by Mathilde
Yesterday, I was looking for a quote about art on google when I found an article called “How to Market yourself as an artist”. First, I was amused by this title, then It drove me to asked myself about what’s being an artist nowadays. Do you just have to state it to become one? In today’s world many and different markets exist in the art industry, is it because everyone want to be an artist? If not, what are the main factors that differentiate the art’s markets?
The last few years had been a significant increase in the number of artists in most developed countries. Therefore the excess supply of artists had conducted to competition and fell of the average income. Every artists couldn’t be all officially recognized. To remedy this problem they could try to enter other markets like commercial or inclusive. For example artists who hadn’t been recognize can move to other market before getting totally out. What makes important differences among art’s markets is also the fact that there are numerous and various actors. Each type of market will have its players, it’s segmented. For example the avant garde recognized market won’t involve the same people as in the commercial unrecognized market. There is also a huge factor that determine the different markets : money. Some artist can have great financial means. like you can see on the picture an artist, Leandro Elrich has installed the foundation of a swimming pool for a permanent exhibition in Japan. Every artists can’t allow projects of this dimension.
What determines differences threw art’s market can also be sociological. The audience will differ according to the social classes. Each market is distinct from another, it will have its own specificity, rules, financial means and social codes. However all these markets share a common point : Art. It gives them an opportunity to have a voice and be visible in the medias. But how mainstream media can represent all these different markets? Indeed it’s a real challenge because they have to talked equally about things that are not. Another challenge may concerned the audience. Mainstream media purpose is to reach the broader audience, or we know that each kind of markets has its own interest group. So if the media wants to talk about avant garde unrecognized art, people keen of avant garde recognized art may not put any attention on the article. Mainstream media has to face the challenge of talking simply about a complex schema.They have to find an art subject that talks to everyone knowing that every types of art belongs to a specific market that engaged a certain part of the population.
Making sense of art and design industries 