A discussion of commerce is located at the article of that name.

Commercialism in art

Critics may accuse an artist of excess commercialism (colloquially, selling out) if they believe that he has compromised the quality of his work for monetary gain. An independent band that signs a contract with a major record label; a novelist recruited by a major publishing effort; a comic artist who begins merchandising his work may all be accused (depending on the circumstances) of selling out. (For a more detailed discussion of commercialism in contemporary music, see Selling out.)

Conventional wisdom holds that genius is underappreciated in its own time; one might compare Vincent Van Gogh, who struggled for regognition during his life but is now a household word, with his contemporary Jean-Léon Gérôme, whose paintings and reproductions enjoyed immense popularity, but has since faded into relative obscurity. Gérôme has been variously accused of pandering to Orientalist fantasies and essentially peddling highbrow pornography (in essence, painting commercially motivated material instead of "high art"); no one would accuse Van Gogh of pandering to his audience.

Modern examples are aplenty: one might compare Jim Davis, who built a commercial empire around merchandising his comic strip Garfield; the cartoon cat's image appears on everything from Post-it notes to plush dolls, to Bill Watterson, who steadfastly refused to permit any products (save for books of his strips) to be marketed with the characters from Calvin and Hobbes.