l Odd Nerdrum (1944) paints in the tra- 3. THE ELITARIAN ART GAME dag solhjell dition of and . Among contemporary Norwegian artists, his In countries with a cultural policy name is today the most widely known. His based on the principle of arm-length dis- draw the largest audiences and tance between politics and art, the distrib- the defeat of the sell at the highest prices when they are ution of these two assets is left to the art exhibited. In 1998 he declared himself not world alone. The result is an extremely curatoriat to be an artist but a kitsch painter, and uneven distribution of the assets: most named his paintings kitsch. This paper players end up with few assets, while a odd nerdrum - studies the game of symbolic power around small elite ends up with most of it. On the this instance of cultural disorder - or is it surface, the ethic of the elitarian game a case study of the order? appears to be: winner takes all. The It is often useful, if we say to ourselves American and French art games are elitari- aquisition and use while philosophizing: to name something, an in this sense. is like putting a name label on a thing. of symbolic power Wittgenstein. 4. THE EGALITARIAN ART GAME

1. THE ART WORLD AS A GAME In and other social-democratic countries, cultural policy is egalitarian and The art world - in the philosophical welfare oriented. Their governments take sense of Arthur Danto and in the sociologi- steps to level out the unequal distribution of cal sense of Pierre Bourdieu and Howard S. assets among players by political means. Becker - is the playground for a social The ethic of the social democratic art game game. The art game has it’s rules, players, is: everybody has a right to art, or art is for stakes, ethics and plots, varying somewhat everybody. The governments take responsi- from country to country and from one peri- bility for the material welfare of artists in od to another. In the game, their countries. Thus, there are three assets Odd Nerdrum is the grand master. Here, I at stake in the Norwegian art game. In will attempt to explain how he has earned addition to artistic recognition and market this title by defeating the lords of the game value, there are also government subsidies. - the curatoriat. This creates an egalitarian art game.

2. THE STAKES 5. THE PLAYGROUNDS AND THEIR PLAY- ERS The fame of an artist is a combination of two assets: artistic recognition and mar- The art games tend to split the art world ket value. Fame is here understood as the up in as many separate playgrounds as there reputation as reflected in the status accord- are assets at stake. On each playground ing to public opinion, at large or in mass there is a separate set of players, namely media; that is, outside the art world. In one those who see that their winning chances are extreme, artists can be famous on account greatest on that particular playground. There of their artistic recognition alone, even if is an artistic or exclusive playground, where they have no market value. In the other artistic recognition is at stake. Its specific extreme, they can be famous because of asset is purely symbolic, and with Bourdieu their market value alone, even without we can call artistic recognition symbolic cap- artistic recognition. These two assets are ital. Symbolic capital gives power to confer the stakes at play in the game of art in most artistic recognition on others, a power that is art worlds. Each player in the game tries to purely symbolic. Besides the artists, the maximize the combined value of his or her most important group of players is the cura- assets. As we shall see below, the art game toriat. The curatoriat consists of the top consists of rules that make combinations ranked museum directors and curators, crit- difficult, or even illegitimate. ics, art historians, gallery owners, freelance curators etc in that part of the art world. The curatoriat controls most of the symbolic cap- ital, and thus wields most of that part of symbolic power - the power to consecrate. 84 There is also a commercial playground capital an added economic value. Symbolic for sales and income, assets which we call capital therefore has a triple value: symbol- commercial capital. In addition to the com- ic, commercial and political, and a corre- mercially oriented artists, the dominating spondingly larger motivating force. group of players is the private or commer- Symbolic capital whitewashes commercial cial galleries - except those few who have capital, and makes government grants become members of the curatoriat. The seem like wise cultural policy. players compete for market shares and for Lesser artists are normally said to be income from sales - commercial capital. influenced by greater artists with symbolic The third field in social democratic capital conferred on them by the curatoriat, countries is the political playground, where not the other way round. democratic and egalitarian considerations are as important as aesthetic ones. The bodies of cultural policy, the network of 7. THE ETHIC OF THE ARTISTIC PLAY- government subsidized galleries and the GROUND artists’ trade unions constitute the major group of players. Often the players do not The ethic of the game on the artistic act individually on this playground, but col- playground is the opposite of what it lectively, because that gives them greater appears to be. The real name of the game bargaining power. Its real asset is political is: the loser wins. From the rules mentioned capital, since goodwill among cultural in § 6, artists learn