Common Moments in 20th Century Art & Economics

Fusing Art & Economics

A painting is more objective than the layman believes: it can be judged, and interpreted. All works are not equal. Behind every picture lies a theory, and such theories can blend, mutate and diffuse in art as in any discipline.

Economics articles are more subjective than the pretensions of hard science might claim: some are more enjoyable to read than others, and all depend upon a methodological foundation that shifts over time. A modernist piece of economics is, in many ways, closer to modernist art than it is to classical economics.

Another factor that binds art to economics is the underlying cultural climate — perhaps the key causal variable in the analysis that follows.

The Stream Toward Abstraction

In the increasingly conceptual path of 20th century painting, cubism was a critical junction. Alfred Barr wrote that the art and theories of Cezanne and Seurat "passes through the widening stream of cubism and finds its delta in the various geometrical and constructivist movements."

We can imagine a stream of economic methodology that also leads toward increasing abstraction, but where the critical junction was a Positivist engulfment. The twin contributions of Picasso and Friedman demonstrate an engulfment that paved the way for high modernism.

"Moments" are a postmodern method of deconstruction. All action occurs within broad movements of thought, but such movements are the conscious creation of individuals — leading to a comparison of individual works, within the apparatus of movements.

Futurism & Schumpeter

Contrast the futurist vision with the economics of Joseph Schumpeter. The Austrian's economics is driven by spurts of innovation — technological shifts — that destroy established businesses and creates new ones. A capitalist economy is portrayed as essentially dynamic, and therefore a process of economic change is imperative to capture within theory.

Indeed the dust jacket of Schumpeter's classic Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy uses the Futurist technique of simultaneity. The second direct relevance of Futurism for economic methodology concerns the capturing of time. In the simple supply/demand graph, when an exogenous force affects demand we depict it by shifting the curve: an instantaneous leap from one equilibrium point to another. Futurism illustrates an endogenous dynamism missing from most art, and most economics.

The Cubist Engulfment

Whereas cubist art became increasingly intellectual, the futurists engaged. As a productive movement it had died out by the 1920s since their thirst for war proved incompatible with a sustainable association. The demise was also due to an engulfment by cubist style.

Comparing two Boccioni paintings best sees the cubist influence on futurism. In The City Rises we see an immense equine perfectly encapsulate the power of progress to both enthral and scare. It was painted in 1910, the year that Boccioni visited Paris and became exposed to cubism. Upon his return he painted State of Minds, and the engulfment is striking.

The Artist as Entrepreneur

We can bring the artist into the fray, and liken them to entrepreneurs. Amidst uncertainty, they must speculate as to reception their work will receive, and whilst an artist's aspiration might well be prestige rather than pecuniary income they will still create for an impact. They try to predict, they assemble, they create. The idea that commerce and culture are at odds is a modern conception.

If artists are entrepreneurs, then there's enough deviation in the entrepreneurship literature to justify a brief review before drawing the parallel further.

Two Theories of Entrepreneurship

In Theory of Economic Development, Joseph Schumpeter defines entrepreneurship as new combinations — "the different employment of the economic system's existing supplies of productive means." These types of innovation are the catalyst of a dynamic economy. The entrepreneur takes an existing stock — equilibrium — and disrupts it.

The common contrast is the work of Israel Kirzner. In Competition and Entrepreneurship he resurrected an alternative notion whereby entrepreneurs move an economy toward equilibrium. Kirzner added to Cantillon the notion of alertness — a costless discovery mechanism for unique information, or undiscovered opportunity.