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The Economies of
Serious and Popular Art
How They Diverged
and Reunited
Hans Abbing
Cultural Economics & the Creative Economy
Series Editors
Erwin Dekker, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam,
The Netherlands
Andrej Srakar, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Michael Rushton, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
This series aims to provide original and societally relevant perspectives on
the modern creative economy from the perspective of cultural economics
broadly understood. In the past decades it is increasingly realized that
value in the economy is realized in the creative industries and the more
traditional cultural sectors. This series will aim to shed light on how value
is created and realized and how the creative economy shapes the broader
economy. We believe that trends in the creative economy are often a sign
of things to come in the broader economy, this is true for the way in
which work is organized, how innovation happens, how entrepreneurs
act and the relevance of cities in the modern economy.
The series will provide a collection of works of leading cultural
economists on theoretical and empirical topics. It will cover the field in its
most broad sense and focus on the current open problems and topics in
cultural economics, covering micro, macro end methodological aspects.
Hans Abbing
The Economies
of Serious and Popular
Art
How They Diverged and Reunited
Hans Abbing
Erasmus School of History, Culture
and Communication
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Rotterdam, Noord-Holland,
The Netherlands
ISSN 2662-4478 ISSN 2662-4486 (electronic)
Cultural Economics & the Creative Economy
ISBN 978-3-031-18647-9 ISBN 978-3-031-18648-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18648-6
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Preface
This book is the result of a long-term project on which I have, on and
off, been working for almost 20 years. This already led to some earlier
publications. It remains an ongoing project and I also regard this book as
a work in progress. The book’s last chapter is totally new and looks at the
state of the arts in the twenty-first century with special attention paid to
the platform economy. This was an exciting chapter to write and it would
be nice to write a sequel with the help of a younger co-author.
The same as a painter is “in” his painting, I am in this book. My present
self is in this book as is my past self—or rather selves. My socialisation
growing up was mixed. I internalised the norms of the social group of
intellectuals my parents belonged to, but also of the “simple” people on
the farms where I worked beginning at the age of 12, through my teens.
I loved the "inferior” art on their walls and the folk music they listened
to.
I also liked the classical music in the concert halls and paintings in
the museums my parents took me to. I learned to play the soprano
recorder, played Telemann sonatas and for a while I played in a youth
orchestra. Later on, I started reading serious books such as the novels of
Dostoyevsky. And friends took me to the theatre and opera.
My socialisation was mixed and this contributed to my interest in both
serious and popular art. In the stages of my life that followed, I began
mixing a variety of studies: sociology, economics and the visual arts, even-
tually getting a degree in the latter two. At the same time, I learned to
v
vi PREFACE
build amplifiers and served as the technician and soundman for a pop
group. Eventually, I became a visual artist as well as a professor in art
sociology.
The kind of socialisation I experienced growing up, characterised by a
mix of cultural influences and a broad variety of interests and occupations,
has both costs and benefits. As a result, I think I am good at perceiving
and describing the bigger picture of the economies and the sociology of
serious and popular art, and I hope this is evident in this book. But I am
less good at writing in-depth articles on specific topics. I prefer to leave
that to others and employ their empirical research for projects such as this
book. I also use the M.A. theses of my students, while my own research
consists mainly of participatory observation and interviews with experts.
To liven up this text, I used my own experiences as an artist and began
most sections in this book with an anecdote. The anecdotes are by my
main character Anna, a visual artist. Sometimes she is my alter ego, while
at other times she is the voice of an artist and art lover acquaintance.
By the age of 25, my early enthusiasm for serious art began to dwindle.
I no longer appreciated the sombre atmosphere in the concert halls
and museums and the snobbishness of many of the visitors, most of
whom looked down on popular art. This began to influence my writing.
Emotions can stimulate creativity, in both art and science. I hope that this
shows from the text.
As I grew older and I was introduced to new and exciting develop-
ments in both the established and popular arts, I became increasingly
interested in their histories. How did this disdain for popular art come
about? And how did we end up where we are today? I also wondered:
can we not get a better understanding of what is going on currently by
examining developments that have been taking place since the late nine-
teenth century? I think the answer is a solid “yes”, and I hope that after
you have read this book, you will agree.
