Moderate gratuitousness. Art and money in the opinions of Polish artists

Abstract

One of the most important founding myths of modern art is the idea that it is not done for money, and the artist must reject earning as a motive in order to create it. Moreover, as Bourdieu suggested, it was precisely the denial of economic motives for creation that allowed artists to accumulate the symbolic capital necessary to consider their art important. In the paper, we compare this modernist view with the findings of two recent Polish nationwide research projects, both of which investigated artists of different ages and at different stages of their careers. The analysis aims to reconstruct the attitude of artists towards money and earning in art. We consider how this attitude manifests itself in the approaches to the purpose of art, work priorities, factors preparing artists for the profession and influencing career growth, art funding and the main problems of artists working in Poland. On this ground, we argue that what defines art as a separate social practice today is realism, etatism, moderate renunciation and rationalization, rather than gratuitousness. This modernist myth of creation, free of mercantilist motivations, is being replaced by the discourse of art as a profession, a part of which is also the matter of social insecurity.