Art Worlds and Social Types

By Howard S. Becker

Art Worlds

• Result of coordinated activities• Coordination of activities are in reference to a

body of conventional understandings• Do not define art first• Mutual appreciation and social value

Types of Artists

• Integrated Professions• Mavericks• Naïve Artists• Folk Artists

Integrated Professionals

• Every cooperating person has been trained• Large and responsive audience• Fully prepared and capable of producing the art work• Stays within respectable boundaries

Maverick Artists

• Have found conventional art world too constraining

• Do not remove all conventions from their art• Force recognition and adoption of their

practices from the conventional art world• Demands more work from the audience

Naïve Artists

• No connection with art world at all• Created forms and genres because they never

acquired training or habits of professional artists

• Made without reference to contemporary conventions

Folk Artists

• No real art community exists• Not acknowledged as art• Well integrated • Conventions of their art are well known and

easily made• Basis of collective action

Conclusion

• People can be oriented to any kind of social world

• Four types of artists mirrors society at large• The art world is constantly changing

Critique

• Can artists be so easily organized? (Ex. The Shaggs)

• Double-crosses his definitions (Ex. Folk artists)