Who Belongs in Art Worlds?
Arts Occupations, Institutions, Networks (continued) &
Mediation (Gatekeepers, Facilitators)
Source: V. Alexander Sociology of the Arts…(2003), p. 63
.
Today’s Class Session
1. Theories of Who Belongs in Art Worlds
&(J.Marontate)
2. Presentations & Discussion of Readings
3. Guest Presentation on Research Resources by
Sylvia Roberts
4. Finalizing student presentation dates &
reading choices
Who Belongs in Art Worlds?
Arts Occupations, Institutions, Networks (continued) &
Mediation (Gatekeepers, Facilitators)
Source: V. Alexander Sociology of the Arts…(2003), p. 63
.
Participants in art worlds --
Creators/artists
art
Audiences/publics/consumers
Mediators
Who Belongs to Art Worlds?
c.
Life Drawing Class, Bocour Paintmaking Studio
NYC, c. 1942
Recall Overview: Internal vs. External
Approaches
• Internal (Humanist-aesthetics, history of the
arts, critics, etc.)
– art=mystery,
spontaneous creation of
isolated genius
– importance of “aura” of
individual artist for value
of art work
– timeless, enduring
quality of beauty,
perfection
• External (Sociological--&
cultural studies)
– Art=social production (and
reproduction)
– importance of social
networks for creation of
belief in the arts
– values change in different
social & historic contexts
Theories about changes in ideas about what art
represents over time (J. Jurt)
– rendering of “reality” (nature), mimesis, imitatio
– as world view in a specific place & time
– as product of solitary genius (Renaissance)
– Artists’ vision (19th romanticism)
– made by “system” of production & reception
– Socio-political processes (symbolic & material)
Who creates the ‘creator’? (Bourdieu)
• “Unit of analysis” in art studies often wrong-– should not study “apparent” producers (painter, writer,
actors etc.) but processes (art, artist part of broader field
of relationships)
• ideology of creation conceals exploitation by market
forces
• art trader or impressario =symbolic banker who
creates belief in the arts by creating belief in the
economic (and moral?) value of art
Various criteria used in classifying art &
artists, including:
• Position of artist in “field of production”
– Socio-political, economic position
– “aura” of the artist (authenticity) -School of Frankfort, Walter
Benjamin-- “Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”)
• Features of the specific ‘field’
• Qualities/characteristics of the artwork
– artistic category (genre, style etc.)
• characteristics of the audience/public (notion of
consecration)
– “highbrow/lowbrow” tastes (Levine--The emergence of a cultural
hierarchy in America)
– SES
– size
Howard Becker’s Art Worlds
• Arts worlds include all the people involved in art-making
• Cooperative links through shared conventions
• Study how participants “draw lines” and what art worlds do
http://home.earthlink.net/~hsbecker/
• Types
• Integrated professionals
• Mavericks
• Folk artists
• Naïve artists
• Classification according to how they fit in art worlds (degree of
integration, consensus about the ‘rules of the game’, degree of
standardization, and in some cases– like folk art-- «uses»)
What do art worlds
do together?
• Develop shared practices
related to creation &
communication (ex. musical
notation systems)
• Mobilize resources (material
resources, training
personnel, networks,
organizations)
• Develop Systems & Forms of
recognition, mediation,
reception (gatekeeping,
patronage, publics)
Presentations of Readings
• Pavan Thind
– Van Laar, T. and L. Diepeveen, 1997 "The Function of Artists in Society:
Starving Celebrities and Other Myths", Active Sights. Art as social
interaction., London, Mayfield: 51-69
• Pietro Sammarco
– Becker, H. 1992 "Integrated Professionals, Mavericks, Folk Artists and
Naive Artists" Art Worlds. Berkley: U. Calif. Press: 226-272.
• Eliza Nguyen
– Zolberg, Vera. 1990 “The Art Object as Social Process”. Constructing a
Sociology of the Arts. Cambridge University Press: 79-102.
• Madelynn Festing
– Bennett, Andy. 2005 “Consolidating the Music Scenes Perspective”
Poetics 21:223-234.
Different types of artists/artworlds (Becker)
• Types
–
–
–
–
Integrated professionals
Mavericks
Folk artists
Naïve artists
• Classification according to how they fit in
art worlds (degree of integration,
consensus about the ‘rules of the game’,
degree of standardization, and in some
cases– like folk art-- «uses»)
Ranking Artists/Art Worlds (Becker’s 4
types)
• according to different ways
of working & career patterns
• 1. integrated professionals
– fit with accepted
conventions & canons
held by organizations
– well-trained --technical
skills, shared traditions
2.Mavericks
• innovative rebels against
“system”
• begin as conventional
“novices” but deliberately
violate norms of art world
• techniques for success-develop alternate systems
for distribution
• do not totally lose touch
with world of their medium
Kopyright Liberation Front’s
Bill Drummond at the “Brit
Awards”, 1993
3. Folk Art
• link with community practices
– ex. Duck decoys, quilts, chain-gang songs,
Christmas pagents
• art serves needs, part of daily activities
• follows aesthetic conventions, using
established procedures (ex. Sorting
scraps by colour)
• often part of well-organized community,
with informal training
4. Naïve Art
• aka. “primitive” naïve, grassroots
• indiosynmcratic
– ex. James Hampton, Throne of the
Third Heaven of the national Millenium
General Assembly
– ex. Art of children and the insane
• outsiders
– N.S. artist Maud Lewis, Henri Rousseau,
Grandma Moses
Van Laar and Diepeveen on “The function of
Artists in Society”
– Another typology
– Five roles:
•
•
•
•
•
Skilled worker
Intellectual
Entrepreneur
Social critic
Social healer
– Other dimensions
• Ex. Wittkower “Under the Sign of
Saturn”
– Transformation from craftsperson to
brooding geniuss
– Later to status of intellectual in
humanistic profession
F. De Goya. Saturn devouring his son,
c. 1821
Conceptual & practical problems in
studying artists & artistic careers
• Establishing criteria for locating, identifiying artists
• “Irrationality” of choices (P-M. Menger)
– Ex. Choosing poorer pay for more prestigious roles as an actor
• In modern times -- clash between notions of
– career (regularities, patterns )
– artistic recognition (singularities, unique, break with past)
– The ‘triple game’ of contemporary art (transgressions of boundaries of
what is art , rejection by public, integration by arts professionals)—
(Nathalie Heinich)
Changing views about values of art can lead to
changes in the status of the artist, artwork & the
social institutions & publics that support them
– Beaune Altarpiece
– PBS jazz series by Ken Burns
– Examples of establishing
“cannons” through testimony
of “experts” (ex. critics, “stars”,
fans) and changing shape of
artforms
Unique artists, unique art works
(individual) vs. social construction of
art/artists (Zolberg)
• Example: Problem of Multiples
– negotiating artistic values in
context of new technologies
– new ways of thinking about
connections between the
artwork and the “aura” of the
artist
– Walter Benjamin-- “work of art
in the age of mechanical
reproduction”
Research Resources for Studying
Art Worlds
• Guest Presentation by Sylvia Roberts, SFU
Librarian (Communication and Contemporary
Arts)
Planning Short Assignments and
Class Presentations
• Discussion of reading assignments and ideas
for topics for case studies