Rembrandt Versus Van Gogh: A Qualitative Contrast Study Applying a Visual Arts Valutation Model

Few marketing scholars have explored the field of fine arts marketing despite its significance as an area of economic activity and human creativity. Billions of dollars change hands annually in the worldwide visual fine arts industry (Velthuis, 2007; Clark and Flaherty, 2002), defined here to include various paintings, sculptures, and ceramics. This lack of academic attention might be because marketing scholars perceive that issues related to fine arts have little to do with marketing. It could also be that the unique characteristics of fine arts marketing are thought not to lend themselves to a traditional analytical approach to explain a particular artist’s success or lack of success. The inherently subjective nature of art products makes it challenging to identify the factors that determine or influence the “pricing” of a work of art

An Illustration of Continuous Product Line Revitalization: The Case of Picasso

Visual artists’ careers can effectively illustrate marketing principles. This paper reviews Pablo Picasso’s career to illustrate the importance of revitalizing product lines. For seventy years, beginning in 1894, Picasso demonstrated a remarkable ability to experiment with new painting styles. Encouraged by dealers, he reinvented himself, adapting to new environmental conditions and remained at the art market’s cutting edge. In marketing terms, Picasso developed successful, new product lines throughout his career. Thus, Picasso became a major innovator and influencer in the field of art. His stylistic differences capture the marketer’s imagination and demonstrate the rewards of innovative responses to the marketplace

Using the Fine Arts to Illustrate Degrees of Innovation: From the High Renaissance to Cubism

This paper applies the marketing innovation concepts of continuous innovation, dynamically continuous innovation, and discontinuous innovation to the fine arts to suggest challenges artists face in gaining acceptance of new styles. This paper reviews shifts in broad visual arts styles from the High Renaissance to Cubism in order to illustrate these marketing innovation concepts and to indicate the roles that marketing might play in generating market acceptance of new artistic styles. These marketing roles, as suggested by the four “Ps” of marketing (product, place, promotion, and price) become particularly evident with the development of Impressionism as an illustration of dynamically continuous innovation and by Cubism as an illustration of discontinuous innovation and a precursor of modern art

A Fine Arts Marketing Elective: Justification of Need and Proposed Course Content

This paper explains the need for a marketing elective course that would address the business field of fine arts marketing with an emphasis on visual arts including painting in various media including drawings and print reproductions, photography, and sculpture. The proposed course would be intended for general business students, marketing majors, and fine arts majors. The paper first reviews the overall business impact of fine arts marketing from a global business and United States perspective. The paper then suggests major topics and readings that would be included in such a course and the order in which these topics might be presented. These topics include the unique marketing situation of fine arts as an industry area with reference to motivation and perceptions of fine arts artists regarding the concept of marketing exchange, the nature of fine arts as an opaque market, the structure of the industry by which fine art is produced and brought to the public, and specific techniques that fine arts artists might utilize to promote their work and themselves so as to build brand value. Finally, specific student projects are suggested including field visits and the development of marketing plans for professionally oriented artists