Art and Commerce
There is a complicated relationship between the art world and the commercial world. Until recently, society would not consider being an artist as a lucrative and sustainable career, and many artists would abhor the idea of engaging with the “evil” world of commerce. That is changing today with plenty of crossover and codependence.
The contemporary art world, especially, is fuelled by the idea of novelty and self-expression. Artists need to be rule-breakers to be great. Art history is rife with examples - starting with abstract art, minimalism, found objects, expanding to performance art, and even creating art forms that involve economics and finance.
I was raised in a rather traditional environment in Ukraine where everyone thought of good artists as largely unsuccessful financially, and the notion of the «starving artist» was popular. There was a kind of enforced humility or reserve to the field. It was considered impolite to speak of money as an artist or engage in any marketing of your own work. During my teenage years, I happened to come across Salvador Dali’s diaries, which opened my eyes to almost a parallel universe where artists could live differently. Dali took pride in his personal eccentricity and in his wealth. He showed me a very different persona from the conventional image of an artist that I and the people around me were accustomed to and I realized that there are other approaches to being a successful artist.
Later, after moving to China and getting more into art I started to be more fascinated with the Russian avant-garde movement and especially Kazimir Malevich. The bravery of his ideas and self-confidence was inspiring. Malevich was excited about the future and manifested the idea that art should be everywhere, adopting his art to everyday objects, architecture, furniture, fabrics. Anything and everything around was potential for art.
Both Dali and Malevich were popularizing art and making it a part of everyday use. Dali had art collaborations and was a pioneer of the art and fashion crossovers, working with brands and designers. Malevich had more universal ideas, believing that artists should work alongside factory workers creating objects for daily use. Dali wished to adopt art to fashion or to objects, while Malevich expected people to adopt to art even if it may not look very useful at first. From different perspectives and different parts of the world, they contributed to the fast-growing relationship between the art world and the world of commerce.
This idea of bringing art and commerce together has been further co-opted by marketers and entrepreneurs and being used by companies in various industries to solve some of their market challenges. In recent times, high competition and availability of different kinds of products has amplified this globally. The war being waged for consumer attention has escalated to such an extent that art has become one of the strategic tools in the commercial arsenal. But while designers focus on pleasing people, artists tend to focus on pleasing themselves. This creates a dramatic difference between the two professions and contributes to why art can be more provoking and oftentimes, attract more attention than design.
Today, a high appreciation for self-expression and creativity is important in society. Social media has made us all become artists in a way, which in turn has helped us develop a better appreciation of art. Competition on social media has increased not just for the companies but for ordinary people. Brands appear more attractive when they do not just offer high-quality products, but help consumers to express themselves through what they do, wear, eat, and play.
Novelty is valued by individuals and society, and the role of an artistic mindset has grown to be highly cherished even in science and technology. Organizations and universities such as Nokia Bell Labs, MIT, Facebook, and others create artist-in-residence programs to provide an opportunity for collaborative study and the systematic development of creativity. For artists, this development, just like the merger of art and commerce, helps to create more space and possibilities for artistic expression and expands art forms into new dimensions, products or experiences.
My relationship with fashion and art collaborations started from my first solo show. The show was organized by an event company that does fashion shows at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology. After that show, a fashion brand became a collector of my artworks and used to showcase them alongside their products in their stores. I have had a few such collaborations with various brands and I have also produced a collection of my art T-shirts.
Once I was challenged to update a shoe design applying the aesthetic of my art. Such request also led me to further question my personal understanding of what I do, what is the essential aesthetic of my work, and the visual elements that define my artistic style. The final result gave me a new sense of how I can better develop my style.
I also started a media channel few years ago to pay closer attention to the relationship between art and commerce. Me and my team research what is new in art and commerce and how they develop. I enjoy seeing these two worlds slowly becoming one big world of creativity where self-expression is not limited to within the art industry but rather, it is a way of thinking, a way of living.
For me, artistic thinking enables experimentation with a wider range of ideas in various industries. Fashion, food, services, HR, media, marketing — I like to experiment with it all and beyond. Creating a business is similar to creating a piece of work. Therefore, I always define myself as an artist in the first place and then can explain more about what medium I use within my practice, whether it is visual art, marketing, or other forms of media or entrepreneurship.
The art world never stops innovating. This tendency is also typical for entrepreneurship, where everything starts with classical business models and eventually supplants them by breaking the old; by creating new rules and by establishing new ways to succeed.
The dream of Malevich to surround the world with art objects has become a reality, thanks to marketers that are using art to promote products and services. But he could not imagine that people would be not just surrounded by art but would develop entrepreneurial ways of thinking and becoming artists themselves.
