Different Worlds: A Sociological Study of Taste, Choice and Success in Art

by Liah Greenfeld

• ISBN13: 9780521360647
• ISBN10: 0521360641
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1989-01-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Using a wealth of data collected in Israel, this study depicts a complete system in which art is created and evaluated--the scale of Israeli society allowing for a comprehensive and detailed description of all the agents involved in the production and consumption of modern art. The author analyzes the patterns of social relations and behavior created around two art worlds--the world of abstract avant-garde art and the world of traditional figurative painting. She argues that the two worlds differ radically both in terms of the factors that affect the formation of taste, the process of evaluation and the patterns of success in them and in the ways in which these factors exert their influence.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Historical background

2. The population of painters and the split into subsystems

3. Patterns of success

4. The 'gatekeepers' - critics

5. The 'gatekeepers' - curators

6. The 'gatekeepers' - gallery owners

7. The artists - attitudes of conceptualists and lyrical abstractionists

8. The artists - attitudes of figurative painters

9. The publics

10. Conclusion

Appendices

Notes

Index.