Art in conflict. Causes and dynamics of art scandals

• Applicant: Dr. Uta Karstein
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 563007317

In recent years, the art world has been rocked by a series of scandals in the USA and Germany, with accusations of sexism and illegitimate cultural appropriation taking center stage. In the subsequent reactions, these criticisms are themselves problematized as attacks on artistic freedom. Not only contemporary artists are affected, but also older works and the institutions that exhibit or perform them. The starting point of the project is the well-founded assumption that the more recent art scandals differ from other art scandals in both historical and systematic terms - however, such a systematization of (art) scandals has not yet been available either in the sociology of art or in scandal research. The project therefore first subjects selected recent cases to a systematic analysis and then compares them with other types of art scandals under the auspices of differentiation theory. This preliminary heuristic typology will be reviewed and further developed as part of the research process. The aim is not only to gain a better understanding of the particularities of recent art scandals and their social relevance, but also to bring sociological scandal theory and empirical differentiation research together and to further develop them conceptually.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants