Between the market and noncommercial art institutions: Early career strategies of contemporary artists in emerging art scenes.

Highlights • Understandings of success among artists in emerging scenes are highly contextual. • Disavowal of economy is not a universal organizing principle of artistic fields. • Institutional composition of artistic fields affects career strategies. • Dominance of noncommercial art institutions can hinder art market development. • Lack of noncommercial art institutions promotes market development at early stages. Abstract This paper examines early career strategies and understandings of success among artists in the two emerging art scenes of Russia and India. It argues that differences in these understandings and strategies are shaped by the institutional composition of the artistic fields in the two countries. The paper is based on in-depth interviews with early career professional artists conducted in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, New Delhi, and Mumbai. It argues that the Bourdieusian disavowal of economic interests is no universal organizing principle of cultural fields but should instead be seen as highly contextual. In particular, it is less prominent in art scenes where few noncommercial contemporary art institutions exist. Thus, in India, where art dealers are the most powerful gatekeepers, artists' career strategies are informed by market logic. Meanwhile, early career professional artists in the Russian art scene do not see the market as a potential driver of their careers. They engage in close relationships with noncommercial art institutions that provide artistic recognition and promote an anti-market orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]