Study On The Institutional Theory Of Art In The Vision Of Contemporary Western Art Market

Just as practice determines cognition and cognition reacts on practice,the Institutional Theory of Art,on the one hand,comes from art practice and accepts its test.On the other hand,it can also react on art practice and guide its development.The Institutional Theory of Art originated in the 1960s,with Arthur Danto's "The Artworld"as the beginning.As Danto said,the article "The Artworld " is a theoretical response to the " Brillo Box" exhibited in the Stable Gallery,and it points out that an atmosphere of artistic theory and a knowledge of the history of art constitute an artworld.This opened the study of the status of art.On the basis of Danto's theory,George Dicky further developed his institutional theory of art.Dicky's artistic thought is mainly divided into two stages.In the early stage,artwork was taken as the center of the framework to define art,and the theory of status conferring was proposed.In the later stage,the artworld framework,which was composed of art,artists,the public,and the artworld,was taken to defines the art and a series of "infected concepts" were formed.Up to now,the Institutional Theory of Art has been developing for half a century.During this period,the combination of art and economy has become closer and closer,and new art practices have been constantly generated.Therefore,it is necessary for us to test the "correctness" of the Institutional Theory of Art with these art practices,and point out the future development direction of this theory on this basis.This thesis takes the contemporary western art market as a practice field for testing the Institutional Theory of Art.Through the performance of art practices in the practice field,especially the formation mechanisms of visual artworks' price,it analyzes the role played by the Institutional Theory of Art which is represented by Danto and Dickey,and the dilemmas it faces.It also reveals the validity of the Institutional Theory of Art to the interpretation of art practices and the enlightenment of art practices to the Institutional Theory of Art.The main body of the thesis is divided into four parts.The first part combs the background and development process of the Institutional Theory of Art,summarizes the central content of the theory,that is,the status of art is the result of the joint construction of the members of the artworld,and summarizes the elements of the theory,that is,the artist,the artwork,the art media and the art public constitute the artworld.The second part takes the contemporary western art market as the study object.On the basis of pointing out the concept,constituent elements and classification of the art market,it combs the development of the western art market and further detailed analyzes the contemporary(after the end of World War II)western art market from the aspects of artists,artworks,business intermediaries,cultural information intermediaries and art consumers.The third part firstly discusses the relationship between the contemporary western art market and the Institutional Theory of Art,and proposes that the two not only regard artworks as a link,but also have a dialectical relationship between theory and practice and a inclusive relation of the scope of reference.Secondly,through the formation mechanism of the price of visual artworks in the contemporary western art market,it analyzes the role played by the Institutional Theory of Art,and takes the sky-high price phenomenon of "No.5,1948" and "Portrait of an Artist(Pool with Two Figures)" as examples.The fourth part,on the one hand,summarizes the effective interpretation of the Institutional Theory of Art to art practices in the contemporary western art market,that is,the discovery of the artworld,the constructiveness of the value of artworks,the construction of the members of the artworld,the suspension of value,etc.,can explain the weakening of the absolute role of artists,the phenomenon of the great liberation of art,and the formation of the price of artworks.On the other hand,it also summarizes the enlightenment of art practice in contemporary western art market to the Institutional Theory of Art,that is,the theory should provide the required rules for practice,should delimit the boundary of artworld,define the scope of art and avoid deconstructing art,and should find some stable attribute of art as a solid foundation for maintaining the art price and avoiding great turbulence in the art market.