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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The hot, hip contemporary art world, argues sociologist Thornton, is a cluster of intermingling subcultures unified by the belief, whether genuine or feigned, that nothing is more important than the art itself. It is a conviction, she asserts, that has transformed contemporary art into a kind of alternative religion for atheists. Thornton, a contributor to Artforum.com and the New Yorker, presents an astute and often entertaining ethnography of this status-driven world. Each of the seven chapters is a keenly observed profile of that world\’s highest echelons: a Christie\’s auction, a crit session at the California Institute of the Arts and the Art Basel art fair. The chapter on auctions (where one auction-goer explains, [I]t\’s dangerous to wear Prada…. You might get caught in the same outfit as three members of Christie\’s staff) is one of the book\’s strongest; the author\’s conversations about the role of the art critic with Artforum editor-in-chief Tim Griffin and the New Yorker\’s Peter Schjeldahl are edifying. Thornton offers an elegant, evocative, sardonic view into some of the art world\’s most prestigious institutions. 8 illus. (Nov.)
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