Part 2 (1/2)

Is giving ift sphere represent high values and thetwo sections will discuss a nuift sphere

But rst I will mention soifts sie are voluntary and they imply reciprocity; some kind of return is involved Nevertheless, in market transactions the quid pro quo is er focus on returns and anticipa-tion of returns and there is generally er part of returns is covered by a forally ness to pay play a larger role in ift sphere where trust and idiosyncrasy play a relatively more important role, and returns come more commonly from third parties

Unlike the ift sphere where there is no transparent protnaturally represents a virtue in this sphere Giving proenerosity, seless-ness, social justice, personal contact and respect for non-monetary values These virtues and their inherent values overlap and are interde-pendent12 They are attractive to the arts At the same time they are sup-posed to be vulnerable: the market and its inherent systeer these values Also, the virtue of one sphere is the vice of the other Therefore, in discussing the virtues of the gift sphere, I shall add critical comments which indirectly refer to market virtues13 (The comments coiving bets the arts The act of giving is often cele- brated When donors give to the arts it is a clear exa art is also celebrated Often art itself is seen as a gift; it is a gift from God or froifted This is part of the y of the arts as noted in table 1 in section 18 Next, if art es to affect the viewer or listener this is also considered a gift Because a work of art is the eift and the audience receives it as a gift, it is a gift and it should be treated as a gift It cannot be left to thea work of art into a commodity can lead to its ulti-ift coiver's ift as a way to show off, a virtue turns into a vice (And when it corees that such a donor even exists) 2Sharing is another virtue of the gift sphere A gift is usually given by a donor to a recipient iift In sharing however, the object is used collectively People share culture They share it in different circles including fah-bors, towns, and nations No pay is often autoe as part of a culture But a sculpture located in a public space is also shared When a collector lends a painting to ais praised in the art world It is often a dog it so that everyone can enjoy it However, sharing not only i of important aspects of art and culture is often liroups For instance, the ne arts are shared and simultane-ously ether with a de facto exclusion of outsiders15 With regard to the diffusion of the ne arts, the modern market is probably more respon-sible for the deift sphere16 3Also related to sharing and giving are the virtues of generosity and self-lessness Art and artists stand for autonomy, disinterestedness, and even self-sacrice Art benefactors and artists are supposed to be self-less, and only concerned about art The life of the ideal artist is sup-posed to be a continuous story of giving, giving to art However, as we shall see in Chapter 4, artists are not that seless; they are focused on the rewards that coift sphere, unlike the market, is also supposed to contribute to social justice Most charity appeals to principles of social justice In this context, it is striking how often people in the art world stress that art should be accessible to all and how unfair its inaccessibility due to high prices is Art is not just soood; it's sup-posed to be vital for people's development and therefore their chances in life Therefore a social right to have access to art is often ument for subsidies However, the wish to diffuse art often stems from a double standard When diffusion fails to broaden a particular genre of art, it turns out that art is not for everybody after all and this, in turn, only adds to the prestige of the art consumer17

'The Market Devalues Art'

5Personal contact can also be considered a virtue of the gift sphere Per-sonal identity matters here and relationshi+ps are therefore idiosyn-cratic In the ardless of who you are But donors give to artists not only because of their work, but also because of their personalities, their looks, their age, sex, interests, etc People care about the person they give to and about their relationshi+p with that person This fundamental human need is easier catered to in spheres outside the market Commerce not only devalues the artwork, but also the unique personalities of the donor and artist However, idiosyncrasies are not absent from the market sphere18 For instance, in the visual art market idiosyncrasy plays an important role Many visual art buyers have relationshi+ps with particular artists and dealers In the second illustration, the deal between Alex and collector Mr O was only successful because of their particular personal rela-tionshi+p, while in the third illustration, the dealer only paid the artist after he showed his gratitude Secondly, the probleard to idiosyncrasy Including a group based on personal grounds iroups Thus, idiosyncrasy can imply inequality and even racism In this respect, the relative lack of personal contact encountered in the market can actually be a virtue instead of a vice nobody checks behavior or clothing or starts an insider conver-sation in the book or cd departe stores (This is cer-tainly the case in branches of a well-known chain of cheap drug stores in the Netherlands, where anybody can buy excellent Bach cds) On the other hand, in the gift sphere, es

6Finally, while the ift spheremakes a virtue of how it respects the unique and indivisible qualities of art In theOnce art is priced it is co works of art in terms of money, the indivisibility of a unique work of art is necessarily lost By pricing works of art, their use and usefulness is captured in exact num-bers Art ceases to be useless and turns into a non-art co andSirees20 On the other hand, the gift sphere doesn't offer pricetags that ift sphere respects the value of art However, in conte, money also plays a role as an inter is to blame for art's devaluation it's not so e rates or prices, which are the cornerstone of ift sphere is ulti-uer ones also operate in the gift sphere

