Art and Communication: A Look to the Art Market

Abstract

This text presents a communicative model in the art market as well as its importance compared to the traditional communication model analysed from Art History. To achieve this, we expose the lack of solid criteria when defining what art is. Subsequently, we defend that the Sociology of Language allows us to obtain a referential and pragmatic knowledge of what a community calls art. As we will say, this lan-guage is produced through money, and that is why Economic Sociology plays a key role. Understanding that “art” is something named like this in a social environment with its agents, motivations and mecha-nisms, we defend that the art market - as a small part of the art world - is a tool of great informative value. This is because it allows to see what a human group refers to as “art”. This is possible thanks to the use of a shared code (money). Through money, some agents can express their preferences in that context, acting as senders. The market plays the channel role and, the public acts as the receiver. The preferences shown through money by some agents within that social system gives to the community some referential and pragmatic knowledge while allowing us to allocate that scarce resource named “art”.