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The evolution of the art fair
Die Evolution der Kunstmesse
[journal article]
Abstract This paper focuses on one of the key facets of the global art market, the art fair. Art fairs, which have proliferated in recent years and can be found in large numbers all over the globe, provide a crucial infrastructure for the sale and exhibition of works of art. Despite their current popularity,... view more
This paper focuses on one of the key facets of the global art market, the art fair. Art fairs, which have proliferated in recent years and can be found in large numbers all over the globe, provide a crucial infrastructure for the sale and exhibition of works of art. Despite their current popularity, however, the history of the art fair, the development of its organisational form, and its importance to the market and society have largely been neglected in scholarly studies. Therefore, this paper adopts an evolutionary approach to better understand the development of the art fair, including its network-like structure, and how it became the core business structure of the contemporary art world. This paper demonstrates that art fairs inherited a great number of business practices from previous times, such as observational principles for the creation of prices, aesthetic features, and branding strategies to emphasize their outstanding and almost religious nature. Furthermore, the paper shows that the network-like structure of the art fair has contributed to its contemporary success.... view less
Keywords
network; exhibitions and fairs; historical development; art; formation of prices; market; organizational structure
Classification
Social History, Historical Social Research
Economic Sectors
Free Keywords
evolutionary economics; economy and society
Document language
English
Publication Year
2014
Page/Pages
p. 318-336
Journal
Historical Social Research, 39 (2014) 3
DOI
https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.39.2014.3.318-336
ISSN
0172-6404
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed