This work was first presented at The Individual Artist: Condition and Support, an American Council for the Arts research seminar, held at the Walter Art Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, March 1988.

The author talks about the gradual transformation of art into a commodity as it was removed from the context of everyday life. The environment in which artists live and work, the function of art and the role of the artist in society are key issues in a discussion of what it is like, and what it means, to be an artist. For those who admire, envy, worship, support, fund, depend on and criticize artists, this is where the discussion begins.

The author argues that the artist - as creative entertainer, entrepreneur, overseer or visionary - exists in a world in which art as a commodity is purchased not for use value so much as for exchange value, which devalues those works not suited for marketing as exchange or investment commodities. Whereas in earlier times individual acts of patronage were aristocratic and thus indifferent to commercial concerns, today's individual art purchases very often are made as investments. Meantime, with the rise of the mass media - which Brown calls the mind industry - culture as a whole has been packaged as mass entertainment, and although this has resulted in a larger audience, it is an audience that responds to celebrity based on brand-name recognition. (Introduction, p. 1-2)

CONTENTS
Introduction.
Art as a commodity.
The artist's condition.
Data problems.
Support for the artist.
Artists' organizations and institutions of support.

This work was first presented at The Individual Artist: Condition and Support, an American Council for the Arts research seminar, held at the Walter Art Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, March 1988.