In this class we discuss mechanisms of prestige and who is included and excluded from conventional definitions of the art world. Using the work of Howard Becker and the example of folk art, we work toward a more expansive vision.

1. ART 100
UVC
Class 02 Artworlds

2. what makes art valuable?
are the most famous artists the best ones?
are the ones whose art sells for the most money the best?
if an artist is undiscovered, does that mean he or she isn’t
very good?
how do we determine value in art? is there a neutral,
value-free way of comparing artists?

3. LEONARDO DA VINCI
Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of
Francesco del Giocondo, known as the
Mona Lisa (the Joconde in French)
c. 1503–06
oil on panel
30.3 x 20.8 inches
Acquired by François I in 1518

4. Is the Mona Lisa famous
because it’s the best ever?
It is located in the Louvre, one of the most well-known art
museums in the world. [I.e., it’s benefited from a central art
world location for the past 250 years]
where critics who praise/disdain artists have been able to see it
where artists have been influenced by it
where art historians have written it into history
where art lovers and visitors and tourists have come to see it
and photograph it, and buy coffee mugs and totebags with this
image on it

5. “Leonardo undertook to execute, for Francesco del Giocondo, the portrait
of Mona Lisa, his wife, and after he had lingered over it for four years, he
left it unfinished; and the work is today in the possession of King Francis of
France, at Fontainebleau. Anyone wishing to see the degree to which art
could imitate nature could readily perceive this from the head; since therein
are counterfeited all those minutenesses that with subtlety are able to be
painted: seeing that the eyes had that lustre and moistness which are
always seen in the living creature, and around them were the lashes and
all those rosy and pearly tints that demand the greatest delicacy of
execution. The eyebrows, through his having shown the manner in which
the hairs spring from the flesh, here more close and here more scanty, and
curve according to the pores of the flesh, could not be more natural. The
nose, with its beautiful nostrils, rosy and tender, appeared to be alive. The
mouth with its opening , and with its ends united by the red of the lips to
the flesh-tints of the face, seemed, in truth, to be not colours but flesh. In
the pit of the throat, if one gazed upon it intently, could be seen the beating
of the pulse: and indeed it may be said that it was painted in such a
manner as to make every brave artificer, be he who he may, tremble and
lose courage. He employed also this device: Mona Lisa being very
beautiful, while he was painting her portrait, he retained those who played
or sang, and continually jested, who would make her to remain merry, in
order to take away that melancholy which painters are often wont to give to
their portraits. And in this work of Leonardo there was a smile so pleasing ,
that it was a thing more divine than human to behold, and it was held to be
something marvelous, in that it was not other than alive.”
Giorgio Vasari ‘The Lives of the Most Excellent
Painters, Sculptors, and Architects’ 1550

6. The Mona Lisa is surrounded by multiple
layers of security.

7. Crowds attempt to get a glimpse of the painting.

8. Marcel DUCHAMP
L.H.O.O.Q
1919
postcard with doodle

9. Andy WARHOL, Double Mona Lisa, 1963
Silkscreen ink on linen
28-1/8 x 37-1/8 inches

10. Andy WARHOL
Mona Lisa
1963
Acrylic and silkscreen on canvas
44 x 29 inches

11. Andy WARHOL
Thirty Are Better Than One
1963
Synthetic polymer paint and
silkscreen ink on canvas
110 x 94 inches

12. Vik MUNIZ, Double Mona Lisa, After Warhol, (Peanut Butter + Jelly) 1999,cibachrome

13. unwrapping the Mona Lisa after the Nazis have departed Paris

14. “prestige”
a system of
agreement among
interconnected
aspects of the art
world
the market
the critics
the institutions

16. papel picado

20. Won Park, origami

23. Tomoko Shioyasu
Yuken Teruya
Hina Aoyama
Calvin Nicholls
Simon Schubert

24. conclusion
Art is not an ontological, but a sociological
property.

25. conclusion
In any society, some objects are called ‘art,’
others are not. These designations are a
matter of social tradition and convention.
Such labels can change over time as a
society’s values and preferences change.

26. What is visual culture?
It includes everything that art excludes:
All the objects that are left out from consideration in the
traditional fine arts (painting, sculpture, architecture)
things made not for elite but ordinary audiences
the role of vision in the production of knowledge/power
technologies/enhancements of vision (for example, scientific
and medical imaging)

27. The Art World: a system
AN INTERLINKED SYSTEM OF:
•MONEY
•PRESTIGE
•IDEAS
•FASHION
Let’s explore these one at a time.

28. The Art World: money
AN INTERLINKED SYSTEM OF:
•MONEY
• Buyers and Sellers
•private collectors
•institutional collectors
• Galleries
• Auction Houses (resale market)

29. The Art World: prestige
AN INTERLINKED SYSTEM OF:
•MONEY
•PRESTIGE
•What artists receive shows in
large museums?
•What artists receive shows in
galleries?
•What artists are represented by
major gallerists?
•What artists are interesting to
curators?
•What artists are interesting to
critics?
•What artists are interesting to art
historians and other intellectuals?

