Studying an art world means tracing, mapping and analyzing shifts in the structure, relationships and attitudes in the social network of specific forms of art. This book presents four lectures on different aspects of the art world held on a two-day congress in April 1993 at the Department of Art Studies at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. The congress was organized to present the Department of Art Studies - established in 1989 - to the outside world. In the teaching and research programme of this department emphasis is placed on the history, sociology and economy of art and culture. This interdisciplinary approach was reflected in the four lectures of the congress.

Contents: JOHN MICHAEL MONTIAS, Market and patronage in the Netherlandish art   WALTER GRASSKAMP, Art and money. Scenes of a mixed marriage   KEES BRUIN, Rembrandt in Amsterdam, Berlin and London   HOWARD S. BECKER, American popular songs