Seven Days in the Art World

As a decently successful artist I was eager to check this book out. I was told it sheds light on the bullshit process of making and selling contemporary art. This of course also involves minimalism, pop art, performance art, modern art, and conceptual art. I was using this book as a tool to understand what the deal was with this movement. Why were these paintings selling for millions of dollars? Who was buying them and why? What was the concept behind these works and what did any of it mean? The answer? Annoyingly shallow observations from the author. Who was buying these paintings? Multi millionaires described as wearing Prada from head to toe using the paintings to boost their portfolios before putting them back in rotation on the market while they still could be sold. The concept behind the works? No real answer was given, only artists long explanations of the concepts being personal and a part of them. The Warholian process of using the free labor of art students to create multi million dollar pieces, become famous, and then sell said works while giving nothing to those who actually did the labor of course was praised in this book. Interestingly enough a similar practice is also known as slavery. This book missed the boat completely when it comes to the art world and instead focused on the elitist side of things. Private jets, press conferences, up scale parties, famous buyers, etc. This felt more like a Vogue or Harper's Bazaar article on steroids. The incessant name dropping had me Googling all through this book, and not in a good way. It was an annoying necessity to get through to the next page just so I knew who or what the author was describing. Thoroughly disappointed, though I must say, from my perspective it did indeed shed light on the ridiculousness of the entire topic, only I don't believe that was the author's goal. 4/10⭐