The market system of the art world and new art: Prices, roles and careers in the 1980s

This dissertation explores how cultural and economic value for new art is created in central (New York) and regional (Philadelphia) art worlds. The study looks at the roles that dealers, critics, collectors and museums play in the assignment of value to new art and in the building of artists' careers. It explores the interactions that exist between and among these players, and how they are interdependent. In doing so, the study explores the nature of the practices of art world actors, and the evaluative functions performed by them in the production of value. The ethnographic analysis draws on symbolic interactionism as an intellectual approach, and is based on over 150 open-ended interviews conducted with members of the New York and Philadelphia art worlds.;The study shows that dealers, critics, collectors and museums all play separate and crucial roles in the collective construction of value for new art, although all the actors are mutually interdependent on each other and could not perform their evaluative functions outside of the dense network of cooperation that exists between them. Because of the fundamentally interactive nature of the contemporary art world, no member (or group of members) can singlehandedly create an artistic reputation, no matter what cultural authority they possess. The power to confer reputation occurs in many channels, through which consensus is built collectively about the value of an artist and his or her work.;Among the art world players, leading private collectors emerged as especially powerful in assigning value to art, and special attention is thus paid to the function of collectors in the contemporary support system. The nature and significance of collecting practices is explored, along with their sociological determinants. The influence of critics and museums is revealed to be on the decline. Other issues explored in the thesis include recent changes in artists' attitudes towards the marketplace, and the influence of artists in affecting the careers of their colleagues. It is argued, for example, that artists are the most significant and uncredited "discoverers" of new art and artists.