Art Worlds and Social Types

1. Art Worlds and Social Types By Howard S. Becker

2. Art Worlds • Result of coordinated activities • Coordination of activities are in reference to a body of conventional understandings • Do not define art first • Mutual appreciation and social value

3. Types of Artists • Integrated Professions • Mavericks • Naïve Artists • Folk Artists

4. Integrated Professionals • Every cooperating person has been trained • Large and responsive audience • Fully prepared and capable of producing the art work • Stays within respectable boundaries

5. Maverick Artists • Have found conventional art world too constraining • Do not remove all conventions from their art • Force recognition and adoption of their practices from the conventional art world • Demands more work from the audience

7. Naïve Artists • No connection with art world at all • Created forms and genres because they never acquired training or habits of professional artists • Made without reference to contemporary conventions

9. Folk Artists • No real art community exists • Not acknowledged as art • Well integrated • Conventions of their art are well known and easily made • Basis of collective action

11. Conclusion • People can be oriented to any kind of social world • Four types of artists mirrors society at large • The art world is constantly changing

12. Critique • Can artists be so easily organized? (Ex. The Shaggs) • Double-crosses his definitions (Ex. Folk artists)