An economic theory of avant-garde and popular art, or high and low culture

Artists face choices between the pecuniary benefits of selling to the marke t and the nonpecuniary benefits of creating to please their own tastes. We examine how changes in wages, lumpsum income, and capital-labor ratios affe ct the artist's pursuit of self-satisfaction versus market. sales. Using ou r model of labor supply, we consider the economic forces behind the high/lo w culture split, why some artistic media offer greater scope for the avant- garde than others, why so many artists dislike the market, and how economic growth and taxation affect the quantity and form of different kinds of art .