The Social Production of Art - Chapter 1 Response

       Janet Wolff touched on creative freedom and how it cannot truly be free to the artist, because of the evolving society we live in. She compared artists from the 15^th century with artists in today’s society; commercialization replaced the role of patrons.

Some of the authors main points:

·      - Various points of Lukes and Giddens were discussed in how subjects and the various components of    

         societal ideology can no longer be disposed of in a simple way.

·      - Karl Marx’s indirect associations of labor and creativity.

·      - Artist who feel that they need to distance themselves from societal norms to truly understand freedom  

          from an outsider’s perspective.

·      -How capitalism shapes the boundaries of artists to depend on commercial success that society deems 

         relevant.

       What I naturally resonated to in the author’s argument is the sense of freedom. What does it mean from a creative standpoint? The author pointed out the various conflicting elements today’s artist face from society itself; the ideological values between artists and society is at a constant clash with the ever growing demand to be commercially successful. My recent research into Albert Paley’s metal work fascinated me; he was able to pull off these massive sculptures, and yet maintain his abstract artistic freedom. Though he’s often commissioned to do work, it still has some level of limitation. From my personal metal experience, you are often bound by the boundaries set forth by the customer; they either want you to replicate a known style, or compliment another. So you limit your sense of true creative freedom to accommodate commercial success.