The “Hostile World” view says that the arts community’s interaction with the capitalist world has negative effects. In this hostile world the economic and the artistic cannot fuse; the exploitative, profit-seeking dealers infect the art world, and the artist are alienated from their own works (Velthius 25). The “Nothing But” view is a little more complex. William Gramp saw the Art market as nothing but a type of market like any other ordinary market. Pierre Bourdieu, on the other hand, believed that the apparent distance from commercialism produced by the people in the art market is nothing but a mask to create a sacred, special environment in which the actors can harvest more economic profit in the long run (Velthius 28). Velthius sees all these arguments as inadequate to describe the practices that take place in the art market. Instead he tries to combine all by venturing into a sociological analysis of prices; that is, to analyze prices in terms of the market that produced them. In the art market, an exchange is neither purely economic nor social but a combination of both. Such factors as power relations and social networks play a big part in the art market, more so than in other markets.
Dealers try to affect people’s behavior through methods like the separation between the sacred and profane. It is an important one that manifests in the art galleries’ location, architecture, and type under which they fall. First, most dealers avoid popular neighborhoods in which factors detracting from the sacredness of art are prevalent. So they choose quiet, rather secluded areas. The architecture of the avant-garde gallery is also very important. Most galleries have front rooms where artworks are displayed and back rooms where transactions take place. The physical distinction between the two spaces is critical in creating the right atmosphere and impression that the gallery is not about making money by selling but about showing great art. Also, galleries’ invisibility from the outside and hallway leading into the exhibition space act as ways to disconnect the world of art from everyday life. The front rooms are uniformly and universally minimalist with white pristine walls and without decorations, which is why they are often called the “white cubes” (Velthius 33). Because of the noncommercial environment and other factors that make the galleries detached from the “real world” outside the gallery doors, the normal economic laws do not work, allowing artworks that barely have any value to those outside of the art world to be sold at such high prices.
There is another distinction dealers have to make and that is one between primary and secondary transactions. The primary sales is a “waiting game” whereas the secondary sales is a “brokering game.” The latter is obviously more commercial. While most dealers engage in both activities, many are more discreet about the latter, for its connection to financial goals and the implications it may bring, which can affect their primary sales. Therefore, the architecture of the art market seem to be made up of distinction dealers choose to make.
White Cube London