Talking in the pub after work last night with X, another artist, about Hans Abbing’s book “Why Are Artists Poor” (which I am currently reading) kickstarted some interesting discussions about art and money.
I’ve just finished Chapter 2 which is called “Denial of The Economy: Why Are Gifts to The Arts Praised, While Market Incomes Remain Suspect?”.
In this chapter, Abbing posits that the arts adhere to the values of the gift sphere, which has a high status, and reject the values of the economic sphere, which has a low status: “giving has a higher status than buying and selling…works of art often symbolize the superiority of the values of the gift sphere and the inferiority of the market sphere’.
However, Abbing goes states that the market is not absent in the arts, but merely denied and veiled. The profit motive exists, (and accounts for half the art world’s income) but because of the high status of the gift sphere, the arts must not be seen to be openly embracing the market because it is seen to devalue and debase art.
“It is often commercial to be a-commercial. Expressing anti-market values can add to one’s success in the market. Artists, dealers, or editors who exhibit a lack of concern for money may well enhance their market value.. Artists behave a-commercially because they are artists. In the course of the history of the artistic profession this type of behaviour became part of the artist’s ‘character’. Artists have learned to ‘play games’ in two spheres. That is how they earn a living”
So we got talking about how we negotiate this complex and contrary double system, how we approach money in terms of own experiences and practices. We both agreed with Abbing’s assessment of high value/low value of gift and market economy in relation to judgements we make about our own and other artists’ practices. For example, being involved in DIY and self-funded projects both in artist and curatorial roles is something that we are both proud of and esteem highly. We share a disapproval of artists who ‘sell’ themselves or their work too openly; one of our regular rants is about artists whose work we have shown (via curatorial projects we have worked on together) who were ‘pushy’ about promoting themselves and seemed motivated by self-interest. We tend to abhor and avoid these people, whereas we are attracted to working with artists who show a more reciprocal and generous approach – e.g. giving time, showing interest and support. Although money wasn’t a direct factor in these experiences, the mismatch of values (generosity versus self interest) are the same as gift sphere versus the market sphere. Self-promotion equals selling yourself equals totally not cool.
We then went on to talk about earning a living and how we describe our jobs to other people in the art world. (both of us have part time jobs in hospitality). X described a recent discover recently via a blog site about a number of painters who he thought of as successful (in terms of gallery shows and reputation) still having full time or part time jobs. He talked about his surprise but then of feeling encouraged by this in terms of his own employment situation. We talked about how information like this – i.e. the realities of how we as artists make a living as often veiled or hidden. Particularly if jobs are in lower status areas of employment like ours as opposed to jobs within the arts sector – teaching, admin, management etc. We talked about how we describe our employment roles in various situations. I for example would cheerfully declare my catering job to other artists who I felt shared my value system, (see above) but might be more circumspect when talking to an arts organisation/commissioner/curator. I may mask or not mention my role in case I was taken less seriously. Why?? The sub text being, you’re not a proper artists if you’re doing this kind of work?
Artists and money: Double standards, judgements, hierarchies.
A whole can of worms here, and this one only just opened.
There will be more.
‘Why Are Artists Poor?’ can be downloaded free from here:http://www.google.co.uk/url?url=http://www.oapen.org/download%3Ftype%3Ddocument%26docid%3D340245&rct=j&sa=U&ei=MOOwUKXKHIb24QSu8YGIDA&ved=0CCwQFjAF&q=hans+abbing+why+are+artists+poor&usg=AFQjCNFIUq_p2objbStbm0b7J9eN4Nn-Iw
