True Colors: The Real Life of the Art World

Rating:
Summary: anecdotal evidence
Review: An engaging overview of the N.Y. art scene. Especially nice is how Haden-Guest uses gossip and fact to give an entertaining explanation to the rise of such 80s figures as Jeff Koons. I especially enjoyed his chapter on Donald Judd and other chapters on early Conceptualists and how that genre has morped over the past 3 decades. These are not hard core critical essays! But that is not what I was looking for. Recommended to the casual art fan like myself.

Rating:
Summary: nicely done
Review: An engaging overview of the N.Y. art scene. Especially nice is how Haden-Guest uses gossip and fact to give an entertaining explanation to the rise of such 80s figures as Jeff Koons. I especially enjoyed his chapter on Donald Judd and other chapters on early Conceptualists and how that genre has morped over the past 3 decades. These are not hard core critical essays! But that is not what I was looking for. Recommended to the casual art fan like myself.

Rating:
Summary: a must for all interested in the contemporary arts scene
Review: This is the first book that ties together the art movements from the last three decades with the happenings in the art market, which in turn shaped part of the movements. Anthony Haden-Guest was and is part of this world himself, so you're getting a first person account, not merely a list of events accumulated by a researcher. Haden-Guest very nicely places all the major happenings and people in a row and relates them to eachother. Entertainingly written too! Even if you already know all about who was who in the artworld, this is still a fun read.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining (but dated) Nonsense
Review: Trashy & obsequious. A gossipy journal of obliquely connected anecdotes about characters from the 80s and 90s art world, most of whom have lost most of their importance, and some of whom are even dead now. Begins with a section on the 70s minimalists and conceptualists, etc., by way of introduction. . . Not lacking in intelligence, but not employing much of it either. Haden-Guest places himself more strategically in the narrative than he most likely was in reality, but what journalist doesen't? Don't expect anything memorable or important (except perhaps the section on Donald Judd's various amusing feuds with native Texans and his rich European benefactors). I suppose it makes for good beach reading for those with a taste for the lurid. Be advised that it's also hopelessly dated (not documenting anything after the mid-nineties), which puts it in a strange position: it offers little information of historical significance, yet in the terms of the world it documents is now filled with ancient history! In short, an ephemeral amusement.

Rating:
Summary: anecdotal evidence
Review: With only the most banal of polemical perspectives and no aesthetic undepinning, this journalistic description of the recent fluctuations of the art market and its suppliers falls sadly short of the potential interest and excitement of the subject. It's readable. That's it.