Online textbooks free download Seven Days in the

<strong>Named one of the best art books of 2008 by <em>The New York Times</em> and <em>The Sunday Times</em> [London]: “An indelible portrait of a peculiar society.”—<em>Vogue</em></strong> <br /><br />The art market has been booming. Museum attendance is surging. More people than ever call themselves artists. Contemporary art has become a mass entertainment, a luxury good, a job description, and, for some, a kind of alternative religion. <br /> <br /> In a series of beautifully paced narratives, Sarah Thornton investigates the drama of a Christie's auction, the workings in Takashi Murakami's studios, the elite at the Basel Art Fair, the eccentricities of <em>Artforum</em> magazine, the competition behind an important art prize, life in a notorious art-school seminar, and the wonderland of the Venice Biennale. She reveals the new dynamics of creativity, taste, status, money, and the search for meaning in life. A judicious and juicy account of the institutions that have the power to sha