POWER AS THE FOUNDATION OF CULTURAL CAPITAL AND A PREREQUISITE IN CREATING THE VALUE OF AN ARTWORK

Abstract

In his studious analysis of art in the context of its status and social function, French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu analyzed the problem of the distribution of power within the area that he refers to as the “field of art”. The habitus of the protagonists active in this field plays a decisive role in it, determining the perception of the value of artwork. The interests maintaining the field dynamics are essential elements of any field, making the field a battleground in which various interests battle for domination, nevertheless presupposing a consensus between the participants in the battle and their roles. Bourdieu, like Weber, believes that any social action is based on the interests of social protagonists, because no one will engage in something that has no material or ideal value and does not include a certain motive or profit, which does not necessarily have to be economic. Furthermore, aesthetic conflicts in the field of art often have a political dimension and are merely an embellished form of the battle fought in order to impose the dominant vision of the social reality on others. The field is an imaginary space where the real social power is generated. It is superior to the concept of institution, because institutions imply consensual relations within the society, while the field also includes phenomena that are not institutionalized or defined by firm boundaries at the given moment. The objective of this study is to analyze the role of critics and other protagonists in the field of art in the process of shaping values in visual arts, and to show the importance of power in the formation of symbolic capital in a broader cultural context. For the purposes of this research, the author will use the methodology that Bourdieu applies to literature in his book The Rules of Art, whose main theses help us better understand the economic, symbolic and cultural relationships in the fields of visual arts, with an emphasis on the situation in Croatia after the war.