Economics of Art

This is the first book to cover not only the economics of the fine arts and performing arts, but also public policy toward the arts at federal, state, and local levels in the United States. The second edition offers greater coverage of the international arts sector. The work will interest academic readers as a supplementary text on the sociology of the arts, as well as general readers seeking a systematic analysis of the economics of the arts. Theoretical concepts are developed from scratch so that readers with no background in economics can follow the argument.

Culture manifests itself in everything human, including the ordinary business of everyday life. Culture and art have their own value, but economic values are also constrained. Art sponsorships and subsidies suggest a value that exceeds market price. So what is the real value of culture? Unlike the usual focus on formal problems, which has 'de-cultured' and 'de-moralized' the practice of economics, this book brings together economists, philosophers, historians, political scientists and artists to try to sort out the value of culture. This is a book not only for economists and social scientists, but also for anybody actively involved in the world of the arts and culture.

Does a market economy encourage or discourage music, literature, and the visual arts? Do economic forces of supply and demand help or harm the pursuit of creativity? This book seeks to redress the current intellectual and popular balance and to encourage a more favorable attitude towards the commercialization of culture that we associate with modern life.

Art for Art's Sake and Literary Life is a dynamic history of literary aestheticism from the eighteenth century to academic deconstruction in our own time. Gene H. Bell-Villada examines an enormous range of writings by critics, philosophers, and writers from Europe, Latin America, and the United States. Uniting all is his conviction that "there are concrete social, economic, political, and cultural reasons for the emergence, growth, diffusion, and triumph of l'art pour l'art over the past two centuries". Bell-Villada begins by considering how such thinkers as Shaftesbury, Kant, and Schiller described beauty as a phenomenon to be weighed not in isolation from other aspects of our existence but as part of our general development as human beings. He recounts how the original vision of Kant and Schiller was simplified and debased within new cultural, political, and economic contexts, leading to the "aesthetic separatism" promoted by lyric poets in France. Bell-Villada then examines how the ideology ofArt for Art's Sake took on new forms in Europe and the Americas, culminating in present-day versions associated with the academicization (and ever greater marginalization) of literature. Artfully combining an exceptional amount of learning with a sharp polemical focus, Art for Art's Sake and Literary Life will appeal to a wide range of scholars and general readers for whom literature, aesthetics, and the relations of culture and society are vitally important matters.

Providing legal analysis and touching upon social history and art history themes, this work offers an objective review of five art trials. Spanning the last 20 years, specific areas of law are examined with each trial: First and Fifth Amendments, copyright law, contract law, valuation of art, and misrepresentation. Art, outside of the legal vacuum, has been embroiled in a battle initiated by social conservatives to promote decency. Three trials involving this struggle and the National Endowment of the Arts are analyzed. The valuation of art is examined in the context of Andy Warhol's estate and copyright law is considered because of the appropriation of contemporary images by Jeff Koons. Although each trial is reviewed distinctly, all are interwoven to present major issues relating to contemporary art.