Hans Abbing’s book Why Are Artists Poor? The Exceptional Economy of the Arts is a book that every art student, artist, art educator, curator, critic and arts administer should read. That’s what it was designed for and its observations are exacting and uncompromising. I don’t agree with Abbing’s conclusions, but then that is what good books do, show us new ways of looking at things, which provokes debate.

I’m going to review the book here in stages, perhaps following the chapters.

My thesis, contra Abbing who sees the arts as an unsustainable economic backwater, is that we are on the cusp of a cultural turn that will see:

• an artist in every household;
• an artist-run centre on every corner;
• an artist employed in every business.

I like to think I can prove this thesis using Abbing’s arguments as a starting point.

book summary on Abbing’s own site

look inside at Google Books