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25 janvier 2022
- doi: 10.4000/books.editionsulm.8622
- isbn: 9782728836536
- eisbn: 9782728809899
https://www.openedition.org/12554 , info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
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Western art (Western countries) Fine arts Iconography Arts, Fine Art, Occidental Arts, Visual Visual arts Occidental art Art, Visual Art, Western (Western countries) ArtsCiter ce document
Robert Jensen, « Disaggregating the aggregate : the question of measures in quantitative art history », Éditions Rue d’Ulm, ID : 10.4000/books.editionsulm.8622
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Résumé
This paper explains how current art historical literature interested in market behavior has largely focused either on the study of patrons and art markets, which tend to treat works of art in the aggregate as another luxury commodity or on monographic studies of artists, which, when addressing the artists’ behaviors vis-à-vis the market, tend to treat that behavior as unique to that artist at that time. The quantitative approach has difficulty in accounting for the individual innovations and behavior of artists. Qualitative studies consistently suffer from the failure to generalize systematically about behaviors encountered in artists’ careers. Despite recent moves toward a less hierarchical visual culture studies, innovative artists and works of art, especially in the Western tradition since the 15th century, have shaped art’s history. This is reflected both in museums and the art market, which value a few artists and works of art much more than the rest. To study significant artistic innovation – innovations that have names attached – requires new kinds of measures and habits of systematic generalization.