that artistic recognition, 1. Odd Nerdrum (b.1940) The murder of Andreas bureaucrats and politicians is necessary to with its triple value, can only be attained by Baader, 1977-78, 330 x 270 cm. By the courtecy of make them subsidize culture with the tax- satisfying the demands of the curatoriat - Astrup-Fearnley Museum of , . payers money. In return, the players come the group of players that, because of it’s up with projects that are politically interest- own high recognition, commands the great- ing, and thus increase their political capital. est amount of symbolic capital. The curato- riat demands subordination to the doctrine of the new. Only the new are worthy of 6. THE RULES OF THE SYMBOLIC CAPI- artistic recognition, because only the new TAL will be recorded in the art history written by the curatoriat, and thus be given eternal There are some vital rules governing life. The new has no commercial or political the production and distribution of symbolic value until it is given artistic recognition by capital in the art game: the curatoriat. Therefore, the creators of the Only players in the artistic playground, new - the young artists striving for artistic who themselves are artistically recognized, recognition - will always be poor. They work can confer artistic recognition on other play- in non-arts or arts related occupations only ers. to the extent that they can finance their No players can confer more symbolic artistic work from it, and they live modest- capital on others than they have them- ly to save money for their art. selves. That is, in order to give artistic recognition, you have to be artistically rec- ognized yourself, on at least the same level 8. AUTONOMY AND THE CURATORIAT of symbolic capital. Therefore, artists bring their symbolic capital, large or small, to The autonomous work of art has liber- their galleries. And the other way round, ated itself from references to everything galleries confer their symbolic capital on except to itself and to other works of art . the artists they represent. Objects are presented as art that are not art Symbolic capital can be converted into in other contexts than the art world’s. It both commercial and political capital, but depends on commentaries from the curato- the opposite operation is not possible. That riat for being perceived as art. Thus, the is, neither economic success or large gov- autonomous work of art is dependent on ernment subsidies result in artistic recogni- the curatoriat and the exclusive playground. tion. It is the other way round: artistic Its autonomy, therefore, is limited. Odd recognition makes both the government Nerdrum’s paintings are non-autonomous and the market more willing to spend and do not depend on the commentaries of money on the ones that are already sym- the curatoriat in order to be perceived as bolically rewarded. This rule gives symbolic art; they are accessible and of use to any- 85 one, because they look like art. The said to influence or be influenced by other Norwegian curatoriat excluded Nerdrum contemporary artists, because the curatori- ever since his debut, and has continued to at did not consider it contemporary. For this do so for many years. Conflicts of belief reason, Odd Nerdrum’s art was not useful within the curatoriat are resolved by the art for the curatoriat, but dangerous, because it history, written by the grand curatoriat - the threatened both it’s aesthetic, it’s ethic and Greenbergs and MoMas of the curatoriat. it’s symbolic power. The curatoriat called Artists excluded by the curatoriat do not his paintings kitch. They laughed, Nerdrum enter art history - and are not given eternal cried. life. Only a playground that is comparative- ly independent of commercial, religious and 10. THE PLOT political interests, attains autonomy. That is, the curatoriat must be able to make aes- From the first moment in his career, thetic judgements and choices independent Nerdrum has taken a stand for the pre- of economic and political interests. Such modern, heteronomous work of art, the autonomy is a precondition for symbolic ones that are independent of the com- power - the ability to give artistic recogni- ments, the exemplification and the canon- tion to others. The symbolic power also ization of the curatoriat. His Norwegian net- gives control of that concept of art which in work is dominated by commercial galleries the long run wins in the whole of the art with no symbolic power, and they are not world, on all playgrounds. The concept of allowed to sell his paintings, only his litho- art is defined, aesthetically and rhetorically, graphs. With this gesture he has disobeyed by the curatoriat choosing something, one of the commandments of the pointing at it, and saying in a convincing Norwegian curatoriat, saying: You shall way: that is great art. For many years, the oppose commercialization of art. Norwegian curatoriat did not point to Recently he painted an apple to be Nerdrum’s paintings, except when saying: used in the ads for apple juice. He has reg- that is not new, that is not art, that is ularly made lithographs of his paintings, kitsch. and sold them in commercial galleries - a practice scorned by the feinschmeckers of the curatoriat. He has not followed the 9. THE EXEMPLARY AND THE CANON- ascethic ethic of , who IZED declared: “I hav never thought of for the sake of selling.” The curatoriat Great art consists of artworks that are accepts this practice only from painters exemplary for and canonized by the curato- they already have given their artistic recog- riat. They