The Global Rules of Art: The Emergence and Divisions of a Cultural World Economy

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A trailblazing look at the historical emergence of a global field in contemporary art and the diverse ways artists become valued worldwide

Prior to the 1980s, the postwar canon of international contemporary art was made up almost exclusively of artists from North America and Western Europe, while cultural agents from other parts of the world often found themselves on the margins. The Global Rules of Art examines how this discriminatory situation has changed in recent decades. Drawing from abundant sourcesincluding objective indicators from more than one hundred countries, multiple institutional histories and discourses, extensive fieldwork, and interviews with artists, critics, curators, gallerists, and auction house agentsLarissa Buchholz examines the emergence of a world-spanning art field whose logics have increasingly become defined in global terms.

Deftly blending comprehensive historical analyses with illuminating case studies, The Global Rules of Art breaks new ground in its exploration of valuation and how cultural hierarchies take shape in a global context. The books innovative global field approach will appeal to scholars in the sociology of art, cultural and economic sociology, interdisciplinary global studies, and anyone interested in the dynamics of global art and culture.

Author Bio

Larissa Buchholz is assistant professor of communication studies and, by courtesy, sociology at Northwestern University. She was a junior fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard University, the first woman elected from her discipline. She serves on the editorial board of Sociological Theory and is an affiliated faculty member of the Critical Realism Network at Yale University.