Artists must make a living. Discover who we chose and how they were related to insurance.
When you evaluate options for your future jobs, think of artists who worked for insurance companies. It was their daily bread and sometimes a source of inspiration. For you, to know these artists will be part of your cultural background, it will make you a more interesting person to talk to. It will distinguish you from the crowd. And, foremost, you will derive much joy and fun, and some adrenaline shots, from discovering what I call Insurance-Linked-Stories (as a sublimation of Insurance-Linked-Securities).
In this podcast, I shall mention a few writers, composers, painters and philosophers who have a large audience that often ignores how they made a living.
Have you ever read The Trial or The Castle? Franz Kafka, the famous Czech writer, was an employee of the Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute in Prague that was a thoroughly bureaucratic organization. In the books, this is reflected by a world where individuals are powerless against a system that neither explains itself nor offers escape. The threat is not physical but psychological and existential.
One of the greatest American poets of the 20th century, Stevens Wallace worked as an insurance executive at The Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company for most of his life. He even turned down a Harvard professorship to stay in insurance. His poetry might have been a way of escaping the world of mortality tables
An innovative American composer, Charles Ives worked as an insurance executive and actuary, pioneering modern insurance practices. His musical work was highly experimental, but he made his living through insurance. His compositions are truly innovative but shockingly dissonant; you are confused, and even more so when the orchestra needs two conductors. Are they a mirror of a newly arrived employee in an insurance company?
Before achieving fame as a surrealist painter, René Magritte worked for an insurance company in Belgium, designing wallpaper and advertisements. Have a look at The Son of Man, The Lovers or The Castle of the Pyrenees to get a flavor of his art, which is unsettling.
While better known as a management theorist, Peter Drucker wrote extensively and worked in insurance before becoming a professor and writer. For many people of my generation, he was a source of inspiration and of practical advice for our management tasks.
Food for thoughts!
And more food if you follow us!
Paul.
P.S. Don´t forget to ask PAVEL anything about insurance.
Share this post