Why creative labour isn’t always seen as “real work” – and what that means for artists and designers
Why creative labour isn’t always seen as “real work” – and what that means for artists and designers
The history of art is a history of the erasure of labour. Take patronage, the system whereby a wealthy individual, family or institution sponsors an artist. In a patronage system, the main goal of the patron isn’t necessarily to commission a particular piece of artwork, but rather to enhance their own prestige and be seen as a champion of the arts. In many historical cases, the artists themselves were not even the ones executing the actual work, but instead merely served as overseers of workshops of apprentices. While, in practice, patrons could in fact have very restrictive demands for their commissions that far exceed what any illustrator would accept today, our cultural memory of the patronage system is the dream of an artist who gets paid for being instead of doing.