Erica Gilbert-Levin In his essay "Talking Points: the Symbolic Meaning of Prices on the Market for Contemporary Art," Olav Velthius highlights the integral role of culture and art in economic dynamics, arguing that even prices do not exist arbitrarily or in a vacuum but rather are "embedded in webs of meaning," both affected by and, in turn, affecting the cultural and institutional roles of various elements of the art market, including, for instance, the players involved, such as art dealers and artists, and the value placed upon works of art. He offers two competing models for the explication of pricing in the art market: "Hostile Worlds" and "Nothing But." Although Velthius ultimately dismisses both theories as overly reductive, maintaining that they miss the point, for "the crucial question is not if artworks are commodified, but instead how commodification takes place" (Velthius, 28), I found Boudieu's version of the "Nothing But" theory particularly instructive and glimpse possible answers, or the beginnings of answers, to the question Velthius poses. | Wiki Markup |
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The "Nothing But" model of art and economy postulates that "the art market is no different from any other market," and that "aesthetic value," consequently, "is a form of economic value just as every other form of value is" (Velthius, 26). Bordieu elaborates a version of this model in which the economic value derived from successful participation in the art market derives, ironically, from the ability of participators to "deny" or "disavow" all economic interests as they deal in the art world (Velthius, 26). As [Kahnweiler|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel-Henry_Kahnweiler] explains, "'In order to sell works of art by vanguard artists to the clients to whom they might reasonably expect to appeal, \[...[avant garde|http://www.avantgarde.com/] art dealers\] had to eschew the range of commercial practices associated with establishments appealing to much larger markets.'" The dealer, then, "'maintained distinctiveness of his products by not advertising and by suggesting the elite character and intellectual self-sufficiency of the works of art he displayed'" (Velthius, 22-23). But, Velthius points out, "\[i\]t would be foolish...to take the art dealers' anti-commercial self-representations at face value. Instead, it could be argued that these self-representations enhance the pursuit of these interests" (Velthius, 23). Bordieu, who proposes an "economy of symbolic goods," in which "works of art...are at the same time a commodity and a symbolic object," suggests that it is precisely the degree of success in self-representation as a non-economic player that imbues a dealer with sufficient "symbolic capital," or name recognition, to "'consecrate' objects or persons" (such as the artists they work with), infuse them with cultural and institutional value, and derive monetary benefit from this consecration (Velthius, 26). Thus, "a disavowal of the economy," and the concomitant "accumulation of symbolic capital," is, in fact, "a sound economic strategy": The higher the dealer's reputation, which is determined by such accumulation, the more likely he or she is to be able to sell more pieces of art, and at higher prices (Velthius, 26). |
We can see this dynamic at work in the architectural design of contemporary avant-garde galleries. Art is separated, literally, from economic activities within these spaces: The barren, spare Front Room contains the art work, which is expected to speak for itself, its quality necessitating no advertisement outside or ornamentation within. The Back Room of the gallery is where economic exchanges take place. Dealers, such as the one Velthius interviewed in the beginning of his essay, are decisive and insistent in their alignment with the values of the Front Room. They claim disinterest in the activities of the Back Room and insist that they are not in the business to make money but for the sheer love of art. They are committed to aesthetic quality, not to profits – as though garnering a reputation for providing art work of aesthetic quality would not lead to economic payoff. In fact, Boudieu would argue, it is indeed the very extent to which a dealer succeeds at separating himself from the Back Room of his own gallery and at aligning himself with the purity and sacredness of the Front Room that he is able to derive economic benefit from his dealings in the art market.  Image Removed
Olav Velthius, Author of "Talking Prices"
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Pierre Bourdieu, Theorist of the "Economy of Symbolic Goods"  Image Removed
Picasso's Portrait of David-Henry Kahnweiler |
