Hans Abbing is a Dutch painter, a sociologist and a cultural economist, concerned with exploitation in the arts economy. His 2002 book Why Are Artists Poor? The Exceptional Economy of the Arts addresses the equation of art with un-payable and unpaid work as a recent phenomenon, from a socialist economist’s perspective.
He poses challenging questions as to how arts councils are controlled by business interests, leading to conservatism and financial impoverishment among artistic creators. But Abbing is not a mere defender of artists’ interests—he also wants to encourage artists into being more aware about money.
His inquiries are intellectual, searching, often scientific, but his quest and social consciousness inevitably touches on the personal, proceeding from his own experiences as a painter confronted by the poverty of other artists.
