Art World Urbanism: On Iconic Cities and Urban Myths

This paper seeks to answer the questions: What kind of cities does the art world mobilize in and pay attention to? How do cities shape the careers of artists? Looking at iconic cities within the art world of contemporary visual art, I suggest that the concepts of iconicity and myth help us answer these questions. Drawing upon research on early career artists who are seeking to establish themselves as visual artists in Berlin and New York, this paper traces how these iconic cities are imbued with myths that are collectively shared and widely recognized. These myths, such as the central importance of New York’s galleries and institutions or Berlin as a mecca for up-and-coming artists, resonate beyond the city and into the global art world. Early career artists who are ‘based in Berlin’ or ‘live and work in New York’ benefit from the symbolic resonance of myths. This resonance on an international scale is important for early career artists, especially in an increasingly ‘global’ art world. But on a more local scale, within both cities, artists learn to embody, perform and confront myths that circulate differently in New York and Berlin. The myths of these and other iconic cities take on a deep and sustained power, even when the specific urban conditions of a city change.