The Global Rules of Art: The Emergence and Divisions of a Cultural World Economy

417 Pages·2022·42.05 MB·English

by  Larissa Buchholz

the global rules of art

The Global Rules of Art
the emergence and divisions
of a cultural world economy
larissa buchholz
prince ton university press
princet on & oxford
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2022937851
ISBN 9780691172026
ISBN (paperback) 9780691245447
ISBN (e- book) 9780691239866
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
Editorial: Meagan Levinson, Barbara Shi, and Erin Beranek
Jacket Design: Katie Osborne
Production: Lauren Reese
Publicity: Kate Hensley, Jodi Price, Charlotte Coyne
This book has been composed in Arno.
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Natalie Buchholz and Wilhelm Pfundner

contents
List of Illustrations ix
List of Tables xiii
Preface: An Unsettling Success xv
1 A Global Field Approach to Art and Culture 1
Part I. The Emergence of a Global Field
in the Con temporary Visual Arts 23
2 The Genesis of a Global Artistic Subfield 27
3 From an International Avant- Garde Market to a
Global Commercial Subfield 67
Part II. Dynamics of Artistic Recognition
in the Globalizing Field 107
4 Cross- Border Valuation between Art Experts and the Market:
From Bourdieu’s Conversion Model to a Dual Cultural
World Economy 111
5 Diversity and Careers in a Dual Cultural World Economy 121
Part III. Creative Lives: From the “Periphery”
to Global Recognition 161
6 Becoming a Global Artist at the Relatively Autonomous Pole:
The Case of Gabriel Orozco 165
7 The Hype of the Chinese Market Star Yue Minjun:
A Globalizing Speculation Game 217
vii
viii contents
8 “Global Art” between Autonomy and Heteronomy 262
Epilogue: COVID-19, Geopo liti cal Shifts, and Deglobalization? 274
Acknowl edgments 277
Appendices 285
Notes 303
References 347
Index 375
illustrations
2.1. Plan of the public gardens for the tenth Venice Biennale (1912) 30
2.2. Increase in foundations of international art biennials, 1895–2017 32
2.3. Foundation of international art biennials across world
regions, 1900–2017 32
2.4. Photo graphs from Making Art Global (Part 1) 36
2.5. Geographic expansion of transnational exhibition institutions
for con temporary art 44
2.6. Increase in the establishment of transnational exhibition
institutions outside the Northwest, 1900–2017 44
2.7. Global inequalities in the distribution of transnational
exhibition institutions for contemporary art 46
2.8. Rising frequency of the words “global” and “globalization”
at Artforum International, 1987–2017 49
2.9. Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gómez- Peña performing
The Year of the White Bear, 1992 52
2.10. Cildo Meireles, Volátil, 1980–94 56
2.11. Snapshots from Global Conceptualism 61
3.1. Proliferation of ICAFs compared to ICABs, 1950–2017 75
3.2. Dispersion of ICAFs and ICABs across world regions in 2017 76
3.3. Growth of operating ICAFs and global wealth 76
3.4. Expansion of Sotheby’s and Christie’s sales venues and
representative offices across seven world regions, 1955–2017 88
3.5. Timeline of the global expansion of Sotheby’s and
Christie’s for sales venues and operating representative
offices, 1955–2017 89
3.6. Historical growth of beta auction houses, 1900–2017 96
3.7. Foundations of beta auction houses across three periods 96
ix