Art Markets, Sociology and the Emotional Art Object

Abstract

In its current state the sociology of art markets is characterized by an externalist approach to the analysis of art value in which the art object is the repository of beliefs, judgements given to it by art market actors. However, a review of the literature on art museums poses a challenge to this externalist approach by focusing on the mutually constitutive relationship between the art object, its exhibition and museum context, and viewers. The article reviews this literature exploring the advantages of this line of research for a meaningful sociology of art markets. It will argue for the need to overcome its current externalist focus with studies of the emotional dimension of art market objects as well as of the practices of art market actors. Sociology and the art object: perspectives and debatesSociological studies of art have endeavored to analyse art within its own social context of production, distribution and consumption, focusing on how institutions, museums, galleries, dealers, and publics have had an impact on artists' careers and reputations, and the types of art to gain public recognition (Crane 1987;DeNora 1995;Herrero 2007;Lang and Lang 1998; Prior 2002). This line of approach, also called 'externalist' (Zolberg 1990), places its emphasis on how social actors act upon the art object assigning it with value and prestige. have pointed out, it has been unable to incorporate the meaning of artworks into its analysis. In his call for a 'meaningful sociology of the arts', Eyerman (2006, 31) suggests that the meaning of artworks is not simply conveyed by the beliefs and values art world members give them. Rather, meaning emerges in the interaction between subjects and art objects, which in turn is shaped by the unique ability of artworks to evoke an experience of pleasure, expression and emotion in those who experience them Hennion and Grenier 2000;Witkin 1995).Sociological analyses of art markets have mostly followed the steps of a sociology of art, analysing the practices of art market professionals and artists, and how these endow the art object with both aesthetic and financial value (Bourdieu 1993;Moulin 1987;Van den Bosch 2005;Velthuis 2005;White and White 1965). However, the importance of art as an aesthetic object has remained outside the analytical remit of this type of research. Rather, a key concern has been to show how, in the art market, price is not the only type of value attached to art, because it is intricately linked to its cultural value, the beliefs and values art market actors assign to it (Moulin 1987;Velthuis 2005). However, in accounting for the economic-cum-cultural value of the art market object, sociologists have left aside the question of meaning, especially when this is understood as being embedded in not only values, but also in the emotional response of market actors towards the art object. Thus, following Eyerman's call for a meaningful sociology of arts, this

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