The Purpose of Contemporary Art: Social and Economic Drivers

Abstract

This chapter begins with a brief journey through the history of art in order to point out art serves both social and psychological functions and how it is tinged by civilizational and historical context by accumulating layers of purposes and sense from the past times and diverse mind frames. Art produced in the first quarter of the twenty-first century has absorbed the late trends of the twentieth century and has traced and reinforced some paths, especially those in connection to economy (art as a valuable market product) and society (art as statement, critical posture and participatory citizenship). The chapter brings together these ideas with examples showing, on one side, the economic connection of art to the market and mass consumption, while other projects, on the other side, include a politicized facet and activism through self and collective curatorship, participatory art and glocalization of its matters of interest, audiences and social impact.

Citation

Gonçalves, S. (2021), "The Purpose of Contemporary Art: Social and Economic Drivers", Gonçalves, S. and Majhanovich, S. (Ed.) Art in Diverse Social Settings, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 25-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-896-520211001