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...Seven Days in the Art WorldSarah ThorntonNorton; 274 pages...
...literature, dance, theater, music, architecture - visual art is the most inscrutable. It is swaddled in layers of pretension, seemingly produced, discussed, and traded by a rare, elite few. Yet, as Thornton argues, more people seem to be buying and consuming art than ever before. Structured as a series of seven day-long dips into the community's various subcultures, Thornton's book explores (among other things) the floating jealousies at a high-end auction, the exhausting, freewheeling process of an art school critique session, and the machinations behind the world's most prestigious art competition...
...Lowdown: By attacking the art world from all angles (artists, dealers, exhibitors, critics, students), Thornton gives us a one-stop tutorial on an often insular subculture. Accessible to even those who couldn't care less about art, Seven Days is light-hearted but sociologically acute, allowing us to both laugh at and empathize with those for whom "contemporary art has become a kind of alternative religion." As Thornton writes, "For many art world insiders...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...
...skyrocketed prices and the dramatic expansion of many galleries' square footage," Thornton writes. "The wealth trickles down. More artists are making a better living; a few are as rich as pop stars. Critics are busy churning out words to fill expanded editorial pages." In a few years time, Seven Days may come to be seen as one of the first chronicles of a now-bygone...
...Farm Belt, Northwest Ohio Many of Ohio's far-right leaders grew up here. But some the area's cities lost a third of their manufacturing jobs in the last seven years, giving Democrats an opening. Still, it is seen as Republican territory. Sarah Palin chose Northwest Ohio's Bowling Green University last week to roll out new accusations of Obama's links to radicals. Expect more such red meat appeals to the base. Meanwhile, in an effort to expand past his Toledo stronghold, Obama sent Joe Biden and Bill Clinton to rallies in factory towns like Lima and Marion...