Nowadays being an artist can be just a job like so many others: a career whose components – aesthetic and social capital – have to be skillfully managed and effectively orchestrated. Artists have learnt to open their lives and work situations up for public scrutiny and present themselves in the ever more popular format of home stories that the lifestyleconscious art, fashion, and popular press serve up to their readers (instead of actual art criticism) as the ultimate in authentic reportage – preferring to portray artists as successful entrepreneurs rather than make the effort of engaging with art. Today’s successful art producers behave more like multinational CEOs or show business celebrities.
Although artists as the (often self-promoting) producers of art goods have always been players in the wider economy, the pressure to professionalize their activities is growing. "Production" has never been so important. Meanwhile the conditions of production and the reception of art are increasingly geared towards the standards set by the "culture industry" and the luxury business. For art itself is undergoing a process of change where the role, the function, and the self-image of artists are all in flux.
These days, when artists’ assistants suddenly step out of the shadows of their employers’ studios and demand recognition as autonomous players with their own projects, it is the outcome of more than just a new sense of self-worth amongst the members of a hitherto largely ignored group of workers. "Carroll Dunham worked for Dorothea Rock burne, Barnaby Furnas worked for Carroll Dunham, Christopher Wool worked for Joel Shapiro, Josh Smith worked for Christopher Wool, Annette Lemieux worked for David Salle, Jacob Kassay worked for Josh Smith, Jackie Saccoccio worked for Christopher Wool, Alexander Ross worked for Julian Lethbridge, Sarah Morris worked for Jeff Koons, Jennifer Rubell worked for Koons, Tony Matelli worked for Koons, Carl Fudge worked for David Reed, Matthew Weinstein worked for Ross Bleckner, Darren Bader worked for Urs Fischer, Rob Pruitt worked for Richard Artschwager, Daphne Fitzpatrick worked for Robert Gober, Robert Gober worked for Jennifer Bartlett, Banks Violette worked for Robert Gober, Margaret Lee worked for Cindy Sherman, Rirkrit Tiravanija worked for Gretchen Bender, Udomsak Krisanamis worked for Rirkrit Tiravanija."1
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