Reading Art

Inspired by the reading list Sarindar Dhaliwal is using for teaching her OCAD class here are 2 books for a view of the contemporary art scene (ak):

1. Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton $20 at chapters on-line (available as e-book) 2 available at CHAPTERS Kingston in store.

"The art market has been booming. Museum attendance is surging. More people than ever call themselves artists. Contemporary art has become a mass entertainment, a luxury good, a job description, and, for some, a kind of alternative religion. In a series of beautifully paced narratives, Sarah Thornton investigates the drama of a Christie's auction, the workings in Takashi Murakami's studios, the elite at the Basel Art Fair, the eccentricities of Artforum magazine, the competition behind an important art prize, life in a notorious art-school seminar, and the wonderland of the Venice Biennale. She reveals the new dynamics of creativity, taste, status, money, and the search for meaning in life. A judicious and juicy account of the institutions that have the power to shape art history, based on hundreds of interviews with high-profile players, Thornton's entertaining ethnography will change the way you look at contemporary culture."

2.The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The curious Economics of Contemporary Art

by Don Thompson NOW ON SALE AT CHAPTERS KINGSTON 70% off for $6.99 , 7 available.

"The $12 Million Stuffed Shark delves into the economics and psychology of the contemporary art world - artists, dealers, auction houses, and wealthy collectors. If it's true - as so often said - that 85 percent of new contemporary art is bad, why were record prices achieved at auction for works by 131 contemporary artists in 2006 alone, with astonishing new heights reached in 2007? The $12 Million Stuffed Shark explores money, lust, and the self-aggrandizement of possession in an attempt to determine what makes a particular work of art valuable while others are ignored.

Thompson uses economic concepts to explain the unique practices employed, to great success, in the international contemporary art market. He discusses branding and marketing and how various strategies are tailored to a wealthy clientele, driving a "must-have" culture. Drawing on exclusive interviews with both past and present executives of auction houses and art dealerships, artists, and the buyers who move the market, Thompson launches the reader on a surprising journey of discovery."