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Power in Arts

Importance of Connections

Peer network of the artists in “Inventing Abstraction.” Courtesy of Paul Ingram and Mitali Banerjee.

There is a pattern that artists become famous not for their originality and creativity, but the network they have. People who have parents who are artists or people who grew up surrounded by artists are more likely to get their works demonstrated in galleries, get wider recognition than the ones who have original and outstanding works, but they do not have a wide network. Paul Ingram and Mitali Banerjee made a study on what made artists famous. They used various sources as biographies, books, letters, etc. to find artists' social networks. To analyze originality of artworks they used machine learning. The results showed that the best known creators were in the same social circle. Moreover, big indicator of one becoming famous was having connections in other countries. There was not big link between the originality of one's art and person's fame.. Which makes successful in art field depend on the background people have, but not their skills and effort they make.

Rich People in Arts Field

It is not a secret that a lot of people are afraid to choose artist profession because of the financial reasons. Looking through the history it is obvious that often artists lived in poverty. Now it is easier to become famous using social media, also, there are more galleries, art fields to work in, nevertheless, finding a job in arts fields is more favorable for wealthy people. The situation is worst for youngsters who are in the begging of the path to becoming artists. As internships in arts field are usually unpaid. Sutton Trust's survey shows that 86% of internships are unpaid. This means, that young people who grew up in richer families are more likely to become artists, as they do not have to worry of making ends meet and can devote all their time to develop needed skills, grow their network and create. Meanwhile, poorer people have to search for additional job to support themselves, thus, even with a bigger talent they may take more time to reach success or they even might have to choose a different career.

Women Artists

Half of the visual artists are women according to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, but for instance in London almost four fifths of galleries display more men works than women. Women were unrepresented in arts field for a very long time. It was a social norm that women have to take care of all house chores, children and there is not much time left afterwards. Also, they could not get into art schools, this means they got less opportunities to develop their skills and to become known by other. Additionally to all these obstacles in general they were considered less worthy artists than men. For instance, nowadays a very famous Mexican painter Frida Kahlo used to be in the shadow of her husband. In 1938 when she had her first exhibition, Vogue preferred naming her as “Madame Diego Rivera.” It demonstrates how important a man role was in the art world.