Share:


“I am not an artist, I make art”: amateurish artists in Israel and the sense of creativity

    Shahar Marnin-Distelfeld Affiliation
    ; Uri Dorchin Affiliation

Abstract

This study deals with self-taught visual artists who are considered “amateurish” by the establishment of the Memorial Center in Kiryat Tiv’on, Israel, where they have exhibit their artwork. We will try to figure out both the explicit and implicit characteristics of “amateurish” artists, and challenge the supposed linkage between amateurism and lack of creativity. The methodology applied combines a sociological point of view, drawing on in-depth interviews with the artists, along with a visual analysis of the artwork produced. The theory of “modest” artists, by Marie Buscatto, and the theory of serious leisure perspective by Robert A. Stebbins, will contribute supportive classifications and categories for the analysis. We claim that the artists of our study are located on an axis between “amateurish” and “professional” within a fluid area of “serious leisure”. They are regarded as “amateurish” due to their lack of academic background in the arts, their relatively old age, having encountered lack of official recognition, having come across various obstacles in displaying their art and having received low remunerations. Aside from their marginal position in the art field, we were able to detect a few characteristics that distinguish their artwork from that of “professionals”. Our findings prove them to constitute an in-between category of “modest” or “serious-leisure-amateurish” artists, which blurs the dichotomy between “amateurish” and “professional” artists imposed by the establishment. We found these “modest” artists’ experiences to be creative, as well as some of their artwork; nevertheless, this kind of creativity seems to be disregarded by the establishment which perceives creativity as innovation.

Article in English.


„Aš nesu menininkas, aš kuriu meną“: Izraelio menininkai mėgėjai ir kūrybiškumo pojūtis

Santrauka

Šis tyrimas susijęs su savamoksliais vizualiųjų menų kūrėjais, kurie vertinami kaip „mėgėjai“, Kirijat Tivone (Izraelis) įkūrus memorialinį centrą, kuriame jie eksponuoja savuosius meno kūrinius. Pabandysime išsiaiškinti tiek tikslias, tiek tik numanomas menininkų „mėgėjų“ charakteristikas bei užginčyti spėjamą mėgėjiškumo ir kūrybiškumo stokos sąsają. Taikoma metodologija apima sociologinį požiūrio tašką, remiantis išsamiais interviu su menininkais, taip pat meno kūrinio vizualinę analizę. „Kuklių“ menininkų teorija, kurią išplėtojo Marie Buscatto, ir rimtojo laisvalaikio perspektyva, kurią suformulavo Robertas A. Stebbinsas, padės analizei ją paremiančiomis klasifikacijomis ir kategorijomis. Tvirtiname, kad mūsų tiriamų menininkų vieta yra ties „mėgėjiškumo“ ir „profesionalumo“ ašimi, takioje „rimtojo laisvalaikio“ zonoje. Jie laikomi „mėgėjais“ dėl akademinio išsilavinimo menų srityje stokos, santykinai vyresnio amžiaus, oficialaus pripažinimo nebuvimo, iškilusių įvairių kliūčių demonstruoti savuosius meno kūrinius ir už juos gaunamą nedidelį finansinį atlygį. Nepaisant jų užimamos periferinės pozicijos meno srityje, vis dėlto galėjome nustatyti keletą charakteristikų, kurios atskiria jų meno kūrinius nuo tų, kuriuos sukūrė „profesionalai“. Mūsų išvados įrodo, kad jie priklauso tarpinei „kuklių“ ar „rimtojo laisvalaikio mėgėjų“ menininkų kategorijai, kuri panaikina įsitvirtinusią menininkų „mėgėjų“ ir „profesionalų“ dichotomiją. Nustatėme, kad šių „kuklių“ menininkų patirtis yra kūrybinio pobūdžio kaip ir kai kurie jų meno kūriniai; vis dėlto šio pobūdžio kūrybiškumas, regis, yra ignoruojamas tų sričių profesionalų, kurie suvokia kūrybiškumą kaip inovaciją.

Reikšminiai žodžiai: mėgėjiškasis menas, menininkas mėgėjas, meno sritis, kūrybiškumas, profesionalus menininkas, vizualusis menas.

