Aesthetics and the Artistic Career: A Study of Anomie in Fine-Art Painting

Abstract

This is an empirical study of the relationship between aesthetic evaluation, collective action, and artistic success. Documentary evidence is examined to show that the initial artistic success of Jackson Pollock, the leading painter in the early years of Abstract Expressionism, was not due to coherent aesthetic evaluation by the New York art world. Secondary sources are then reviewed and it is suggested that Pollock's rise to artistic preeminence was brought about directly by collective action in the form of a promotional campaign on the part of a small, but influential, group of actors closely associated with the artist.

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