Home > Catalogue > Venezia Arti > 25 | 2016 > Borders and Border Crossing Between Art Worlds

Venezia Arti | Vol. 25 | December 2016

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Research Article

Borders and Border Crossing Between Art Worlds

Successful Attempts and Epic Failures to Enter New Domains in Recent British Art

Diego Mantoan    Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italia    

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abstract

This paper attempts to answer whether it is possible for successful artists in one specific sector to access the domain of another artistic field at their free will. In doing so, this contribution analyses the possible existence of borders and gatekeepers between different art worlds. The aim is not just finding or defining boundaries between art fields, but rather understanding whether boundaries can be pierced through, as well as the conditions that might hinder acceptance. Moving from an art theoretical and philosophical perspective, the present paper will discuss the thesis of Pierre Bourdieu and Howard Becker on boundary conditions in the arts. Subsequently, their views will be tested against three recent cases of British artist celebrities, who tried to enter new artistic domains, although with alternate success. They are the episodes of Damian Hirst painfully failing as a filmmaker, of Steve McQueen slowly working his way up to the Oscars, of Douglas Gordon intentionally and irreverently challenging contemporary theatre.

Published
Dec. 20, 2016
Accepted
Aug. 19, 2016
Submitted
July 13, 2016
Language
EN

Keywords: Steve McQueen • Gatekeepers • Pierre Bourdieu • Douglas Gordon • Howard Becker • Art field • Art worlds • Border crossing • Damien Hirst

permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/2385-2720/VA-25-16-6

Copyright: © 2016 Diego Mantoan. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.