I Believe in Art - Review on Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton

Seven Days in the Art World (2009), as described by the author, Sara Thornton, is an ‘ethnographic project’. It is a sociology approach by doing research on the field through ‘participant observation’, which Thornton explained in her book. The journalist, who also obtains the background of sociology and art history, picked seven days in her four-year research duration in the fast-booming contemporary art field to focus on. Seven aspects of the art world are covered respectively in each of the seven days, in that first-hand account is given to the readers by Thornton’s visit to a Christies’ auction, a 14-hour CalArts crit lesson, the Art Basel fair, the Venice Biennale, Takashi Murakami’s studio, the Turner Prize ceremony as well as the back office of the Artforum magazine. It is indeed quite rare to see such kind of commentary appear in the contemporary art world as most of them are critiques with personal interpretations. Yet, this book could be considered as an ‘insider guide’ to the field, by revealing different unknown realms and voices of the art world to the public in a narrative way with more than the author’s own opinion.

In the very beginning of the book, Thornton stated her view that ‘art world is not a “system”’ but ‘conflicted cluster of subcultures’ where different parties ‘embrace different definition of art’. She further expanded this statement through her interviews done with various stakeholders in the seven chapters. It is no surprise of this phenomenon to appear as art itself is an abstract and subjective form, however, the controversial question of ‘what is art’ has been debated for decades due to the ever-changing mutation of the art world and market. Before examining this dubious issue, it is important to first look at how Thornton demonstrates the picture of the art world as these players are crucial on altering people’s perceptions towards art, even the practitioners themselves. According to the seven chapters in the book, Thornton identifies artists, curators, auction house specialists, dealers, critics and collectors as the major roles that the art world consists of. These roles are doubtlessly interrelated. Since art is the only basic component that brings all these players together, they share a mutual fundamental belief that ‘nothing is more important than the art itself’, as explained by the author in the introduction.

Artists create art for art’s sake is an apparent demonstration on this faith. On the other hand, such view is indeed ironic to the artists who are the creators of art themselves. Many experienced figures and even Thornton herself strongly believes that artists should not create art to please the market, yet mockingly, the author also agreed that the hierarchies among artists rely on ‘validation, legitimation and endorsement’ in her afterword in the book. Revealed in ‘The Auction’ chapter, the fact that auction houses usually follow the hidden agenda of being best to avoid selling art with less than two years of history has already shown that artists’ career paths are being heavily influenced by the economy-driven market. We can see that without certain recognition from other parties, artists could not seek for market approval. Agreed by the author in her afterword, artists are caught up in ‘a game of recognition’. Ultimately, they might be failed to earn enough living by selling their artworks if they are not in the upper part of the hierarchy. I am not suggesting that artists nowadays are creating artworks in order to cater the market so as to continue their career as artists, but it is believed there is a high possibility that ‘art for art’s sake’ is not their only concern when talking about creating artworks in reality. For example, Rebecca Warren, the British artist, mentioned that after stepping into the field for some time, artists’ works tend to ‘take on a form that is recognizable’ eventually, or else they will ‘never be known’. The whole process not about simply creating art due to their passion anymore, but other external factors are also being penetrated within, for example money, elitism and power.

With the ‘art for art’s sake’ belief is starting to be altered imperceptibly in the art world today, it is indeed quite hard to identify who is responsible for such situation to happen. Thornton described her feeling of having a ‘chicken-and-egg confusion’ on the ability of the Turner Prize as she wondered if the prize is a side product of the art world, or the reason artists create art is because of the prize. I believe this confusion not only applies on the occurrence of art prizes, but also the art market and other related parties. The quote, ‘art is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it’, is said to be the ‘operating cliché’ of the art market in the book. In this case, stakeholders, who are accountable for artwork purchase, can be regarded as one of the influencers that laid the foundation of the so-called normality. Even though many see auction houses as the ‘barometer of the art market’ as stated in the book, without patrons, auction houses are nothing. In fact, there is a view point from Tony Korner, one of the publishers of Artforum, saying that a good art magazine should not follow and influence the market, but to look at art honestly. Yet, the ironic thing is that the publisher’s renowned magazine is already making huge impacts to the art market by just featuring or reviewing one’s art piece. By appearing in the Artforum, or any form of media, the public will notice about these artists, thus affecting their choice of purchase in buying artworks. Even if the critiques or journalists themselves did uphold their values, their actions indirectly mutated the art market unintentionally.

As we can see from the above examples, this ‘chicken-and-egg confusion’ cycle never ends in the art world as each of the parties bring certain impact on each other. According to the ‘art for art’s sake’ belief ideologically, mentioned by the author, artists are supposed to be the most powerful and significant player in the art world, but this is not the practical case with so many interests involving right now. Going back to the question of ‘what is art’, Thornton did not provide any personal insight in the book. However, even though we can see how ‘conflicted’ the art world is from her interviews, she still emphasized the essence of the art itself continuously. At the end of the day, as I mentioned previously, the belief in art is still the one and only component that connects everyone, just like a religion. Admitting that no conclusion can be made regarding who influence the art world to the greatest extent, I still consider the belief in art is the ‘God’ of this religion, in which everyone who holds this belief, no matter what side effects and thoughts are produced along the way, are the ones who can influence the art world and keep the sphere flourishing.