Tbh i wonder how much the "starving artist" is a category created strictly from capitalism.

What ppl don't realize when they tell kids to "go to art school" as a one fix all solution is that there's gatekeeping there too. It's academia linked to more institutions.

Between that and recognizing times throughout history that the government even commissioned artist to make work. if we wanted to make these jobs for making art easy to access we could but instits often endorse when convienant

And there's a reason that some of the most famous artist never received recognition until after death. Post mortem exploitation.
That exclusion is part of whqt makes art authenticated by the Elite.

Personally i see this post mortem exploitation as an extension of settler practices like mysticism where they were grave robbing to acquire wealth.

And the art industry in itself is money laundering and the non profit industrial complex. It's why u see celebs approximate to indivs like Marina Abramovich before getting involved in the fine Arts

So often the road to aquiring institutional wealth occurs through authentication by approximation.

If u look at the modeling world and the concept of the "it girl" (as i shared straight from a professional Photographer while explaining the difference between commercial and editorial models. Its a similar idea of transferring wealth from those that generate it to agencies.