Max Ryynänen: "One Artworld and/or Many?"

Max Ryynänen, Aalto-universitetet: "One Artworld and/or Many: What Should We Make of Art Scenes in Aesthetics?"

Abstract
Could a thorough understanding of the nature and diversity of art scenes, which sociologists and anthropologists have framed as ‘extended communities,’ offer new insights on theories of art? Looking at classical attempts to define art, for example Danto’s “Artworld” (1964) happens in Manhattan, and the works cited would probably not have made it in the Cologne, Moscow or Tokyo scenes, where the atmosphere was different in 1964. The logic presented in the text might not change with the change of art scene, though, but if art history and theoretical atmosphere make certain things possible and some others not, should we ask what then keeps together these different scenes, i.e. what constitutes the artworld? Dickie’s institutional theory of art looks very much like following only the work of major institutions in the artworld. Scenes themselves are a late conceptualization of the urban cultures of art and popular culture, with an etymology in the African American jazz scenes of the 1950s onwards. As they seem to offer very different possibilities for not just the artists but the public too, it might be productive to examine our theories of art with the notion of an art scene in mind.