Keyword : amateurish art, amateurish artist, art field, creativity, professional artist, visual art, serious leisure

How to Cite
Marnin-Distelfeld, S., & Dorchin, U. (2020). “I am not an artist, I make art”: amateurish artists in Israel and the sense of creativity. Creativity Studies, 13(1), 64-86. https://doi.org/10.3846/cs.2020.9907
Published in Issue
Jan 13, 2020
Abstract Views
1440
PDF Downloads
777
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

References

Abbing, H. (2004). The autonomous artist still rules the world of culture. In J. Weijermars, C. Smithuijsen, I. Janssen, van I. Hamersveld (Eds.), A Portrait of the Artist in 2015: Artists Careers and Higher Arts Education in Europe (pp. 55–66). Amsterdam: Boekmanstichting.

Abbing, H. (2002). Why are artists poor? The exceptional economy of the arts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048503650

Becker, H. S. (1982). Art worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Bourdieu, P. (2005). She’elot Besociologia. Tel-Aviv: Resling.

Buscatto, M. (2017). Getting old as an artist: “modest” artists’ trajectories in light of time. University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne [unpublished source].

Cardinal, R. (2009). Outsider art and the autistic creator. Philosophical Transactions, B 364(1522), 1459–1466. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2008.0325

Deener, A. (2009). Forging distinct paths towards authentic identity: outsider art, public interaction, and identity transition in an informal market context. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 38(2), 169–200. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241608316726

Dekel, T. (2015). Lechem Ve Omanut: Yecholet Hahitparnesut Bechavod shel Omaniyoy Mekvuzot Chevratiot Shonot Be Israel. Giluy Da’at, 8, 39–65.

Direktor, R. (2013). Be-maʻagalim aḥerim: oʼutsaiderim, naʼivim, oṭodidaḳṭim. Ḥefah: Muzeʼn Ḥefah le-omanut.

Edmonds, E., & Candy, L. (2002). Creativity, art practice, and knowledge. Communications of the ACM, 45(10), 91–95. https://doi.org/10.1145/570907.570939

Fraser, A. (2005). From the critique of institutions to an institution of critique. Artforum, 44(1), 100–106.

Gadamer, H.-G. (2006). Artworks in word and image: “so true, so full of being!” (Goethe) (1992). Theory, Culture and Society, 23(1), 57–83. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276406063229

Gadamer, H.-G. (1986). The relevance of the beautiful and other essays. R. Bernasconi (Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Horkheimer, M., & Adorno, Th. W. (2002). Dialectic of enlightenment: philosophical fragments. Schmid Noerr, G. (Ed.). Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Krispel, J. (2019). Halevai She’echye Lir’ot Ta’aruchat Omanut Me’anyenet, Erev Rav: Art. Culture. Society. Retrieved from https://www.erev-rav.com/archives/tag/לפסירק- ף

Marnin-Distelfeld, Sh., & Dorchin, U. (2018). Interview with Michal Shachnai Yaacobi, Curator of the Israeli Art Gallery. Memorial Center, Kiryat Tiv’on, Israel [unpublished source].

Miłosz, Cz. (1953). The captive mind. London: Martin Secker & Warburg.

Misrad Hatarbut. (2018). Mivchanei Tmicha Lemosdot Tarbut Ziburim Hamukdashim Le’Omanut Plastit. Retrieved from https://www.gov.il/he/departments/publications/call_for_bids/criteriafix2018

Ofrat, G. (2010). Omanut Minorit: Omanut Yisraelit beshachar Shnot Ha’alpaim. Jerusalem: Israel’s Art.

Radway, J. (1984). Interpretive communities and variable literacies: the functions of romance reading. Daedalus, 113(3), 49–73.

Rose, G. (2012). Visual methodologies: an introduction researching with visual materials. Los Angeles: SAGE.

Schor, M. (2001). Modest painting. Art Issues, 66, 18–21.

Stebbins, R. A. (2015). Serious leisure: a perspective for our time. London and New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137513038_3

Steiner, L., & Schneider, L. (2013). The happy artist: an empirical application of the work-preference model. Journal of Cultural Economics, 37(2), 225–246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-012-9179-1

Trajtenberg, G. (2002). Bein Bourganut Leomanut Plastit Betkufat Ha’Yishuv. Sociologia Yisraelit, 4(1), 7–38.

Tsabar Ben-Yehoshua, N. (2001). Hakdama: Tfisot, Estrategiot Vekelim Mitkadmim. In N. Tsabar BenYehoshua (Ed.), Masorot Uzramim Bamechkar Ha’echutani (pp. 3–28). Lod: Dvir.

Wilf, E. (2012). Rituals of creativity: tradition, modernity, and the “Acoustic Unconscious” in a U.S. collegiate jazz music program. American Anthropologist, 114(1), 32–44. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1433.2011.01395.x