The Individual Dimension of the Action of the Contemporary Audience in the Field of Traditional and Modern Painting Art of Iran based on Bourdieu's Theory of Cultural Capital

Introduction: The necessity of studying possible factors involved in the quality of interaction of the contemporary audience with the traditional arts, including the important missions of artists, researchers and thinkers of the society in preserving the values ​​and fundamentals of the original art works, considering the importance and position of the audience in the process of producing and shaping artworks. This problem is seriously discussed in Iranian painting and makes more research in this field necessary. There are many factors involved in the interaction of the contemporary audience with the art of painting, but among these, cultural factors are so important and effective. According to Bourdieu, the perception of historical classic arts depends on the acquisition of perceptual skills, which also depends on the benefit of cultural capital. Cultural capital is the contribution of society's people to the sublime culture of that society, which affects their interaction with artworks. Bourdieu divides cultural capital into three areas: internal cultural capital, external cultural capital and institutional cultural capital.  Aim: the aim of this study is analyzing the institutional cultural capital and its relationship with the action of the contemporary audience in the field of traditional and modern painting art. Main Question: how, based on Bourdieu's theory of institutional cultural capital, can the individual dimension of the action of the contemporary audience be analyzed in the field of traditional and modern painting art of Iran?  The sub-questions are: 1- What is the relationship between Bourdieu's institutional cultural capital indicators, including people's degree and field of study, their monthly income, and the level of their artistic knowledge, and the first component of the audience's action, including choice of traditional and modern Iranian paintings and the criterion of applying Bourdieu's aesthetic criteria by the audience? 2- What is the relationship between Bourdieu's institutional cultural capital indicators, including people's degree and field of study, their monthly income, and the level of their artistic knowledge, with the second component of audience’s action, including the extent and manner of audience’s interaction with the work of art and providing solutions to increase this interaction?
 Method: The current research was carried out with a descriptive-analytical method and with the approach of artistic sociology based on Bourdieu's theories about cultural capital. In the qualitative part, the information was collected by the library-document method and in the quantitative part, by the electronic survey method and by using an online and field questionnaire. The analysis of the qualitative part is based on Bourdieu's theory of institutionalized cultural capital and its analysis in the field of Iranian painting art and in the field section, statistical data was collected by an online questionnaire prepared by the authors, and then data analysis and correlation analysis were performed using SPSS 27 software, and the significance level of the data was considered less than 0.05. The questions of the online questionnaire are designed based on Bourdieu's theory of institutionalized cultural capital and the questions raised in the research. The statistical population of the current research includes all classes of contemporary audiences, including people in different age ranges, different social classes and living in different parts of Iran. In total, the statistical sample size was 100 people. The validity of the questionnaire was also checked based on the opinions of experts in the field of art, and the redesign and modification of the questions were carried out under the supervision of respected professors of art research. Kendall's B&C test was used to determine the relationship between the rank variables mentioned in the questionnaire and the correlation analysis in SPSS 27 software at a significance level of 0.05.
Findings: According to our findings, indicators of economic well-being and monthly income of people may affect a small part of how the audience interacts, prioritizing criteria such as a sense of belonging and empathy in selecting works and interacting with them. In fact, as Bourdieu believes in this regard, people who are not concerned about the material necessities of life and have a relative level of well-being, have shown different actions and according to the findings of this research, they have other criteria in selecting and interacting with paintings. However, providing solutions to improve the interaction of the audience with this art has attracted the attention of many people from all levels of economic well-being and education, which shows the importance of serious scientific and practical attention to it. In general, with the qualitative and quantitative analysis of research findings, the individual dimension of the contemporary audience's action in the field of traditional and modern painting art of Iran, both in the way of selecting works and in the way of interacting with them, was in accordance with the indicators of Bourdieu's theory of institutionalized cultural capital, and we found the increase of artistic information of the society has the greatest impact on their action.