This book helps us understand how confused the elitist tendencies of the art establishment have made the world of art. But it is also misleading - because the topic is NOT the "Art World". Ms. Thornton covers only that segment of art that she enjoys - then claims it’s exceptionally important. She also fails to be a neutral writer or ethnographer.
This book is not ethnography. Ethnography involves a disinterested observer (or observer with a pre-existing opinion taking an intentionally neutral position) and going into an environment with people to study their interactions. First, and foremost, to be valid ethnography it requires that the writer describe how the specific population segment they study relates to other populations.
It’s also not ethnography in that it’s mostly record of interviews - interviews that don’t add much. That it’s reporting isn’t surprising - her career has been spent reporting. But the claim to be much more is specious.
Ms. Thornton does admit in her afterword to the later edition to being an enthusiast for contemporary art - and seems incapable of understanding or explaining where contemporaray fits up against a much, much larger world of art and set of artists. (I suppose it was a great sales tactic though for hyping up the book and getting it bought by a publisher.)
She also fails to sort out how to observe neutrally - no matter her opinion. Many of the characters she’s with assume persona’s of "edgy" while truly being pretty mundane - a fact she misses. She also fails to see (apparently) that they are rehashing essentially the same things that have been made for nearly 70 years...that little of the theories postulated by the collectors, critics, or artists are “new”.
The writing covering the first two days is quite compelling and I enjoyed those parts (tho’ frustrated by her inability to be an ethnographer). The remaining 5 days were pretty dull writing - but I wanted to make sure I read through each of the events. I suppose her “studio visit” was most hilariously odd. It wasn’t a visit to a studio - but to a factory with the tour given by the CEO. Yet rather than search ethnographically to understand and give insight to this variation, she wholeheartedly embraces the CEO.
As a last thought, she is fascinated by art that has the approval of this elite crowd - it’s the art she embraces. What strikes me is that she seems to lack the interest and enthusiasm for art that doesn’t have that approval - art which probes the depths of the human and expresses what’s essentially human. Certainly we could all argue about what makes something to be art and never resolve that question - because everyone answers the question differently. But this fact is what is so sadly missing from this book - the only important question in the true world of art.
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