Page 20 - Studio International - June 1974

The market system preserve the identity of his work. A few subordinate to efficiency on the production

can donunate or m he can
line. It will reflect the artist's sense of what is
and the arts industries - the motion picture firms, television good, not the technician's knowledge of what
can be efficiently produced or the marketing
networks, the large advertising agencies - must,
by their nature, associate artists with rather man's sense of what can be sold. Thus,
complex organition. All have a well-reported although technically less proficient, the small
record of dissonance and conflict between the firm has, because of its small size, the advantage
artists and the rest of the organization. A small of superior art. In the manufacture of apparel,
From 'Economics and the Public Purpose' literature - Budd Schulberg's What Makes jewellery, timepieces, furniture, other
by John Kenneth Galbraith, published by S ammy Run?, Evelyn Waugh's short story household artifacts and in cooking, house
Andre Deutsch, London, 1974. 'Excursion in Reality', Rod Serling's construction and publishing this advantage can
Patterns­celebrates this.conflict and the crudities be considerable. Invariably the small firm serves
As services resist organization, so also do the of organition men as viewed by artists. what is called the upper end of the market, ie
arts. This has not been much noticed, and the Frequently the problem is solved by removing that providing a more expensive product to
oversight is not remarkable. Economics has actors, actresses, script writers, directors, more affluent consumers who have superior
never had a serious view of art. Science and composers, copy writers and creators of taste or (perhaps the more common case)
technology are important matters. Painting, advertising commercials from the superior guidance thereto.
sculpture, music, the theatre, design are more technostructure of the film studio, television On occasion small firms are kept in being by
frivolous. The manufacture of canvas, paint or network or advertising agency and reconstituting large firms which need, but cannot themselves
pigment is a worthy concern of the economist; them in small independent companies. The large employ, the talent the small firms command.
anything that lowers the cost of these firm then confines itself to providing the The big dress manufacturers buy models from
commodities or expands their output appropriate facilities for producing and - more the small designers; the automobile
contributes to economic goals. But the quality importantly- marketing, exhibiting or airing the manufacturers seek the help ofltalian
of the painting as distinct from the paint or product. Similly painters, sculptors, concert entrepreneurs; DuPont turns to small firms in
what causes artists to colonize, multiply and pianists and novelists function in effect as Paris and New York for fabric designs. It is
1
prosper has never been thought a proper one-man firms or, as in the case of rock, dance easy to hire chemists, a DuPont officiai
concern of the subject. Artistic achievement and folk music groups, as small partnerships and observed in conversation a few years ago, and to
may, in principle, be part of the claim of an tum to larger organizations to market themselves know what you are getting. But no one knows
age or place to development. But as compared or their product. how to hire good artists, and they won't live in
with the production of goods or technical or Where manufacturg requires a measure of Wilmington, Delaware.
scientific accomplishment it has no practical artistic effort and is judged in part by this, the The small firm also derives an advantage
standing. None of this is an accident. The artistic superiority of the small firm will often from the distinctive nature of the demand
relevant attitudes are firmly grounded in the allow of its survival in competition with the large curve for the work of the artist. The position of
nature of modern economic society. organition. Since the good artist cannot or will this demand curve - the amount that people will
The artist is, by nature, an independent not be subordinate to organition, the large, buy at any given price - is a function of time.
entrepreneur. He embraces an entire task of relatively immobile enterprise commands not the People, as presently to be emphasized, are
creation; unlike the engineer or the best talent but the most accommodating. This, persuaded strongly to. believe that technical
production-model scientist he does not more or less by definition, is second-rate. Nor is innovation is a good thing - that it is coordinate
contribute specialized knowledge of some part this pµrely a matter of poor or perverse taste on with progress. This being so, the market
of a task to the work of a team. Because he is the part of the organization. The large firm must response to such innovation is generally
sufficient to himself, he does not submit readily have designs that will lend themselves to long favourable. Such attitudes, of course, coincide
to the goals of organization; to do so is to and economical production runs. Artistic sense with and reflect the needs of the planning
sacrifice his view of what is artistically worthy must also yield to the will of those who, on the system. Public attitudes toward artistic
to the organization view. That is to sacrifce basis of instinct, expeence or market research, innovation, by contrast, have been subject to no
artistic integrity, for the latter, whether the are knowledgeable on what the public can be such conditioning. Accordingly the first
result be good or bad, is always coordinate with persuaded to buy. Artistic judgment is subject to impression of artistic innovation is almost
the artist's own view of his task. a supervening view of acceptability, and this, in invariably unfavourable. What is new is
Not needing the support of organization and tum, is powerfully influenced by the common commonly thought offensive or grotesque. So it
not being able or allowed to accept the goals of working assumption, sometimes articulated, that was with the impressionists, the cubists, the
organition, the artist fits badly into no one ever went into receivership abstract expressionists, and so it is with the
organization. As so often, everyday speech underestimating the popular taste. In modern exponents of pop art. The situation is
reflects the fact. The excessively independent consequence the large firm gets long runs, similar in prose, poetry and much music.
man is regularly defended in an organization as technical efficiency, low costs and a considered It follows that the initial market for innovative
'something of an artist'. The brilliant nuisance marketing strategy at the expense of good design. work in the arts is almost always small; only as
or unemployable -eccentric is said to be The automobile industry, the mass producers of taste develops does demand expand. But some
'altogether too much of an artist'. The artist, on furnture, the household appliance industry, the are attracted and some have pleasure in
his side, finds life in any sizeable and successful container industry and numerous others amply seeming to appreciate what others reject. Thus
organization cloying, restrictive or even illustrate the point. they are willing to pay. This situation - a small
stifling. And he is required, ifhe is to have the In the smaller manufacturg firm in which market in which cost is secondary to the quality
good opinion of his peers, to say so. �- the artist has a dominant role or in which, at a of the artistic achievement - also lends itself
In consequence, except in some slight minimum, the discipline of organization is less well to the individual or the small firm. 2
measure where the discipline of organization is severe, there is more scope for individual In the past one of the most common
itself artistic - that of a symphony orchestra or a assertion which is essential. In consequence manifestations of affluence was expenditure on
ballet company -the artist functions as an design can be much better. Further, the artist the arts. The quality of the public and
independent entrepreneur (a term he is unlikely having a domint role, the design will not be ecclesiastical architecture and its embellishment
to employ) or, as in the case of a self-respecting and of the public entertaent was the visible
architect, as a member of a very small firm test of comm.unity achievement. For the
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