Negotiating Identity: Esteban Vicente, the New York School and the Tension between Market Demands and Self-positioning
Art Market Studies
About this Item
- Title
- Negotiating Identity: Esteban Vicente, the New York School and the Tension between Market Demands and Self-positioning
- Date
- 2025
- Degree Information
- MA Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York 2026
- Department: Art Market Studies
- Advisor: Luise Mahler
- Committee Members: Paul Melton; Natasha Degen
- Abstract
-
This thesis investigates the trajectory of Spanish painter Esteban Vicente (1903–2001) to explore the tension between structural constraints and individual agency in the Postwar American art market. While traditional art history often frames the Abstract Expressionist canon as a meritocratic evolution of style, this study utilizes the sociological frameworks of Harrison and Cynthia White’s "dealer-critic system" to argue that Vicente’s marginalization was a structural inevitability rather than an artistic failure.
The research proceeds in three acts. First, it maps the "Dealer-Critic" machinery of the New York School, analyzing how dealers, critics, and Cold War politics constructed a rigid national narrative that merged "American" identity with artistic validity. Second, it traces Vicente’s exercise of agency within this structural landscape, arguing that his refusal to perform the "action painter" persona or assimilate his Spanish heritage into the dominant American mythos made him institutionally illegible.
Finally, it analyzes the economic consequences of these negotiations, contrasting the "administrative pricing" that contained his value during his lifetime with the explosive market revaluation that occurred posthumously. The recent surge in Vicente’s auction prices, driven by a strategic rebranding of his work through a "Spanish" and "Pastoral" lens, demonstrates that artistic legitimacy in the contemporary U.S. market is not determined by merit alone, but constructed through the interaction of identity politics, institutional framing, and market valuation. - Keyword
- Art history
- Fine arts
- American studies
- Art market
- Contemporary art
- Esteban Vicente
- New York School
- Dealer-critic system
- Rights
- In Copyright
- The copyright for this work is held by its author/creator(s). Usage of this material beyond what is permitted by copyright law must first be cleared with the rights-holder(s). This work has been made available online by the Fashion Institute of Technology Gladys Marcus Library strictly for research and educational purposes. If you are the copyright holder for this work and have any objections to this work being made available online, please notify us immediately at [email protected].
- This item must not be sold to any third party vendors.
- Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
- Identifier
- FIT Repository ID: etd_001050
- Submission ID: 10479
- ISBN: 9798276004204
- Publisher
- Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,
Citation
De Alvear Sánchez de León, L. (2025). Negotiating Identity: Esteban Vicente, the New York School and the Tension between Market Demands and Self-positioning. FIT Institutional Repository. https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/669411
De Alvear Sánchez de León, Laura. Negotiating Identity: Esteban Vicente, the New York School and the Tension Between Market Demands and Self-positioning. 2025. FIT Digital Repository, https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/669411
De Alvear Sánchez de León, Laura. "Negotiating Identity: Esteban Vicente, the New York School and the Tension Between Market Demands and Self-positioning." FIT Digital Repository, 2025. https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/669411