30. The Art World: ideas
AN INTERLINKED SYSTEM OF:
•MONEY
•PRESTIGE
•IDEAS
•what artists are written about in
mass-circulation newspapers and
magazines?
• what artists are written about
by art critics in more specialized
publications?
• what artists are written about
by scholars in highly specialized
publications?

31. The Art World: fashion
AN INTERLINKED SYSTEM OF:
•MONEY
•PRESTIGE
•IDEAS
•FASHION
“who’s up/down, who’s in/out”
“who’s pricey, or in demand?”
“who’s the latest, coolest thing?”

32. Flashy mix of money, style and
smarts
Brad Pitt with
Ambra Medda,
Design Director,
Design/Miami,
2008

33. Art can serve to create a fashionable
environment for other forms of display
Art Basel
Miami Beach,
(“Miami Basel”)
2008

34. The Art World: example
Pictured at a 2008 event in Moscow: Larry Gagosian, Dasha Zukhova, Takashi Murakami

35. The Art World: example
Tobias Meyer, auctioneer at prestigious auction house Sotheby’s

36. The art world is not all
glamorous types clad in black!
Viewing a recent
acquisition of Dali
prints
at the Oglethorpe
University Art
Museum, Atlanta, GA,
Summer 2010

37. OK, so who else?
Anyone who has an interest, whether casual or devoted, in
following the culture of contemporary art as it changes over time
•Art students
•Students in general
•People in general who are interested
in art or want to be culturally aware

38. as Howard Becker suggests:
the artworld is a
collaborative system
it requires the
cooperation of many
people in different roles
it is social in nature and
reflects the values and
priorities of a given
society

39. “Grandma Moses”
seated in front of one of
her paintings
photo, 1949

40. Grandma Moses
My Old Homestead
1930's
worsted wool embroidery
9 1/4x11”

41. Grandma Moses
Mt. Nobo on the Hill
1930’s
worsted wool embroidery
10 x 14 inches

42. Grandma Moses
Roadside Garden
1930's
worsted wool embroidery
9 1/4x16 ¼”

43. Grandma Moses (1860-1961)
Sugaring Off in Maple Orchard, 1940
18 1/8x 24 1/8 in

44. Grandma Moses
Catching the Turkey
1940, 12 x 16 in

45. Grandma Moses
Black Horses, 1943
20 x 24 in

46. Grandma Moses
White Christmas, 1954
23 3/4x 19 3/4 in

50. Horace Pippin painting
photo, 1940

51. Horace PIPPIN, The Buffalo Hunt, oil on canvas, 1933, 21 ¼ x 31 inches

52. Horace PIPPIN
Mr. Prejudice
1943
oil on canvas
18 1/8 x 14 1/8 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art

53. Horace PIPPIN
A Chester County Art Critic
(Portrait of Christian Brinton)
1940
oil on canvas
21 ½ x 15 7/8 inches
PMA

54. Horace PIPPIN, The End of War: Starting Home, 1930-33, oil on canvas, 26 x 30 inches

55. Horace PIPPIN, Country Doctor (Night Call) 1935, oil on canvas, 28 1/8 x 32 1/8 inches

56. Horace PIPPIN
The Barracks
1945
Oil on canvas
25 1/4 x 30 in

57. Horace PIPPIN
Old Black Joe, 1943
o/c, 1943

58. Horace Pippin
Supper Time
c. 1940
Oil on burnt-wood panel
12 x 15 1/8 inches

59. Horace PIPPIN, Outpost Raid: Champagne Sector, 1931, oil on fabric, 18 x 21 in

60. Horace PIPPIN, Shell Holes and Observation Balloon, Champagne Sector, c. 1931
oil on muslin, 22 1/2 x 30 7/8 inches

61. Horace PIPPIN, John Brown Going to His Hanging, 1942
oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches, PAFA

62. Henry DARGER (1892-1973)
3 At Jennie Richee are persued down stream. Puzzle, try and find them, but they're in picture
Watercolor, graphite, and collage on pieced paper
Measurements: 18 x 47 1/2"

63. Henry DARGER
Untitled (Vivian Girl with
Doll)
Watercolor, carbon tracing,
and pencil on paper
12 x 9"

64. Henry DARGER (1892-1973)
clipping from Darger’s collection
with traced outline
Measurements: 10 x 9 1/2"

65. a clipping
from Darger’s
large collection

66. a clipping from
Darger’s collection

67. Henry Darger, Untitled (Two girls and a dog sitting in garden)
Watercolor, carbon tracing, collage (Christmas Seal stamps), and pencil on cardboard
11 x 15"

68. Henry DARGER
6 At Jennie Richee Have thrilling time while with bombshells bursting all around
Watercolor on paper
Measurements: 19 x 46"

69. Henry DARGER
At Jennie Richie are arrested again
1941-4

70. Henry DARGER
Seize Glandelinian officer-to-him [left]
Glandelinians were about to hang [center]
They attempt to hide in the fiddle case [right]
1941-1944

71. Sheldon PECK (1797–1868),
David and Catherine Stolp Crane,
Aurora, Illinois, c. 1845
Oil on canvas, 35 11/16 × 43 5/8"
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