become exemplary by repeatedly nition, because it then symbolizes the vic- being pointed at by the curatoriat, as exam- tory of art over money. With Nerdrum, it ples when identifying and defining a new symbolizes the victory of money over art. direction or style in art. The artworks His lithographs are not purchased by the becomes canonized when the curatoriat of Norway, whose acquisi- gives them eternal life in the art history it tion policy is rather inclusive. He earned writes, and in the museums exhibiting this good money from sales already as a young history on their walls. The curatoriat uses artist, without first having received the the exemplary and the canonical works of recognition of the curatoriat. For many art as flattering references when it promotes years he has participated in the popular less recognized art and artists. It is the art Autumn Exhibition in Oslo, the traditional it points at when it attempts to demonstrate Salon, established in 1882, that draws a what art the lesser artists are influenced by. larger audience than any other exhibition of Odd Nerdrum’s art could not be exemplary, young, contemporary art, with a royal pres- because the curatoriat already had exam- ence at the opening. The curatoriat despis- ples of that direction in art - it was not new. es that exhibition. A handful of his paint- It could not be canonized, because it’s ings were purchased by a few major place in the history of art was already occu- Norwegian public collections early in his pied by canonized works of art. It could not career. With their social-critical motives, be used as a reference - a measure stick for they were politically correct for the leftist quality - for other contemporary art, or be artists dominating the acquisition commit- 86 tees in those years. With a few exceptions, a low symbolic capital internationally, and these early works are still the only ones rep- a correspondingly low capacity to confer resenting Nerdrum in Norwegian art muse- international recognition on artists, be they ums. For many years, he has denied selling Norwegian or foreign. For this reason, it more recent paintings to them, even if they could not bring Nerdrum international ask for it. Nerdrum is not represented in the recognition. He had to turn elsewhere. So stable in any of the leading Norwegian pri- he did, and has received an international vate art galleries holding substantial sym- recognition beyond the capacity of the bolic power, but is represented by galleries Norwegian curatoriat. In other words, his based in New York. He teaches young symbolic power became larger than theirs. artists privately, and has formed his own Now, he was in a position to challenge the ”school” - something unheard of in the art art game. He had reached a position where academies of today. Only one Norwegian he could confer his recognition on them. art historian - the Swedish born Jan _ke But he chose not to. Petterson - has been allowed to write monographs about him, and this art histo- rian is not centrally placed in the curatoriat. 12. THE PLAY - THE REVENGE As director of the new, small and provincial Haugar Vestfold Museum of Art, Petterson By avoiding it’s network, and by refus- is the only curator in Norway who has ing to follow its ethic, Nerdrum denies the Nerdrum’s contemporary paintings on Norwegian curatoriat a share of his own show. international recognition - a recognition that His first and only official position in the surpasses the recognition of the curatoriat. Norwegian art world was a place on the His symbolic capital also provides him with board of the governmental Norwegian political and commercial capital. Nerdrum Cultural Council. The place was offered him owes the curatoriat nothing, and is inde- by the right-wing ”Party of progress”, the pendent of it, both symbolically, commer- only Norwegian political party negative to cially and politically. It needs him more government subsidies of art. The Social than he needs it. He is truly an autonomous Democratic Party of Norway collaborated artist, and a winning loser. His has become with Petterson and Nerdrum when the gov- the stuff artists’ myths are made of. ernment decided to establish two new posi- tions for professors of at the state art academy, against it’s will, and 13. THE FINAL BLOW - THE CROSSOVER against the will of the artists’ organization - of which Nerdrum has never been a mem- In 1998, when Nerdrum had his very ber, and whose journal always has charac- first large retrospective show, it took place terized him in negative terms. He is proba- in a private art museum, recently estab- bly the best selling Norwegian artist today. lished by one of the leading Norwegian Thus, Nerdrum has consistently avoid- financiers based on his own collection of art ed joining the network of the Norwegian - the only private art museum in Norway. A curatoriat. Because of this, he has not museum and a collection owing nothing to received its artistic recognition, and has not the curatoriat, like Nerdrum. At the open- gained symbolic power within the ing, in front of the most exclusive gathering Norwegian art world. He owes it nothing. of art lovers, collectors and curators per- haps ever seen in Norway, he declared him- self a kitsch painter. I am not an artist, my 11. THE LOW RECOGNITION OF THE paintings are kitsch, he exclaimed, to the NORWEGIAN CURATORIAT great consternation of the audience, many of whom were owners of his paintings. It Almost everyone in the Norwegian was like saying I am whoring with my art, I curatoriat is