Howard S Becker (b. 1928, USA)
Art Worlds, 1982

University of California Press

A great book drawing attention to all the contributions that are going into production of the artwork without formal acknowledgement – paint makers, canvas weavers, gallery cleaners etc. An artist is not an isolated entity, self-sufficient for their artistic production, but rather a hub in wide networks of exchange and cooperation.

There is a small formal problem with Becker’s reasoning – if extrapolated ad infinitum (and where would one reasonably stop?), his art world would include just about everything in the world, dissolving any difference between “art world” and “the world”, rendering his concept meaningless. On another hand, that might be a merit, as any attempt to separate art from the world is just a theoretical operation that gets problematic in itself when taken as a real life fact.

Anyway, Becker’s project is not a theory of the world, but dissolution of misconception of an artist as an island – and that is an important observation that underpins a lot of my own thinking and making. However, my own thinking is more concerned with dissolution of isolation in another direction – not from suppliers, but towards the viewer whom I hold highly responsible for artistic experience.