In this context, I will u-ment First, devaluation can only be relevant if a depreciation in value and its opposite, an appreciation in value, are viewed as social processes And thus, because the gift sphere increases the prestige of art, the market concootten that although most donations and subsidies in the arts lead to lower prices, these artworks are not free They are still priced and sold in the h 50 to 85 of all incoift sphere, virtually one-hundred percent of classical music, live concerts, and cds are sold on the open h live classical , it nevertheless has also has a lot of prestige There-fore, it see does not necessarily devalues art21 People in the art world often argue that exact monetary valuations underree with this view; others disagree22 I don't disagree because, as I shall show in Chapter 3, any social circumstance can inuence an aesthetic experi-ence Therefore, it would be strange if pricetags didn't inuence aesthetic value But within a social process, such inuence can take a variety of forms, it not only decreases value, it also increases value

In the everyday world, people measure art and aesthetic value They do it all the time Past and present aesthetic experiences are discussed and coe Even theart experiences only have these qualities in relation to other experiences Without coth, key, or color there would be no aesthetic experience There would be no art, subli are such basic activities that there is no a priori reason why they should necessarily devalue art or increase its value Because any aesthetic experience rests on measure-ments and comparisons, there is no basis for the notion that measure-ment devalues art (thesis 10)

Nevertheless, with the virtues people attribute to the gift sphere it is not that aift sphere they will reh Status of the Gift Sphere As Bourdieu has eifts need to be interpreted as a denial of self-interest in the short run, so that benets can be reaped in the long run23 Nevertheless, because of the seeher status than buying and selling Long-term support for anti-commercial values does exist in our society Even with all the pres-ent-day praise of the market, commercial values are always on the defen-sive They are suspect Participating in ive someone a bad conscience The conteain is widely shared and has deep roots The gift sphere has a lot of status; the values of the gift sphere have more status than the values of the market sphere (thesis 11)

Works of art often syift sphere and the inferiority of market values For instance, in theatres all over the world, the coed Scrooge appeals to the iination Like earlier audiences, h at the Pantalone character in a Commedia del Arte play, Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, Moliere's The Miser, or the greedy right wing ho Me the Head of Adolf Hitler' 24 Moreover, even today, people continue to jeer at the cartoon gure of Disney's Uncle Scrooge (Dagobert Duck) This demonstrates that the conteredient in our education

Art apparently has a lot of status Below are soh status of the arts 1 Soh incomes

2 The prices of h

3 Donations and subsidies fore part of the income in the arts

4 Donations and subsidies are seldom questioned

5 Many people want to become artists in spite of the prospect of low nancial rewards

6 Artists and others ee a income from second jobs, allowances, or inheritances into the arts

7 Art students haveand unsuccessful artists have a special status

9 People adovernment, royalty, and important corporations all consume art

11 Works of art are used at funerals, when heads of state visit as well as for many other important ceremonies and functions

12Members of the social elite, like ministers, heads of ministries and ceos visit important concerts, plays and exhibitions They con-sue people

13The public consumption of works of art classical concerts, modern art exhibits requires that the audience observe a certain kind of silence, speaking in whispers if at all This soleious cereht be instructive to apply the above list, which is not exhaustive, to other sectors of production, for instance to that of food production and food producers, science and scientists, or religion and priests What we discover is that right now in Europe even priests score lower than artists on the esteem scale (In the us however, many people may well admire successful businessmen like Bill Gates more than well-known artists) The status of artists is indeed high25 Even h status of their profession, look up to artists, while few artists envy scientists It is this strange 'inexplicable' level of envy that points to 'so on in the arts (Sometimes people's attitudes towards artists appear two-sided, auous People pity and mock poor artists, but nevertheless envy theh status (thesis 12) It is likely that their status can only be this high because the arts are inextricably afli-ated with the gift sphere, which also has high status To a lesser degree, the high status of the gift sphere also depends on the high status of the arts The arts adhere to the values of the gift sphere and reject the values of the economic sphere (thesis 13)

The Economy in the Arts Is Denied and Veiled The value systeeneral the market is oriented towards money and prot, the arts cannot openly reveal this kind of orientation when they operate in the market This approach would certainly har-term incomes as well It specically harift sphere, and it is therefore punished by the art world Thus, prot motives are not absent, they are merely veiled, and publicly the economic aspect of art is denied

Another value systeift sphere It emphasizes seless devotion to art and condehly valued and is expressed quite openly It thus looks as if this value system controls the art world Nevertheless, uided by a normal, but veiled orientation to market values

