Building careers, managing capitals

I sought to find out whether this was a tension between artistic and commercial in the \ncareer of visual artists, and if so, how this tension was managed. In attempting to uncover \ninformation which could address the research question I undertook in-depth career \nhistory interviews with artists which covered their time at art school through to their \ncurrent practice. The career history method was deliberately chosen in order to address \nthe research question at a tangent as both the literature, and my own personal experience \nof the field of contemporary visual art, had suggested that the topic of artistic and \ncommercial was a sensitive one. By framing the interviews around the experiences the \nartists had through the time period of their training and career, I was able to approach the \nresearch questions indirectly from the perspective of the artists. Through analysis of the \ninterview transcripts the framework of Bourdieu’s capitals arose as one that would \ncapably explain the activities which the artists were undertaken and I used this as a \nframing device for the empirical chapters in the thesis. In exploring ideas of cultural, social \nand economic capitals in relation to how artists describe the activities they undertake \nduring their career it became apparent that the broad structures of cultural capital needed \nfurther refinement in their application to the careers of visual artists. In the thesis I chose \nto elaborate further on the concept of artistic capital which has, until now, been \nunexplored by scholars. I have developed an understanding of artistic capital as a \nsubcategory of cultural capital with particular application to the field of contemporary \nvisual art – with the potential for wider application beyond the thesis. The three capitals of \nartistic, social and economic proved a capable structure for understanding whether there \nwas a tension between artistic and commercial and how artists managed this. Through \nthis research I have found that artists come to believe, during their early career and \ntraining through art school, that there is a tension between artistic and commercial as this \nis perpetuated by institutions and art world participants through their exclusion or \ndismissal of commercial aspects of the visual art field. Through their careers they come to \nrealise that this tension is less prevalent than they thought and that they are able to \nmanage these two aspects of artistic and commercial more effectively. However, artists \ncontinue to be faced with instances where this tension is imposed upon them by other art \nworld players who perpetuate the belief that there is an inherent, unresolvable tension \nbetween artistic and commercial. These individuals attempt to shield artists from this \nperceived tension later in their careers when artists are already adept at managing the \ncompeting priorities of artistic and commercial without the two creating tension.