Organizing artistic production

I develop a theory of the organization of artistic production. I begin by characterizing this process as requiring the performance of two types of tasks: Artistic tasks and mundane tasks. I argue that the nature of artistic tasks is such that artists are unlikely to ever be employed in someone else's firm. Instead, they will head their own firm. I also argue that the artist's choice of which tasks, including mundane ones, will be supplied in their firm, which by independent contractors, and which by the artist themselves will depend on the artist's cost of evaluating their performance via direct monitoring, market transaction. I provide empirical content to the model by discussing the historical evidence on the production of art in Late Medieval and Renaissance Italy.