More Worth Than Money: The Happiness of Success

When Gerhard Richter was honoured on the occasion of his 80th birthday (in 2012) by numerous exhibitions, newspaper articles, television documentaries and radio reports, he was sometimes asked what it meant to him to be the most expensive living painter in Germany. Richter was visibly embarrassed. "It's just as absurd as the financial crisis - incomprehensible, silly, unpleasant," he commented on the price development of his pictures. Indeed, the handling of sums of millions, and the placement on a ranking list drawn up according to purely economic criteria, quickly threatens to obscure the actual artistic achievement. Nevertheless, his art made Richter a rich man. But also a happy one, too? Obviously.

Whether sculptors, painters or actors - artists are much happier with their work than people in other professions. This is shown by a representative study from 2012 by the German Institute for Economic Research. "Artists derive a much greater benefit from the activity itself than from the money they earn from it," says Lasse Schneider, one of the study's authors. "This is mainly because they perceive their work as particularly self-determined and versatile."

From this point of view, there is also a generous amount of luck in every picture and every sculpture that leaves the studio of a visual artist exclusively as a finished work. And on top of that, there is the happiness of the viewer who can admire the art in a museum or even on their own four walls...