Dynamics of Heteronomization in the Contemporary Art Field

How does fields end or, less dramatically, lose their autonomy? Can fields regress to the point of threatening their existence as full-fledged fields? Bourdieusian field theory is abundantly clear as for the creation and constitution of fields of cultural production, whose development depends on the progressive quest (and struggle) for independence, internal criteria of legitimization, and specific forms of symbolic capital. With regard to the field of visual art, this process started with Manet and reached the apex with the historical avant-garde movements. However, little or nothing have been said regarding the opposite process of heteronomization, through which previously independent fields turn back and begin importing rules, norms, and values from other fields. Contemporary art provides an ideal case-study for illustrating this process, which is still surprisingly neglected in sociological literature (only unsystematic and scattered allusions are offered, mostly by Steinmetz and Lemieux). Based on 130 semi-structured interviews with Italian artworkers, this paper makes a case for envisioning contemporary artists as more workers than artists, forced to juggle incompatible duties (utterly unrelated to artistic concerns) and increasingly proficient at organizing their careers (following strategies proper of other fields). The variety of non-artistic work roles entailed by successful artistic trajectories is thus analyzed accordingly, as part of a process of losing autonomy owing to pressure from journalistic, fashion, economic, and social media fields. Also, the figure of contemporary curators (acting as brokers between separated domains of social structure) is examined as embodying this force of heteronomization of the contemporary art field.