History of Business in the Visual Arts: 1800-2000
Instructor: Kyunghee Pyun
This is a new course I developed to teach a diverse range of careers in visual arts. Students wrote a final paper and created a video presentation in the fall semester of 2022.
Course description:
This course explores the intersection of art and labor from the perspective of how the production of visual arts has evolved with economic development and business management. Students learn about critical issues that surround the making of art and the status of artists and designers in the context of modern and contemporary labor and business. The course enables students to understand that historical events or philosophical ideologies impact the livelihood of artists and designers. Students also learn about effects of political upheaval, war, migration, and exile on works and career choices of artists and designers. Changes to the terms of employment and labor conditions have resulted from incidents including, but not limited to, looms driven by steam; the invention of readymade paint in tubes; contemporary issues of copyright and originality; the mining labor behind the use of precious materials in art; and the exposure to poisons and pollution in the manufacture of certain luxury products. Topics and case studies are open to thematic and theoretical approaches as new modes of employment emerge in the present time. Historical precedents of the collaborative aspects of art, architecture, design, or crafts, as well as interdisciplinary collaborations with creators and practitioners outside visual arts are also introduced within the course’s own framework of art and labor.
Paper Assignment:
We will start thinking about your paper topics. You can work alone or in a team of 2-3 students.
Below is my suggestion.
(1) Imagine a gallery. You can give a role: gallery owner/director, sales representative, and the artist. If you are a team of 3 students, each of you should give a role.
You can imagine a historical period or a hypothetical artist based on a real figure. Say you are reprsenting Henri Matisse (France) or Thomas Eakins (U.S.A.).
What would you do to promote that artist’s career in the 1920s or the 1890s? What were your historical contexts (limits and possibilities).
(2) Imagine an artist collective. Say Guerilla Girls (from the 1970s) or Impressionists (from the 1870s). How about Photo Secessionists (Alfred Stieglitz, etc.)
If each of you come from a different discipline or subcategory, how would you navigate the business operation of your collective?
Bauhaus was one example of an artist collective/institution. It was a failed business enterprise. Many artist collectives were not viable.
(3) Imagine an art museum. Smaller ones in a local town. How can it operate itself to survive at least 10-20 years? It would be similar for an art foundation.
(4) You can also select a living artist of our own time and come up with a business analysis of that artist.
(5) You can write a research paper on Rembrandt, Rubens, or any other historical figures by focusing on their life, career, and business operation.
I often wonder how Titian (Tiziano Vecelli, d. 1576) got paid for his portraiture commissions. He was successful in his studio practice. In the class, we talked about Rubens and Rembrandt as examples of a small business owner operating a workshop. Or El Greco was extremely entrepreneurial. They also worked for institutions (churches, confraternities, etc).
What was their maneuvering in the system?
