ABSTRACT
Until recently, empirical social science projects concerned with visual representation have tended to focus on the world of visual art. However, there have been relatively few such projects, which may be because the critical tradition had already established a fruitful relationship with the arts long before empirical social research got under way.1 Yet such empirical studies as there are-of the routine, mundane, taken-for-granted social actions of visual art personnelhave done much to demystify the world of visual art, which had long been perceived as ‘special’ both by insiders and outsiders, including many critical sociologists. To show that the production and reception of visual art works are
social processes, and that they cannot satisfactorily be explained by reference to internal aesthetic factors, is often the aim of empirical sociologists of art.
