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Fame as an Illusion of Creativity: Evidence from the Pioneers of Abstract Art

Author

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  • Mitali, Banerjee

    (HEC Paris - Strategy & Business Policy)

  • Ingram, Paul L.

    (Columbia Business School - Management)

Abstract

We build a social structural model of fame, which departs from the atomistic view of prior literature where creativity is the sole driver of fame in creative markets. We test the model in a significant empirical context: 90 pioneers of the early 20th century (1910–25) abstract art movement. We find that an artist in a brokerage rather than a closure position was likely to become more famous. This effect was not, however, associated with the artist’s creativity, which we measured using both objective computational methods and subjective expert evaluations, and which was not itself related to fame. Rather than creativity, brokerage networks were associated with cosmopolitan identities—broker’s alters were likely to differ more from each other’s nationalities--and this was the key social-structural driver of fame.

Suggested Citation

  • Mitali, Banerjee & Ingram, Paul L., 2018. "Fame as an Illusion of Creativity: Evidence from the Pioneers of Abstract Art," HEC Research Papers Series 1305, HEC Paris.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebg:heccah:1305
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    Cited by:

    1. Dakshina G De Silva & Georgia Kosmopoulou & Rachel A J Pownall & Robert Press, 2022. "Posthumous trading patterns affecting artwork prices [Financial returns, price determinants, and genre effects in American art investment]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(2), pages 453-472.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    fame; creativity; identity; creative markets; social networks; social structure;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature

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