researched the interaction between art and economics at the University of Groningen in the 1970s. In 2002 he published Why are Artists Poor? The Exceptional Economy of the Arts. Having worked as a guest lecturer in Rotterdam and Graz, Abbing was appointed to the Boekman chair in the sociology of art at the University of Amsterdam at the beginning of 2006. His inaugural address, From High Art to New Art, will be published in a revised, expanded form as a book next year. Abbing also works as an artist (draughtsman, painter and photographer).