Publisher Description
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?”
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“With energy and enthusiasm
narrator Tavia Gilbert fills the roles of both critic and confidante while
narrating this detailed and personalized look at the lives of thirty-three
artists who live and work in the globe-trotting contemporary art world of
gallery openings, patrons, biennales, and money…Gilbert’s delivery perfectly
reflects the author’s dual reaction of admiration and ambivalence towards the
art installations and the artists who create the works (sometimes with the help
of dozens of assistants) for what has become a multibillion-dollar worldwide
industry.”—
AudioFile
