriate analogies and metaphors to explore deep questions in simple terms, each piece of Seven Days in the Art World is content-rich without being murky and also full of humor.

　　In Chapter One, Sarah describes the eagerness of youth in the art world through delineating a portrait of an old woman in the auction who took plastic surgery. “A ‘plastic’ sense of art collecting may indeed related to the pursuit of youth and to a determined attempt to rejuvenate oneself through owning novelties.” Sarah wrote. I appreciate these vivid metaphors between the lines.

　　Likewise, she always depicts the most natural characteristic of personality. The book displays vivid key players in the art world with flesh and blood before readers. For instance, Christopher Burge, Christie’s chief auctioneer, was so nervous before the major sale of contemporary art that he had nightmare frequently. Charles Guarino, one of the publishers of Artforum confessed during the interview,“ I have relationships with a lot of writers. And at a certain point, one suffers that beleaguered feeling of agents dealing with stars.” He sounds just like a desperate manager. All the deｓｃｒｉｐｔions play such roles as expressing the whole through details, making little better than much, deepening the topic and embodying the image of the characters. Through these incredible attentions to details, the book reveals important truths of the art world. It also reflects the rigorously study and meticulous observation behind the narrative.

　　Reading Seven days in the Art World also makes me laugh. When it comes to the question of a career choice after finishing their MFA in CalArts, one of the students said, “MFA stands for yet another Mother-Fucking Artist. I will just try to graduate as preposterously as possible”.

　　·Weakness

　　I really like this book. The only downside is that the heroine always exists outside of the narrative lines，although she is the important clue of the novel. In my view, the book should highlight the individuality a little more to resonate within the reader, especially from the emotional side.