33 Artists in 3 Acts, Sarah Thornton
33 Artists in 3 Acts, Sarah Thornton
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33 Artists in 3 Acts

Author: Sarah Thornton

Narrator: Tavia Gilbert

Unabridged: 11 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/18/2014

Categories: Nonfiction, Art


Synopsis

33 Artists in 3 Acts offers unprecedented access to a dazzling range of artists, from international superstars to unheralded art teachers. Sarah Thornton's beautifully paced, fly-on-the-wall narratives include visits with Ai Weiwei before and after his imprisonment and Jeff Koons as he woos new customers in London, Frankfurt, and Abu Dhabi. She meets Yayoi Kusama in her studio around the corner from the Tokyo asylum that she calls home. She snoops in Cindy Sherman's closet, hears about Andrea Fraser's psychotherapist, and spends quality time with Laurie Simmons, Carroll Dunham, and their daughters Lena and Grace.

Through these intimate scenes, 33 Artists in 3 Acts explores what it means to be a real artist in the real world. Divided into three cinematic "acts"—politics, kinship, and craft—it investigates artists' psyches, personas, politics, and social networks. Witnessing their crises and triumphs, Thornton turns a wry, analytical eye on their different answers—and non-answers—to the question, "What is an artist?"

About Sarah Thornton

Sarah Thornton is a writer and sociologist of art. Formerly the chief correspondent on contemporary art for the Economist, she has written for many other publications, including Artforum, the Guardian, and the New Yorker, and she has contributed to broadcasts at the BBC, NPR, and ZDF. A frequent guest speaker, she has given talks and participated in panels at museums, universities, and literary festivals around the world. Sarah has a BA in art history and a PhD in sociology. She lives in London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mary on January 14, 2015

I slogged through this book, feeling like a miner looking for promising veins of gold. Occasionally I saw real gold but mostly saw the glitter of fool's gold. One has to remember that Thornton was working for The Economist when you get exhausted by all the financial details. I think any book about ar......more

Goodreads review by Rachel on July 03, 2016

I've realized recently that nonfiction is my beach reads - I can read nonfiction without paying manic attention to structure, sentences, and all that other nonsense that makes short stories straight up homework. On the one hand, this was an excellent breezy read, because I learned a lot, I looked up......more