Inspired by French pragmatism and using Bourdieu's notion of “refraction” as an indication of a field's autonomy, we explore in‐depth what kinds of justifications visual artists deploy to legitimate their requests for government money. Based on 494 government grant proposals from visual artists between 1965 and 2015 in Belgium, we find six such justifications. The reputational, esthetic, and romantic justifications are grounded in autonomous criteria of worth, such as artistic CVs, the work of art itself, and a compulsive desire to make art. Since the 90s, social, academic, and entrepreneurial justifications bring in heteronomous criteria, or refractions of field‐external values. Artistic practices become increasingly legitimized through engagement with social/political issues, academic methods and terminology, and an entrepreneurial spirit. We empirically show how the refraction of governmental logics is multi‐faceted, yet always related to or combined with artistic concerns, which we interpret as characteristic for the artistic field's persisting autonomy in the face of heteronomous pressures.

中文翻译：

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从饥饿的艺术家到企业家。视觉艺术家资助提案中的正当多元化。

受法国实用主义的启发，并使用布迪厄的“折射”概念作为一个领域自主性的指示，我们深入探讨了视觉艺术家为使他们对政府资金的要求合法化而部署的正当理由。根据 1965 年至 2015 年间比利时视觉艺术家的 494 份政府拨款提案，我们发现了六个这样的理由。声誉、审美和浪漫的理由基于自主的价值标准，例如艺术简历、艺术作品本身以及对艺术的强迫欲望。自 90 年代以来，社会、学术和企业家的理由带来了他律的标准，或领域外部价值观的折射。通过参与社会/政治问题、学术方法和术语，艺术实践变得越来越合法化，和企业家精神。我们实证地展示了政府逻辑的折射如何是多方面的，但始终与艺术关注相关或结合，我们将其解释为艺术领域在面对他律压力时持续自治的特征。