Not unlike my earlier books and, in particular, my book Why are Artists
Poor, I have chosen a relatively informal writing style that will be taken
seriously by academics and students alike while also being accessible and
interesting to a more general readership that includes artists, art students
and art lovers. Enjoy.
(For text updates: www.hansabbing.com.)
Rotterdam, The Netherlands Hans Abbing
Acknowledgements
First I want to thank Bart Plantenga who did a great job in editing the
text.
Over the almost 20 years I worked on the project, many people
helped me. I am particularly grateful to the many students who under
my supervision wrote essays and master theses and with whom I had
many conversations. I also thank the following experts who I talked with:
Tije Adams, Maks Banens, Ton Bevers, Laura Braden, Marsha Bradfield,
Julyan Davey, Erwin Dekker, Carolina Della Chiesa, Rick Everts, Thomas
Franssen, Mathieu Güthschmidt, Marcel van den Haak, Joost Heinsius, Jo
Houben, Sacha Kagan, Arjo Klamer, Ellen Loots, Benjamin Low, Tennae
Maki, Henk van Os, Pieter Van Os, Georgios Papadopulos, Kuba Szreder,
Thomas Vaessens, Daniël Vargas, Olav Velthuis, Filip Vermeylen, Alex van
Venrooy, Oliver Williams and PW Zuidhof.
vii
Contents
1 Introduction 1
1 A Period of Serious Art. An Art Ethos 1
2 Useful Art 5
3 Artworlds 8
4 Serious and Popular Art. Art Buildings 10
5 Boundaries. Social Classes 13
References 17
2 Serious Artworlds 19
1 Separation of Serious Art and Entertainment 19
1.1 Art Used to Be Entertaining, Frivolous
and Contemporary 19
1.2 Classification, Isolation and Etiquette 22
1.3 Art-Classics and an Art-Heritage 25
1.4 Nonprofits. De-Commercialisation 28
2 Much Respect for Serious Art 32
2.1 Celebrations and Magnificent Art Buildings 32
2.2 Much Respect for Art and Artists 34
2.3 Respectful Behaviour in Art Buildings 39
3 Governance by Artworlds. Innovation 42
3.1 Changing Governance of Art Production 42
3.2 Gatekeeping by Artworlds 45
3.3 Financial Support by Governments and Donors 48
ix
x CONTENTS
3.4 The Evolving Justifications of Public Support.
“Quality Comes First” 51
3.5 Innovation and Restricted Production
in the Popular and Serious Arts 55
References 61
3 Authentic Art and Artists 65
1 In Search of an “Authentic Self” 65
1.1 Art Setting. Art Experience. Self-Constructed
Artworks 65
1.2 An Ideal of Personal Authenticity. Deep Art
Experiences 68
1.3 The Artist-in-the-Work 71
1.4 No Distractions. Much Self-Control 73
1.5 Informalisation 75
1.6 Identity Creation by a Choice of Artworks 77
2 An Obsession with Authenticity. Authorship. Singularity
and Aura 80
2.1 Digression. Nominal and Expressive Authenticity 80
2.2 Digression. Originals. Multiples and Series.
Reproductions and Productions 82
2.3 Performances Must Be Authentic 84
2.4 A Cost Disease. Subsidised Authenticity 86
2.5 Lowering Cost and Innovation 89
2.6 An Experience of Singularity and Aura 93
2.7 Correct Attribution and Financial Value 97
2.8 Attractive Sole Authorship. Little Collaboration 99
2.9 Passive Audiences. Refraction and Co-creation 101
3 An Attractive Low-Income Profession That Enables
Self-Expression 103
3.1 Declaring to Be Artist. Between Professional
and Amateur. Many Self-Taught Professional
Artists 103
3.2 Digression. Human Capital. Measuring Problems 106
3.3 Decreasing Incomes. Increasing Numbers 111
3.4 Second Jobs. An Art-Work Preference 114
3.5 Explanations of the Attraction of the Arts Profession 117
3.6 *Everybody Creative? 121
3.7 Experience of Failure and Distress 122
