What do artists, curators, critics, gallery owners, collectors and exhibitions' visitors think about contemporary art, and what do they make of the dramatic changes in this field? The intellectualization of the 1990s was followed by the economization of the “decade of greed.” Under these circumstances how do the perspectives of the producers differ from the viewpoints of those who decide as gatekeepers—curators, critics, gallery owners, collectors—about success and failure in this field, and from those of “art lovers” who primarily enjoy looking at the works exhibited?

In this volume edited by Heike Munder and Ulf Wuggenig, with contributions from the cultural experts and social scientists Christoph Behnke, Cornelia Kastelan, Valérie Knoll, Sophia Prinz, and Christian Tarnai, the field of art is considered from an objectifying stance. The book is based on interviews with some 800 visitors to contemporary art exhibitions in Zurich, a center of the art market, as well as earlier surveys carried out in Vienna, Hamburg, and Paris in the 1990s.

Heike Munder is the Director of the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich. Ulf Wuggenig works as a sociologist at Leuphana University in Lüneburg.