Theory of the Young-Artist

Letter from the Editor

Saturday, September 27, 2025

Dear _____,

A young artist* wants to be treated with respect.
To feel welcome.
To be paid accordingly.
Not to hear they are being compensated in symbolic capital, or with the vague promise of future acquisitions.

When the artist arrives at an opening, they want to feel invited.
They bring their friends, their parents.
They mobilize a massive support structure: emotional, logistical, financial.
They are not only exploiting themselves, they’re also drawing heavily on that support structure.

The relationship with the gallerist is often close.
Sometimes too close.
The gallerist becomes a friend, a therapist, a mentor, a manager.
Or a curator becomes a friend.
But sometimes, that intimacy turns toxic.
And sometimes, the artist just prefers a clear business relationship, a contract, a blue-chip gallery, sales only, no strings attached.

At times, an agency steps in, managing the studio, providing additional sales or other income.
Sometimes the artist works more like an art director, co-producing with institutions from the world of dance or theatre or music or film.

The artist is complicated.
One that requires care.
The artist is the currency.
The core.
And yet, this is so often forgotten.

The so-called “art world” has long shifted toward an “art industry”.
It no longer suggests a utopian space or shared ground.
Instead: contracts, fees, bureaucracies.

The artist spends more than 80% of their time managing themselves.
But this self-management is important, a form of protection.

And yet at the same time, the artist craves liberty.
Wants to stay spontaneous.
Wants the option to break the contract, to change the plan, to trust intuition, to dismantle the institution.
To destabilise oneself.

Thank you.

Outro

PROVENCE

Theory of the Young-Artist

In June 2025, the first Artists’ Assembly took place at Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, as part of the International Art Professional Forum (IAPF). The IAPF is a new initiative stemming from Zurich Art Weekend. It takes the form of a closed-door program with four simultaneous sessions, each dedicated to a specific group: artists, collectors, curators, and museum directors.

The Artists’ Assembly brought together twenty emerging and established artists from diverse backgrounds. On a Saturday morning, just before Art Basel began, the discussion circled around what kind of representation artists actually need. Artists speak to each other all the time—late at night in bars, in Instagram DMs, through gossip and rivalry—but this morning felt different. Everyone was open and frank, unguarded and willing to support one another.

The following day, all four groups reconvened over a hotel brunch, where each host reported back to the full IAPF gathering. Tobias Kaspar, who hosted the Artists’ Assembly, chose to do what one does at Cabaret Voltaire: write a manifesto. He transformed his notes from the previous morning into a short, pointed text. The title makes a nod to The Theory of the Young-Girl by Tiqqun, first published in 1999.

The Theory of the Young-Artist borrows its title from Tiqqun’s text, which used the figure of the “Young-Girl” as a prism to examine how capitalism co-opts identity, desire, and subjectivity. Here, the “Young-Artist” stands for every artist—emerging, mid-career, or older—who navigates an art system that demands both vulnerability and self-protection, spontaneity and constant self-management.

* In this case, “young” stands for any artist, because every artist, no matter if mid-career or much older, was once young and still is.

PROVENCE