Graphic arts attract the attention of all those who enter in visual contact with them.
This basic assumption seems to have been the reason behind the financing of the different forms of graphic arts throughout history and among all civilizations. Let's be clear, without financing, art would never have acquired its “art” status as we know it nowadays. Without financing, art would have remained limited to a hobby, executed after the job at best, relegating its practitionners to a beginners approach with few possibilities of qualitative development. Difficult, indeed, to imagine quality growth if one's artistic activity can't be pursued over the long haul. It is, indeed, this long time span in an artist's life that needs to be financed through purchases of his productions or through different means. By the end of the day, it is this same financing that gave their exposure to art works. And by doing so, art works appreciated in value. At this stage of the argument we have reached the economic logic that drives the art market.
For sure, purchases of art productions have taken different forms throughout history and civilizations. We can argue that the word purchases sometimes does not give the right description of how an artist was given to spend his time in his art instead of being obliged to toil for his survival. But what is a constant is that the long time span in an artist's life has always been financed, or through purchases of his productions or through financing of his material needs, these two terms conveying to the same outcome. Sure enough these two terms led to different artistic histories but the end of our story is that the art market today overwhelmingly embraces the lifes of all artists on our planet. The art market originated in Europe as early as the 15th century, for this very reason, the next steps of my argument shall naturally concentrate exclusively on the historic developments in the Western world.
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