Abstract
In Bound by Creativity: How Contemporary Art is Created and Judged, Hannah Wohl constructs an exemplary examination of the contemporary art world, using her findings to contribute an understanding of how “creative visions,” distinct and identifiable aesthetic and/or conceptual perspectives throughout a body of artistic work, constrain and facilitate judgments of art. She finds that the aesthetic choices that contemporary visual artists make in their work are collectively created and evaluated within artistic communities as a way of community self-regulation beyond purely economic or market measures. She shows us how, in aggregate, creative visions are the basis for occupational communities in spaces where there is disagreement about what is considered a job well done. Wohl tells us that artists “are free to follow their muse, just so long as their muse does not direct them to produce vertical paintings or anything orange” (p42). Choices in this world are aesthetic, except when they are not. Creative visions are relational, clarified by other members of the art world, curators, dealers, buyers, and collectors, who hold their own creative visions.
Wohl conducted two years of ethnographic work in New York City's contemporary art world, a case selected due to the dominance of the New York art scene globally. Her fieldwork included numerous, repeated studio visits with artists, as well as exhibition installations, exhibition openings, art fairs, and VIP events and parties. Her 104 interviewees are members of these places throughout the art world and include artists, dealers, curators, private collectors, and art advisers. Additional data come from almost 400 exhibition reviews from major art publications. Wohl takes on a Beckerian analysis in that her work takes seriously interoccupational action, conflict, and collaboration within an art world. She shows readers the creative process of contemporary art, from messy studios where experimental artworks sit next to DIY chicken coops replete with clucking hens to posh private parties celebrating collectors’ seasonal rehanging of their personal collections.
The primary contributions of this work to scholars of work and occupations are twofold. First, it sheds insight into career pathways, nonmonetary judgments, and valuation in an unwieldy, nonstandard occupation. Second, excitingly, it gives insight into how non-occupational roles, like that of art collectors, can shape judgment and valuation in industries.
Creative visions constrain and facilitate artistic work in patterns of community self-regulation that extend beyond economic or market measures. However, there exists tension throughout the book in how the artist establishes and then maintains and enacts a cohesive creative vision over time. Wohl tells us that while a creative vision is formed in the artists initial works or series, that the implications of these choices will shape the arc of their careers. Creative visions that are too closely tied to formal elements, say pipe cleaners, might later constrain the artist who is at a later career stage so iconic for using this medium that he is unable to shift to using another prominent formal element. A related question remails: Do creative visions facilitate or constrain creativity? Adherence to a stable creative vision, it seems, provides artists with a clear position in their field while potentially limiting future innovation, particularly in terms of material and aesthetic changes.
While ‘artist’ is the primary occupation that is studied in this book, there are many careers simultaneously unfolding within the studios, galleries, art fairs, private homes, and exhibitions that Wohl studies. While there are different motivations and interests, together the artists, dealers, collectors, and curators that Wohl studies co-create communities of shared judgement and vision. Each, she says, apply their creative vision to their body of work, whether they are creating, curating, or collecting art. Collectors of art are especially interesting in this relational analysis. Though collectors do not “work” in the arts, their creative visions have significant impacts on the careers of artists and of valuation of particular art within the community of contemporary art more generally. Understanding the role of non-occupational work in this setting provides an exciting perspective that should be considered in future studies of culture industries.
Hannah Wohl crafts a thorough ethnographic case of the art world that would be engaging to an undergraduate audience in the sociology of work and occupations, cultural sociology, and economic sociology. It would also be an excellent text for graduate students studying qualitative methods and mixed methodological approaches to empirical research. Wohl's contributions to the sociology of culture, work and occupations, and the sociology of value are especially important in the contemporary era when bureaucratic structures around occupations and work are changing. Her work provides a firm foundation for future study into the changing world of work and how workers can be judged to do good work within their occupational communities.
