The Disappearing Masterpiece
David Galenson
Published: December 2002
A quantitative analysis of the illustrations in art history textbooks reveals that the
most important modern American painters—including Pollock, de Kooning, and
Warhol—failed to produce individual paintings as famous as the masterpieces of
some major French modern artists, such as Manet, Gauguin, and Seurat. Yet art
historians do not consider the American artists to be less important and less innovative
than their French predecessors. The absence of American masterpieces
instead appears to be a consequence of market conditions, as changes over time
in the primary methods of showing and selling fine art effectively eliminated the
incentive for artists to produce important individual works. The study of markets
is essential to a full understanding of the development of modern art.
More Papers From This Author in World Economics:
The Life Cycles of Modern Artists
There have been two very different life cycles for great modern artists: some
have made their major contributions early in their careers, while others have
produced their best work later in their lives. These patterns have been associated
with different artistic goals and working methods: artists who peak late are
motivated by aesthetic considerations and work by trial and error, whereas artists
who peak early are motivated by conceptual concerns and plan their work in
advance. This paper applies this analysis to the careers of the leading members
from the two generations of painters who made New York the center of the art
world in the 1950s and ‘60s. The results not only yield a new understanding of
the life cycles of creative individuals, but also provide new insights into the
rationale behind the prices paid for works of art at auction.
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