Economics of Arts – How does taste develop?
Bruno S. Frey is amazing – he probably published something on every single aspect of economics. Even a book on arts and economics.
On Monday I visited the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin. In the Impressionist section an explanation said that the artists turned to a less detailed style when photography became available as a means of making detailed portraits. In other words: when cameras could reproduce reality more accurately than painters, painters resolved to the “inaccurate” style of impressionism. Would that have happened also if photography had not been invented? Is the development of arts really only a matter of beauty and taste?
The recent high-prized auctions of Modern Art show that Economics play a much larger role than often anticipitated by the public. Currently a lot of people want to buy art as investment. It seems that not many classic paintings are available for this kind of investment – so suddenly modern art becomes attractive as a holder of immense value. Have all these investors suddenly developed a taste for Modern Art? Probably not.
