Artist Names as Human Brands: Brand Determinants, Creation and co-Creation Mechanisms

Abstract

Considering all transactions related to modern and contemporary visual artists mediated by galleries in Italy between 2007 and 2012, we propose an empirical measure of artist brand and explore its relationship with artist-specific characteristics, such as talent, fame, and popularity, through a structural model. We find that artist brand depends positively on talent, fame, and popularity. Moreover, we find that a co-creation mechanism is at work in the Italian art market, where galleries choose their specialization strategies in picking their artist portfolios. We interpret our findings in light of a novel conceptual framework of human branding and co-creation in the visual art market.