ABSTRACT
A preoccupation with temporal breaks in a career was accompanied among many Institute artists by a vulnerability to inflated promises and to illusions of omnipotence. Since professional reputation may depend less upon where than with whom artists play or show their work, friendship ties are useful not only in securing new positions but also in minimizing the possible career risks of taking them. A great deal of recruitment moved along lines of close friendship and long association and, in describing their reasons for coming, people often showed pride in longstanding ties of affectionate patronage. The movement of a chain of seduction along lines of old friendship and association disarmed new recruits and facilitated trust and belief in the unknown institution. If recruitment had often been a matter of friendship, survival in the institution, especially given the initial absence of formal bureaucratic procedures, required both having friends and, when necessary, betraying them.
