The artist's world changed when those who were involved with exhibitions began to take over the functions of critiquing and defining art from those who had previously commissioned art -- courts and the church. Batschmann shows how art exhibition pioneers undertook new artistic tasks: to assert themselves in the face of competition, to become the talk of the town, to attract the public, and to procure an income for themselves. These tasks introduced an array of new problems for artists, from questions about artistic freedom to the social duty of the artist, from the identification of artists as the avant-garde of society and art to the latent aggression of the public and art critics. In his examination of 250 years of art history, the author uncovers reciprocal relations between the production of art and its representation, between exhibitions and an aggressive cheering public, and between animosity toward the artist and admiration. The final chapter of the bookpresents a fascinating selection of largely unknown writings from the eighteenth through twentieth centuries dealing with the history and problems of exhibition artists.