Ever wonder what goes on inside a day-long crit session at a top school like CalArts? Behind the scenes at Art Basel or the Venice Biennale? Inside the judging for the Turner Prize?

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Author Sarah Thornton takes the reader inside each of these phenomena of contemporary art in Seven Days in the Art World (W.W. Norton, 2008). In addition, she takes us along for a visit to the studio of art world superstar Takashi Murakama, unveiling a masterpiece for museum curators for the first time; we spend a day inside the pressure-cooker world of influential Artforum magazine; and we get a front-row seat at Christie’s auction house, inside the minds of bidder, artist and auctioneer alike.

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Each chapter is a fascinating glimpse of the multi-billion dollar world of contemporary art. From the CalArts students with their eye on the big time, to those who have made it, each story weaves a complex global tale of power, money, ego, beauty, history, publishing and politics. Though Thornton said in an interview with ArtWorldSalon that “I was never trained as a journalist,” the book comes off as impeccably reported. (My view as a journalist who has taught much about the craft.) Stories are told out of fairness from multiple points of view; the author never judges. Colorful details abound from her interviews with more than 250 people were interviewed. In the end, a “you are there” feeling prevails.

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Some favorite quotes from the book:

• Artist Keith Tyson, winner of the Turner Prize in 2002, at the Christie’s auction: “Unlike gold and diamonds, art has this other value, and that’s what makes it fascinating. Everything else is trying to sell you something else. Art is trying to sell you yourself. That’s what is different about it. Art is what makes life worth living.”

• Paul Schimmel, chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles: “Talent is a double-edged sword. What you are given is not really yours. What you work at, what you struggle for, what you have to take command of – that often  makes for very good art.”

• Phil Collins (the artist and 2006 short-lister for the Turner Prize, not the singer): “Award-winning art? … You might find a great work of art in someone falling over in a supermarket. That might be the most extraordinary visual encounter of your day.”

• Hans-Ulrich Obrist, codirector of the Serpentine Gallery in London: 90-year-old British historian Eric Hobsbawn “said that he would summarize his life as a ‘protest against forgetting.’ I think that might be the best definition for what curating could be – ‘a protest against forgetting.’ “

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Those with even a passing interest in contemporary art should seek out this finely written book.

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• Sarah Thornton’s website
• Links to her articles from The Economist, The Times and more
• Check out the book at Amazon
• Interview with Sarah Thornton in ArtWorldSalon.