"The art market is booming. Museum attendance is surging. More people than ever call themselves artists. Seven Days in the Art World is a time capsule of a remarkable period in which contemporary art became a mass entertainment, a luxury good, a job description, and, for some, a kind of alternative religion."
Very interesting read for me. I'm about half way through. I want to share Sarah Thornton's thoughts that captured me while asking myself...What is Art?
"One theme that runs through the narratives of Seven Days in the Art World is that contemporary art has become a kind of alternative religion for atheists. The artist Francis Bacon once said that when "Man" realizes that he is just an accident in the greater scheme of things, he can only "beguile himself for a time." He then added: "Painting, or all art, has now become completely a game by which man distracts himself...and the artist must really deepen the game to be any good at all." For many art world insiders and art aficionados of other kinds, concept-driven art is a kind of existential channel through which they bring meaning to their lives. It demands leaps of faith, but it rewards the believer with a sense of consequence. Moreover, just as churches and other ritualistic meeting places serve a social function, so art events generate a sense of community around shared interests."
For me, visual is more of an alternative religion and the experience, most of the time, is private. My understanding is most visual artists are quite private, but the dealers, promoters and spectators make the community.
