Camilio

BLOG 007

‘Sarah Thornton’s Seven Days in the Art World is a fascinating read for anyone wanting to delve into the usually inaccessible aspects of the artworld’ writes someone on a blog in WordPress (I literary could not find a name) about her book: seven days in the artworld which I am reading at the moment.

If you are going to buy and read this book, makes sure you have your expectations right. First of all, the title should be: Seven days in the Western art world, and actually the top West part of it! Like New York, LA and London. There are some travels to Japan (also Western, but that in the East, from an American point of view (actually Sarah is from Canada) and Basel (art Basel) but it is not that you will learn much about Japanese culture or the Swiss culture. Also, in Venice it is not necessary about Venice or Italy, it is about business, art business, something I strongly resent. Yes, also artist can make money, but the consumentistic Capitalism behind this, described in this book, is not much else than the Multinationals runed by Old Fat White Privileged People (mostly rich powerful fat man) who avoid paying taxis.
This book is all about the richest of the richest in the artworld and there by a good read, so you learn how to avoid these people and their structures as they are very hierarchical, heliair, rule based (and those are not your rules, until you accept to step in that world as an artist), old friends networks, of which the writer wants to be inside so so much (I think I write that cynical / ironical).

The book is in 7 chapters and so, 7en days. Of which day 6 is Sarah going on a studio visit, where the vulgarity of the art investors really got to me, but also of the artist, in tis example a Japanese artist, the artist Takashi Murakami. I can tell you, there are so many artists out there, also the rich famous elaterin ones where you ask, why? Still, those are, in my opinion, so much more interesting than this one (for example: he is even more commercial than Hirst and Koons combined, so not interesting, and thereby, Koons and Hirst at least started their carreers with interesting and important work), some examples:

So boring obviously, but of course, it will sell great, but I dare to state, that if you take all his works and thrown them in the ocean, nobody will ever miss them or in 500 years from now, this will have no importance in art history books from than, or maybe, somewhere mentioned in a paragraph as: WTF was this art??

So, there is the ‘West Western Art’ world and the ‘Western artworld’ which is New York, LA, London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Basel (Art Basel), Milan (design show), Maastricht (TEFAF) and Kassel. I hope I do not forget a city or country, if so, I will add later. What I want to point out with this, that this is quite limited to call The Art World, so, that is way I call it The WESTERN artworld, and I think that is important. Because as you learn that it is almost always about consumentistic capitalistic art and artists (which are not necessarily happy with this, but at the moment they are in this system, they can earn quite some money, if you let go of your autonomist) you can stop your ‘awe’ ‘awesome’ ‘brilliant’ remarks and focus on the other art and artists, those around you where even you are in the west or in the rest of the world. There is so much contemporary art around, also good contemporary art and very much to enjoy. Please keep your eyes open, and if you are going to collect, there is so much out there in Africa, Indonesia, Asia, etc.