ABSTRACT
Throughout the ages art has served multiple functions but when a viable market for the product emerged, it acquired a material and symbolic cultural value that went beyond mere aesthetic considerations. I discuss the changing role of art as a commodity through the ages, show how artists satisfied client’s multiple desires and in doing so produced artifacts that transcend historical specificity. With industrialism some of those agendas changed, artists adopted more confrontational stances and sought refuge in a secular culture. The marketplace for their product changed as to how value was placed upon works. This leads to a discussion of auction house, mega galleries and art fairs that dominate the art market today. The commodification particularly of contemporary art as an investment tool provides a way of assessing how art is firmly positioned as a luxury good because it has acquired material as well as merely aesthetic value. The purchase of art by the newly rich as a symbolic marker as opposed to Renaissance patronage that was designed to satisfy clerical indulgences signifies motivational differences between today’s and yesterday’s elites.
