To read this content please select one of the options below:

Hostile worlds and questionable speculation: Recognizing the plurality of views about art and the market

Economic Action in Theory and Practice: Anthropological Investigations

ISBN: 978-0-85724-117-7, eISBN: 978-0-85724-118-4

Publication date: 16 August 2010

Abstract

The “hostile worlds” view argues that money corrupts the meaning of art, but some suggest this is a dated concept in describing the art market. Instead of dismissing this view, this chapter argues that we need a typology of beliefs about art, money, and commensuration; what could be understood as a pluralist understanding. Based on ethnographic research on the high-end contemporary art market in New York and London, I find that collectors, investors, and art world experts often have different views about the relationship between art and money. This recognition is significant because art is a symbolic good with assigned, rather than intrinsic value, meaning that the value of art can be damaged for people holding hostile worlds views when the mechanisms that maintain the appropriate balance between art and money break down or are disregarded. In this sense, hostile worlds views create a performativity effect.

Citation

Coslor, E. (2010), "Hostile worlds and questionable speculation: Recognizing the plurality of views about art and the market", Wood, D.C. (Ed.) Economic Action in Theory and Practice: Anthropological Investigations (Research in Economic Anthropology, Vol. 30), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 209-224. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0190-1281(2010)0000030012

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited