Thirteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

Art market studies is a relatively new addition to the family of art history specializations, whose primary concern is the interaction between consumer and art, both socially and economically. The discourse surrounding the history of the art market has focused on the influence of individual artists on fluctuating hammer prices. However this focus has primarily been on those within the modern and contemporary auction categories. Historical studies have also put more emphasis on the status of the artist, than on the work itself. Thus, there has been no study done on the influence the market has had on the very thing it is selling: art. I propose that the development of the art market Early Modern Period had changed the function of art from a specialized possession to a cultural commodity. Specifically, it was through the social entanglement of patrons, artists, and guilds. Each of these players contributed to a shift in the message of the art they were trading. In turn, art underwrote new ideologies that permeated the social world of the three populations, going so far as to create a positive feedback loop of a need for paintings. The founding of the art market in the Early Modern period was not only the creation of a new socio-economic system, but a cultural-aesthetic one as well. Therefore, understanding the origins of the art market and its impact on how art was consumed in the past provides us with a framework by which to interpret the contemporary culture of art production as well as the very role of art itself in our society. Essentially, the market made Art as we know it today, by studying it we are better equipped to understand our interactions with art.