Artists both produce and consume their own work. Artists seek not only profit but also fame, critical praise, the satisfaction of creating works that speak to them personally, and the enjoyment that flows from artistic labor. Most generally, artists produce works of a type that please themselves in addition to pleasing the market.

Artists face choices between the pecuniary benefits of selling to the market and the nonpecuniary benefits of creating to please their own tastes. We examine how changes in wages, lumpsum income, and capital-labor ratios affect the artist’s pursuit of self-satisfaction versus market sales. Using our model of labor supply, we consider the economic forces behind the high/low culture split, why some artistic media offer greater scope for the avant-garde than others, why so many artists dislike the market, and how economic growth and taxation affect the quantity and form of different kinds of art.

We attempt to develop a general treatment of how producers weigh their own interests against those of the market when money and satisfaction conflict. (…)

Conclusion - Artists are not unique in deriving nonpecuniary returns from particular forms of labor or in desiring to choose projects of high satisfaction. Academicians, including many economists, also enjoy “working,” especially when they can work on projects of their own choosing. Other examples include chefs, architects, athletes, and volunteers of all kinds. Our model predicts that economic growth has and will increase the number of people entering these jobs and professions. Fogel (1999) argues that this shift from what he calls “earnwork” to “volwork” (work done in large part for pleasure even if it carries with it some payment), is in fact the major story of economic growth.

{ Tyler Cowen, An economic theory of avant-garde and popular art, or high and low culture, 2000 | via FindArticles | Continue reading }

artwork { Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled, 1985 | acrylic, oil, and oil painstick on wood, two pieces }

READ MORE >> ideas, economics, art, Basquiat | July 1st, 2008