Quote Originally Posted by lendelin
Artists have to make a living, right?
Sure, but not just artists - everyone should make a living, though many people choose not to.

Very few can live actually from their art and therefore have another job. Rembrandt was a businessman and had to live from his art, but he was a bad one and died in poverty, and Rubens who lived a couple of houses down in Amsterdam was a fanatstic businessman and had the house of a nobleman. Mozart was, Brecht was...Every artist depends on selling his art, and they depend on the ones who can pay for it - the church, the clergy, aristocracy, the emerging middle class in the 18th and 19th century, communities and cities, museums, the state and federal governments.
Just because you don't know about an artist (your next door neighbor, a little old lady two towns over) doesn't mean that they aren't an artist.

And in both cases (neighbor, little old lady) they might be among the best artists in the world. But for whatever reason, they might keep their art to themselves, or at the very least, not earn a dime from it.

But they're still artists. And their art is not a buisness proposition, nor would they ever want it to be. So...

Quote Originally Posted by lendelin
Every form of art always was and is business
...is just not true.