The "Artist" Role Construction In The Art Field

The value of the artistic works in Chinese imperial times was received a great deal of concerns and attentions. Despite of this, as one of the occupations, artists used to be considered less descent and the social statues of the artists was relatively inferior since drawing or painting was regarded as nothing but a pastime for the scholars or the scholar-officials to express their emotion or only as a living means for the professional artists rather than a proper career. However, since the history witnessed the Republic of China (1912—1949), influence by the western academic ideology and the New Culture Movement (around the time of the May 4^th Movement in 1919), the drawing or painting could be promoted from the inferior statues to become part of the modern discipline system, evolving into namely art or the fine arts. Therefore, the professional nature and the reputation of the artists were dramatically changed during the Republic of China, when the artists and the art theorists who accepted the western academic ideology began to reinterpret the nature and the significance of their artistic activities. Meanwhile, the artists also reoriented their own social role and, consciously or unconsciously, constructed their role in society to create a new behavior patterns and collective image in line with the development of the artistic movement.The role construction of the Chinese artists is not only the inevitable result of the change of the professional nature of the artists in modern times but also is one of the important means to maintain the artists' existence and development in the transforming society and is a strategy with which they enhanced their professional reputation and their new image. In view of this, the role of the artists, in the modern sense, actually reinterprets the significance of the artistic activities and embodies the new image and new value orientation of the modern Chinese artists. Furthermore, this construction was undergoing in Chinese modern society together with the coming of the western arts ideology and went through the process of Chinese characteristic construction in the specific historical condition at that time.This dissertation, taking the art activities of Shanghai during the Republic of China (1912-1937) as the study subject and the field-capital theory as the analyzing framework, mainly investigates the process and the organism, in which the specific art field constructed the artist role. Further, this paper also elaborates the significant function of this role construction in the transformation of the professional nature and social statues (mainly referred to the reputation) of the artists.The role construction of the artists, by nature, is the realization of the art field and field logic and at the same time the result of the cultural capital operation of the artists. On the first place, the New Culture Movement activated the artistic movements and accelerated the forming of the art field of Shanghai during the Republic of China, which already developed its own particular field logic and activity rules. On this ground, the relatively independent shaping of the art field gradually enforced the independent awareness and the self-awareness of the artists. Hence the artists began to have common interests or pursuits and realized their shared status identity so that they positively concerned about their social existence to take part in the intellectual group as an independent force. Second, the existence and the further development of the art field required social recognition and supports. To achieve this aim, the actors of the art field—the artists, combined the meaning of the artistic activities and the social mainstream value to endow the cultural capital of the artists a higher value and a more significant sense. Thus the role of the artists gradually realized its legalization. Third, under the influence of the western arts theories, the form of the cultural capital in the art field was becoming more and more academic and professional, which displayed the establishment of the art rules and qualification in the art field. Besides, the artists who were involved in the field game also accepted the nature law—survival of the fittest and as a result, the artist role possesses the elite characteristics. Forth, the cultural capital of the artist role accumulated sufficient symbol capital to forge the ideal personality of the artistic prototype. At this point, the art field operation enabled some outstanding artists to feature the content of idols. In this way, the sacred chrematistics of the artist role was constructed.Overall, this dissertation takes advantage of the logical analyzing structure mentioned above to reveal the process and organism of the construction of the artist role in the art field. Most importantly, this result helps us to recognize the fact that the artist role construction plays a crucial role in the promotion of the social statues of Chinese artists. At the same time, the employment of the field-capital theory makes it possible that the artist role featuring considerable individuality can be analyzed from the point of view of sociology. It is from the perspective of the field-capital operation that we can furthermore understand clearly the transformation of the social status and social role of the Chinese artists in the period of the Republic of China.