Journal Article

Crafting Authenticity: The Validation of Identity in Self-Taught Art

Fine, Gary Alan

2003

Overview

The desire for authenticity now occupies a central position in contemporary culture. Whether in our search for selfhood, leisure experience, or in our material purchases, we search for the real, the genuine. These terms are not, however, descriptive, but must be situated and defined by audiences. In this analysis, I examine the development of the market for self-taught art, an artistic domain in which the authentic is a central defining feature, conferring value on objects and creators. Self-taught art is a form of identity art in which the characteristics of the artists and their life stories are as important as the formal features of the created objects. The article examines the justifications for this emphasis and the battles over the construction of biography. My examination of self-taught art is grounded in five years of ethnographic observation, interviews, and analyses of texts.

• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Art dealing / Art objects / Art Works / Artists / Arts organizations / Audiences / Authenticity / Creativity / Credibility / Cultural studies / Cultural values / Ethnography / Field notes / Folk art / Identity / Interviews / Leisure / Life history / Modern art / Outsider art / Personhood / Self concept / Self study / Selfinstruction / Social identity / Sociology / Sociology of art and literature / Sociology of knowledge and sociology of culture / Visual arts