33 artists in 3 acts

Towards the middle of 33 Artists in 3 Acts, Sarah Thornton recounts Francesco Bonami’s classification of artists around four poles: real or fake, good or bad. So for Bonami, Nauman is a good real artist, Jasper Johns a ‘real artist but his work is shit’, Francis Alÿs is a good fake artist and Ai Weiwei a bad fake artist. Alÿs and Ai have their own chapters in Thornton’s book, which takes the form of a series of interviews with artists that circle back to the question, ‘What is an artist?’ Thornton, who trained in part as an anthropologist, divides the book into three ‘Acts’; ‘Politics’, ‘Kinship’ and ‘Craft’; and within these devotes individual ‘Scenes’ to interviews with 33 artists plus two curators, one critic and two family members of artists. Each section uses particular artists as focal points – in ‘Politics’ these are Jeff Koons and Ai Weiwei, who Thornton returns to after interviews that range from Eugenio Dittborn to Martha Rosler. The second section is loosely structured around the artist-couple Carroll Dunham and Laurie Simmons (with cameos from their daughters Grace and Lena Dunham). The third section circles round the perhaps surprising juxtaposition of Andrea Fraser and Damien Hirst. [Niru Ratnam in Art Review]