Artistic Work as a Profession

Though in a postmodern phase like the current it still has meaning to argue on the artist's work and, in particular, if such work has to be considered a profession bound to a career. From a sociological point of view a profession as such might be considered a self-employed activity with a relatively open recruiting modality because it is not controlled. The constitutive ability of the artist's work is, indeed, neither controlled nor legally acknowledged, even though the artist's capacity is the demonstration of his belonging to the world of art. In that work remains, therefore, an impossibility of unitary or shared identification in relation to the professionalism which remains linked to the auto-definition and/or the acknowledgement of the market. In this article are presented the results of some researches which point out how the artist considers himself and how his public considers him.