This chapter addresses the pressures contemporary artists are under, by exploring how they face the challenge of balancing commercial requirements with the pursuit of artistic independence. It takes up this issue by focusing on the private patronage in the arts, considering if and how artists would choose to draw the lines vis-à-vis a private patron. It explores how 17 Dutch creators perceive of the room of negotiation available to them in their interactions with (potential) benefactors, and how they envisage their own position and agency in these give-and-takes. The chapter examines what artists see as the costs and benefits of their choice of financial resources and offers an analysis of the types of reciprocal return gifts that artists would or would not be prepared to offer their (prospective) patrons. It argues that a need for legitimacy and validation is prevalent both in their patronage strategies and in their funding choices, in general. Considerations around autonomy also play an important and nuanced role, with artists trying to find the right balance between financial stability and freedom. In relation to their (prospective) patrons, tight boundary control seems needed: artists propose putting limits on interference and intrusion, on the one hand, while still leaving room for the involvement and loyalty of their donors, on the other. Constructing a ‘negotiated autonomy’, they resist offering their patrons forms of impact on their work, feeling more comfortable with granting their benefactors either small material tokens or immaterial forms of recognition and validation instead.

Onderwerpen: 2020-heden autonomie

Auteur: prof. dr. Helleke van den Braber