Commercial art galleries as canon-makers: the Moscow art scene in the early 1990s

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-283
Author(s):  
Marina Maximova
Arts ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 126
Author(s):  
Ronit Milano

This article aims to consider the contemporary art market vis-à-vis the concept of economic freedom. Drawn from a larger study, this paper offers a glimpse of the political function of the art market, which is essentially an economic field. What I demonstrate is an inevitable clash between a free market and between political constructions that effect levels of freedom—concentrating on the parameter of inequality. The article focuses on the case of commercial art galleries, and analyzes their operation under neoliberal conditions, which represent the implementation of the idea of freedom in the economic field. Subsequently, I demonstrate the how high levels of concentration in the art market erode the levels of the equality of the players in the field. Ultimately, I argue that this case offers an example of the more general operation of the art market, which follows neoliberal principles, and thereby undermines the concept of economic freedom that is intrinsic to them.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5057
Author(s):  
Donatella Depperu ◽  
Giacomo Magnani ◽  
Lisa Crosato ◽  
Caterina Liberati

The growth of cultural firms is important in developing local economies, enhancing employment, and improving urban sustainability, but it is difficult to achieve in fragmented industries that are populated by the smallest firms and offer a particularly unfavorable context for growth. The study takes a contingency perspective and contributes to both the literature on business strategy in fragmented industries and that on the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by identifying the strategies implemented in a fragmented cultural industry, determining which of them are associated with a firm’s expected growth, and finding the few firm-specific factors that are associated with growth. It also complements the extant literature on art galleries by looking at them from the understudied strategic perspective. Suggestions for practitioners and policy makers are included.


2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Can-Seng Ooi

The importance of galleries as go-betweens for artists and art buyers is acknowledged in art world research. Using a Bakhtinian dialogic approach, this article examines social encounters of three artists, two art buyers and one gallery sales executive in Singapore. Specifically, it looks into the social interactional dynamics of artists and art buyers when they trade directly. Situational ambiguities and emotional ambivalence arise during such meetings from the different expectations and demands that are imposed, which have the effect of placing the parties involved in conflicting social contexts. For instance, when art connoisseurs and artists discuss aesthetics, monetary value is not of primary concern, nonetheless when they want to trade, commercial concerns become central; this can lead to discomfort between the parties. Similarly, art buyers may want to go behind the scenes to know more about the artist and the art practice; getting away from the glitter of the commercial gallery and into the modest art studio for an authentic experience may reveal too much for visitors; such experiences may break their illusion of the glamorous artist. This article looks at the microscopic interaction between artists and art buyers and shows how the ambiguities and ambivalence that can be generated by their encounters become constraining factors in encouraging artists and art buyers to trade directly, by-passing commercial art galleries and dealers.


2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minna Valjakka

This article focuses on the emergence of graffiti in Beijing and Shanghai as an intriguing part of the contemporary art scene. Approaching graffiti through the framework of visual culture and analyzing both the visual and social aspects of creating graffiti images, I argue that contemporary graffiti in these cities can be regarded primarily as creative self-expression emphasizing aesthetic intention and a renaming process, not as vandalism. Deriving primarily from information gathered during my fieldwork in Beijing and Shanghai, I also discuss the development of graffiti in China and its characteristics. In the Euro-American context, graffiti is still commonly regarded as criminal activity that destroys public property. This allegation, however, fails to take into account how the international graffiti culture has become an enduring genre of art with strong emphasis on style and aesthetic evaluation. Although creating graffiti is a controversial issue in China also, graffiti nevertheless exists, especially in the so-called art areas (districts known for their numerous art galleries, artist studios, art-related activities and, occasionally, art museums), or in the surrounding neighbourhoods.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-110
Author(s):  
Vilma Mačianskaitė

Summary By analysing the careers of internationally recognized artists from Lithuania and the relationship between Lithuanian contemporary artists and art galleries and museums, the author explores the challenges faced by today’s artists and hypothetically underlines the principles that could be useful for them in seeking to enter into the global art scene. The essay analyses the lack of cooperation between artists and galleries, and the representation of artists in Lithuanian museums, which is considered to be the base of a contemporary artist’s career. The essay assesses the influence of the main participants in the art market upon artists’ careers, by investigating the Lithuanian art market’s position after the restoration of independence in 1990. Twenty Lithuanian artists, major galleries or representatives of museums (such as the National Art Gallery and the MO Museum, formerly known as the Modern Art Centre) were interviewed for the purposes of this study. This examination of the Lithuanian art market reveals the peculiarities that artists have encountered, and could help international art market players to better understand the problems that the Lithuanian art market is facing. The author seeks to identify the main factors helping artists to navigate the global art scene and the global art market.


2019 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 54-77
Author(s):  
Nicolas G. Rosenthal

A vibrant American Indian art scene developed in California from the 1960s to the 1980s, with links to a broader indigenous arts movement. Native American artists working in the state produced and exhibited paintings, prints, sculptures, mixed media, and other art forms that validated and documented their cultures, interpreted their history, asserted their survival, and explored their experiences in modern society. Building on recent scholarship that examines American Indian migration, urbanization, and activism in the twentieth century, this article charts these developments and argues that American Indian artists in California challenged and rewrote dominant historical narratives by foregrounding Native American perspectives in their work.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (11) ◽  
pp. 267-1-267-8
Author(s):  
Mitchell J.P. van Zuijlen ◽  
Sylvia C. Pont ◽  
Maarten W.A. Wijntjes

The human face is a popular motif in art and depictions of faces can be found throughout history in nearly every culture. Artists have mastered the depiction of faces after employing careful experimentation using the relatively limited means of paints and oils. Many of the results of these experimentations are now available to the scientific domain due to the digitization of large art collections. In this paper we study the depiction of the face throughout history. We used an automated facial detection network to detect a set of 11,659 faces in 15,534 predominately western artworks, from 6 international, digitized art galleries. We analyzed the pose and color of these faces and related those to changes over time and gender differences. We find a number of previously known conventions, such as the convention of depicting the left cheek for females and vice versa for males, as well as unknown conventions, such as the convention of females to be depicted looking slightly down. Our set of faces will be released to the scientific community for further study.


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