Social Science Research Council

As part of the 2003 Arts conference series, the SSRC hosted a conference on social science approaches to the analysis of art. The conferees included scholars from the fields of literature, painting, sculpture, economics, ethnomusicology, musicology, communications and performance studies. A volume containing the twelve papers prepared for the meeting is now in preparation, under the working title, "Art from Start to Finish: When Is An Art Work Done?" Howard S. Becker, Robert R. Faulkner, and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett are the editors.

The conference focused on the issue of when a work of art is considered finished, namely, defining the point at which creation is completed. The conferees noted that works in various states of completion—fragments, sketches, unfinished pieces—are taken seriously as works of art. They also discussed the perennial debate within the performing arts regarding who is considered the true artist—the author of the work performed or those performing it.

In the papers posted here, Howard S. Becker lays out the working premise that, in principle, works of art are never truly finished, but have a long history comprised of different stages which can be viewed as "the work." Larry Gross discusses the importance attached by art historians, critics, collectors and museums to fragments. And Scott Deveaux writes on the question of whether a recording or a live performance best captures the essence of jazz.