Why Are Artists Poor?: The Exceptional Economy of the Arts

by Hans Abbing

Most artists earn very little. Nevertheless, there is no shortage of aspiring young artists. Do they give to the arts willingly or unknowingly? Governments and other institutions also give to the arts, to raise the low incomes. But their support is subsidies only increase the artists’ poverty.
The economy of the arts is exceptional. Although the arts operate successfully in the marketplace, their natural affinity is with gift-giving, rather than with commercial exchange. People believe that artists are selflessly dedicated to art, that price does not reflect quality, and that the arts are free. But is it true?
This unconventional multidisciplinary analysis explains the exceptional economy of the arts. Insightful illustrations from the practice of a visual artist support the analysis.

Genres: Art, Economics, Nonfiction

368 pages, Paperback

Published January 24, 2008

Reviews

[Caroline Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

i'm becoming real fun at parties

[Alborz Baghipour · Rating 5 out of 5]

شاید با خود بگویید یک اقتصاددان چه چیزی برای گفتن درباره ی هنر دارد. اما اتفاقاً آنچه کتابِ «چرا هنرمندان فقیرند؟» را متمایز می کند به نویسنده ی آن برمی گردد: هانس ابینگ، که نه تنها یک اقتصاددان، یک نقاش و عکاس حرفه‌ای نیز هست. در نتیجه کتاب علاوه بر در بر گرفتن مباحث اقتصادی، درباره ی تجربه ی درونی تولید هنر به عنوان یک حرفه ی جدی نیز سخن می گوید
ابینگ دو پرسش اساسی را مطرح می کند که در عنوان کتاب نیز بازتاب یافته اند: چگونه است که اقتصاد هنر استثنایی ست؟ و چرا هنرمندان فقیرند؟ بطور کلی پاسخ نویسنده به پرسش های فوق از درک او از طبیعت هنر و خصایص هنرمندان ناشی می شود. به عقیده ی ابینگ هنر بقدر کافی با دیگر کالاهای روتین در اقتصاد متفاوت هست که سزاوار برچسب استثنایی باشد و همچنین، هنرمندان هم بقدر کافی با نیروی کار سایر فعالیت ها متفاوت هستند که شرایط خاص اقتصادی موجود در نیروی کار هنر را توضیح دهند
کتابی که هر هنرمندی «باید» آن را با دقت بخواند

[Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every art student should be required to read this book, so that they have an inkling of what they are getting into.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book scrutinizes the causes and outcomes of the all-encompassing gift sphere in the arts, as well as low incomes and a great quantity of artists. The author rejects the case that people do not care enough about art and that, as a result, an artist’s income remains low and thus donors in due course get involved. (Regardless of one’s definition of art, the expenditure on art products has never been large.)

Nevertheless, during the last decades, western nation’s expenditures on art have risen more than incomes.

Thus, the notion of under-consumption is hard to maintain.

In order to explain the pervasive gift sphere, the book examines the artists’ incentives, approaches in the art world, and the myths surrounding art.

The argument, the author advances in this book is that the economy of the arts is outstanding. The impact of the mystique of the arts calls for a multidisciplinary approach.

Consequently, the book employs insights taken from sociology and psychology.

The book asks the following questions:

##Why is the average income of artists low?

##Why do so many people still become artists despite the prospects of a low income?

##And why is it that the arts rely so heavily on gifts like subsidies and donations?

##Are these three phenomena related?

##Is it because most artists earn so little that the arts receive so many subsidies and donations?

##Or is the abundance of artists and their low incomes due to the fact that the arts receive donations and subsidies?

##Do artists who earn low incomes sacrifice themselves for their art, or are they being sacrificed by a system that pretends to support them?

The contrasts and Janus-like quality of the arts are puzzling for artist and economist alike. Therefore, this book proposes that the artist and economist join forces. They will look down from the tenth floor together.

Because their knowledge and perspective can buttress each other, they start to differentiate patterns in the arts economy.

This book tries to clarify these patterns.

[Matias P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente y muy ameno estudio de la economía política de las artes. Muy original y provocativo en muchas observaciones. Da para debatir largo.

Es de 2002 y deja bastantes cambios fuera (Abbing hizo otros trabajos revisando sus tesis y actualizando ideas).

Está escrito por un holandés y esa perspectiva marca bastante todo el libro; pero creo que difícilmente se podría hacer un análisis así desde otro contexto.

Alguna idea potente...

De media, 50 años después de la muerte de cualquier artista, el 90% de toda su producción ha desaparecido materialmente.

Esto se relaciona con la enorme cantidad de artistas que hoy día hay, que ha crecido desmesuradamente desde el final de la IIGM, y con la muy difícil posibilidad de llegar a ser un artista de éxito cuya obra se decide preservar.

El éxito además no depende del talento personal, sino de capital (económico, social y cultural) para sortear barreras que en gran medida son informales (poco visibles, con criterios poco claros y cambiantes) y están controladas por gatekeepers que luchan por monopolizar los sistemas y reforzar su poder.

Hay quizá mucho bold statement para que el que se echan en falta referencias o fundamentos, pero el libro es muy rico en ideas y se ubica en los límites de la investigación académica para adoptar un afán más divulgativo. No en vano, Abbing explica al comienzo que le gustaría que cualquier persona que dedique su trabajo a las artes o se plantee hacerlo sería el receptor principal de lo que nos ofrece.

8/10

[Ietrio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Turning the pages, Abbing seems to be an excellent product of the current diploma mills.

At first I thought Abbing will give me some insides into his part of the World. Sadly he is way too lost and can't even help himself. On the other hand, it is amazing he produced this volume in a desperate attempt to understand what is going on. And I love this new direction in Philosophy: writing as a way of exploring a subject, a clear departure from the navel gazing of the intellectual frauds of the 19th and 20th century.

So far, Abbing fails to grasp any concept he has been circling, but this is an observation based on a few random pages throughout the book.

I'll be back.

[Julio César · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was written from an insider's point of view, which as always has its advantages and disadvantages. Being the author both an economist and an artist, he struggles to understand the many aspects of the "exceptional economy of the arts" introducing at the beginning of each chapter some episodes from the real life which sometimes are from his own experiences.
I encountered many things in common with what's happening in my fieldwork in Córdoba and Buenos Aires many years afther this book was written.

[Sabrina Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

DNF at 36% and still gave it 4 stars. This book is fascinating and reveals structural macro economic decisions that result in artists making less money than other professions.

That being said, I had to stop reading it bc I’m trying to do art/business magic and spending time in these facts was like getting caught in quicksand.

[Ana Cretiu]

Conclusion: things are intertwined and complex. It's not that this book proposes revelations, but it does propose a very clean and systematic account of things to consider. I think emerging artists and students of the arts would benefit from reading this, but it is also my experience that the creative mind seldom appreciates lessons rooted in macro conformity and rigid adherence to structure.

[Luke Meehan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abbing is a clear-thinking economist with substantial experience is the art world. This book evolves through a series of theses, set-up and defended in an straightforward, academic manner. More a textbook than an accessible non-fiction piece, it does focus strongly on the Dutch policy/art sphere - but not necessarily to its detriment. Good food for thought, but sometimes hard-chewing.