in the service of governmenatl am a pimp for my students, and I do it for institutions or institutions strongly subsi- money. Kitsch, for the curatoriat and for the dized by the egalitarian minded govern- good taste, is both un-aesthetic and un-eth- ment. This yields the curatoriat low inter- ical, and extremely so. Kitsch is everything national authority, because it is considered art is not supposed to be. It is beyond the as having low degree of political and limits of art - the evil of the art world. national autonomy. In other words, it holds 87 His kitsch confession is a logical con- art: Art is more than what meets the eye, sequence of his negative relationship with more than signs where a signifier points to the curatoriat, and his striving for autono- a content. Works of art are also contribu- my. With this confession he gives both a tions to a discourse, not about the content popular and an intellectual explanation for and meaning of the works of art, but about his break with the curatoriat. But he goes the concept of art and the social institution further. By declaring himself a kitsch that produces it. From the first moment painter, and not an artist, he expropriates when an artist comes out of her studio with from the curatoriat its traditional ownership her works, she has to make choices that to the definition of art. He grabs this right appear not to be aesthetic, but social and and distributes it freely to the people. In ethical. Education, membership, outlets for doing this, he supports the egalitarian cul- exhibitions, preferred audience, work prior- tural political message of the political par- ities, sources of income and public utter- ties in Norway: Everybody has a right to art. ances are but a few examples. When such The logical consequence of that policy is choices are made, they lead to a certain that everybody has a right to his own con- playground, and to a certain social position cept of art. Nerdrum gives them this right. as player in the art world. The works of art And they love it, and they love him, then will be read as signs for the positions because his paintings look more like art taken. The aesthetic decisions reached in than the works of any other artist they the studio have social and ethical effects. know. Thus, the concept of art as we have Not even Nerdrum can escape such choic- understood it since the 18th century disin- es. It is only from a misrecognized, that is, tegrates and disappears. With his doctrine a de facto recognized symbolic position of of kitsch, Nerdrum attacs the concept of power in the art world, that he can attack art, and thereby challenges the power of and undermine it. the curatoriat. This puts him on par with When recognition from the curatoriat the surrealists and dadaists of the 1920’s. threatens his autonomy, Nerdrum flees He turns Duchamp upside down, and para- from it by placing himself outside the con- phrases Magritte by saying about himself cept of art. And why shouldn’t he? An art and his paintings: I am not an artist. This is world that can make kitsch into art, must not art. Duchamp’s followers turned kitsch accept that someone can turn this miracu- into art. Now Nerdrum turns art into kitsch, lous transfiguration against itself, and turn the opposite way of Danto’s Transfiguration art into kitsch. Only the ones who hold the of the commonplace. He is the winning greatest symbolic power can do that. The loser. He has won freedom from the cultur- paradox is that it is only within the per- al order established by the curatoriat, by spective of the art world the possibility of using the institutional framwork of art this is surprising. against itself. The greater his support from the het- eronomous parts of the art world - the com- 15. CROSSING OVER WITHOUT A CROSS- mercial and political playgrounds, with OVER their markets, media, their public and politicians - the greater became his power By declaring his paintings kitsch and to undermine the curatoriat and its concept naming himself a kitsch painter, Nerdrum of art. As result, the attacks from the cura- performs the largest possible crossover in toriat became stronger, and in turn, it the art world. It is so large that he possibly served only to weaken its own position. has even crossed its borders, and finds Today it has understood the working of this himself outside the art world. Crossing such mechanism, and runs after Nerdrum as if to borders - cultural orders - is what crossover redeem old sins. The kitsch doctrine was is about. However, his paintings are the Nerdrum’s answer to its proposals. same as before the great cultural leap. They have not crossed a border. What has crossed a border, then? Nerdrum’s name 14. THE SOCIAL COMPONENT OF ART has crossed the borders of symbolic power. The question is, will this give rise to a Nerdrum’s actions make visible some- kitsch world, like the moderne concept of thing which is normally is out of view, but art gave rise to an art world? Or will kitsch which is valid for all artists and all works of continue to be the underworld of the art 88 world - a hell for sinners against the para- ≥ Dag Solhjell - is a sociologist of visual disical order of the art world? arts. He has published several books including Formidler og formidlet. En teori … a reference to the feeling of pleasure om kunstformidling i praksis, Oslo 2001. and displeasure …designates nothing whatsoever in the object, but here the sub- ject feels himself how he is affected by the presentation. (Kant) l

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