Because one value system is veiled, while the other is open, an asym-metrical two-faced value system exists In this respect, it is noteworthy that it is often co 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 ift sphere are related

The two-faced or plural value system coincides with a dual economy where one econoift sphere27 In both, people increase their welfare by 'serving art', gain-ing recognition, earning money, etc A dual economy exists in other sec-tors as well28 But only the arts ift sphere29 The way companies sponsor art also reects the denial of the economic aspect Nowadays most sponsorshi+p comes down to a sihts But the rituals that belong to the gift sphere are maintained because they are valuable to the partici-pants30 Market deals take on the appearance of gifts

It is now possible to answer the questions raised earlier by the illustra-tions at the beginning of this chapter Why does the dealer want the artist to pretend that when she pays hi hi in the gift sphere, they can veil their market transaction Artist and dealer deny the market eco-nomy In the other illustrations, the econoallery, by li the talk of money in a separate sphere unrelated to art Most of the other illustrations in this book also indi-rectly demonstrate the denial of the econoh status the arts reject commercial values and deny the economy (thesis 14)

A Dual Economy Requires Special Skills How can artists and inter? Some evidently do Anti-market behavior can be protable Sometimes, the more anti-comher their status and incomes are Such a-coy Artists behave a-commercially because they are artists In the course of the history of the artistic profes-sion this type of behavior became part of the artist's 'character'31 Artists have learned to play 'ga

Any gaah this is often denied, prots can be aaic Therefore, as has been noted earlier, economies can be said to exist in- and outside thesiift sphere, artists and other people working in the arts have developed skills in the gaues in the second illustration declare that they don't like the ood at it) Many present-day artists and others working in the arts have a sense for ames But they honestly deny this and openly play non-co selessly devoted to art They do so by denying the econo their market activ-ities33 In this sense they have a split personality

Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, and Jeff Koons are possible exam-ples of artists who contradict the denial of the econoa the relative value of artistic objects Meanwhile Warhol and Koons openly displayed their interest in'to kill the very thing you love'?) These artists are exponents of a trend that lasts to the present day Again and again artists provoke the existing order of denying the econ-o, but at the sa ironic about what lies at the core of the arts, the art world playfully consolidates the denial of the economy De facto the repressive tolerance of the art world renders the artists ere involved harames used to deny the economy can take different forue of allery owners about their pricing policies35 Given the denial of the economy, you would expect the people he interviewed to feel uneasy and reluctant to talk about their own calcu-lations and strategies Velthuis found that gallery owners in the 'lower' art circles showed more uneasiness and were more reluctant to answer his questions about prices than those in the higher or conteallery owners apologized more often about the fact that 'after all they had to run a business' as if this were a sin And between responses they made all sorts of remarks to demon-strate their unassailable love of art I asked Velthuis if he therefore believed that the denial of the econoh art circles He did not think so He prefers to describe their tactics as a 'double denial' The gaallery owners, in their search for recognition, felt obliged to stick to the rules, whereas the avant-garde gallery owners applied the rules naturally and knehen they could deviate froue they could playfully joke about money and prices and thus display the true aristocratic traits that the newcomers lack36 Evidently, in spite of their denial of market values and their split per-sonalities, artists and other people working in the art operate coift sphere and thetheir sanity

Conclusion

Why can't the presence of ht of day? In the cos had no price tags Sacha Tanja who bought drawings from Alex for her bank did not directly ask about their prices, and collector Mr O kept the bargaining and conversational aspects of art strictly separate Finally, the exaallery owner is the most extraordinary Why indeed did the owner only want to pay Alex his cut in the context of the charade where they both pretended that payation? The answer lies in the necessary denial of the econoh artists and art lovers tend to disapprove of the monetary connection in art, this connection is nevertheless undeniably present Although donations and subsidies are more important than they are in other sectors, approximately half of the art world's income derives from the market Evidently the arts seeift spheres (The latter includes subsidies) Nevertheless, the values of the gift sphere coift sphere are attractive The high status accorded the gift sphere enhances the status of the arts Several phenoh status of art and artists

The association of the arts with non-corown in importance over the last one hundred years The economy is denied Art products are sold in the hly esteemed This kind of status could never have existed if the arts had embraced commerce instead It is coued that the denial of the econo perfor art companies there is less resistance to coo Other signs (to be discussed later) point in the same direction Neverthe-less, even if the denial has passed its zenith, it is still strong and it is likely to continue to inuence the economy of the arts for at least another fty years

Finally, even if readers agree that money and markets are indispensa-ble to the arts, they can still maintain that money is a necessary evil in the arts 'After all, aesthetic value has nothing to do with market value' Therefore the next chapter examines the relationshi+p between aesthetic and market values