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

Author(s): Gary Alan Fine

Source: Theory and Society, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Apr., 2003), pp. 153-180
Published by: Springer
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Crafting authenticity:The validation of identity in
self-taught art

GARYALAN FINE
Northwestern University

Abstract. The desirefor authenticitynow occupiesa centralposition in contemporary

culture.Whether in our search for selfhood, leisure experience,or in our material
purchases,we searchfor the real,the genuine.Thesetermsarenot, however,descriptive,
but must be situatedand definedby audiences.In this analysis,I examinethe develop-
ment of the marketfor self-taughtart, an artistic domain in which the authenticis a
central definingfeature,conferringvalue on objects and creators.Self-taughtart is a
form of identityart in whichthe characteristicsof the artistsand theirlife storiesare as
importantas the formalfeaturesof the createdobjects.The articleexaminesthe justifi-
cations for this emphasis and the battles over the construction of biography.My
examinationof self-taughtart is groundedin five years of ethnographicobservation,
interviews,and analysesof texts.

ProfessorWillemVolkersz:When did you put your name on the side of the

house?
Folk Artist Hans Jorgensen:Huh?
Professor:I notice you put your name on the side of the house there.
Artist:Yeah.
Professor:Whendid you do that?
Artist:Oh, aboutthreeor fouryearsago.
Professor:It'slike signinga workof art.
Artist:Hah! Wouldyou call that art?
Professor:I do.
Artist:Do you?It's not fancy.
Professor:Plain.Plain art.
Artist:Yeah.
Professor:Well, there's some people that we call folk artists. People who
didn'tgo to school to learnto be artists.
Artist:Yeah.Well,if went to school I wouldn'ta done this, wouldI?
Professor:I thinkyou'reright.
Artist: I wouldn'ta done it. No. This is oddballstuff.They ain't nobodyelse

Theory and Society 32: 153-180, 2003.

? 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
154

that'dbuild anythinglike this. You don't do what majoritydoes, then you're

wrong.
Professor:I thinkthat'strue.How fardid you go in school?
Artist:Hah. Hah.
Professor:Don't wantto talk aboutthat, huh?

During the 1970s and 1980s University of Montana art professor Wil-
lem Volkersz traveled the American backroads, talking with "folk"
artists. In his transcripts, he earnestly tries to persuade elderly men
and women that they have produced objects that they - and we -
should take seriously. We hear him strive to find common ground with
members of dramatically different social worlds from his own. In his
struggles, Volkersz raises important questions about the establishment
of legitimacy and status for those who lack formal credentials. On
what basis does the process that Tom Wolfe2 pungently refers to as
"nostalgie de la boue" become institutionalized by elites? How are the
untrained valorized? In a society that valorizes authenticity of expres-
sion, the production of this authenticity by elites and their institutions
reveals the process by which moral evaluations are created. Following
Volkersz, I ask how the identity of the self-taught artist affects the
appreciation of their creative expressions. How is authenticity given
value?

* * *

Gerald Pocius3 argues that "perhaps of all the words that surround us
in our daily life, art is one of the most contentious, most controversial."
What is art? Aesthetic institutionalists, throwing up their hands, sug-
gest art is simply what "artists"do or what museum curators hang on
their walls.4 Others suggest that the existence of an aesthetic theory
justifies particular types of artistic products.5 Still others, such as
Howard Becker, suggest that communal conventions - shared ways of
doing things - produce the basis through which objects are defined as
art. For Becker,6 art depends upon collective activity. Underlying these
beliefs is the recognition of the social or institutional construction of
the boundaries of art worlds.7

I examine the establishment of symbolic boundaries through the at-

tempts of members of a cultural elite to create a legitimate artistic sub-
field through the validation of artists and their creations as reflective of
 155

authentic expression.8 Specifically, I explore the creation of the idea of

personallegitimacyas part of the marketfor self-taughtart as a means
of valorizingaestheticauthenticity,sponsoredby the culturalauthority
of elites.9 This is done by situating the artists within a set of social
positions that come to definetheir identitywithin this art world.Their
social positions - their identities - naturalizethe productionof their
art, separatingthem from groupings based on similarities of form,
content, or intention. These artists are categorized by means of the
definitionof their identities as authenticin the productionof objects,
unburdenedby assumptionsof strategiccareerismor lofty intellectual-
izing. In this, in their outsiderrole, separatefrom images of a corrupt
elite, they are ostensiblyennobledin a form of identitypolitics - but, in
this, perhapsthey become noble savageswith the colonialismthat such
a troublingdesignationimplies.

There is little doubt that authenticityis prized, so much so that it is

often stagedas part of culturaltourism,10contributingto the economic
health of impoverishedlocales. But what do we mean by authenticity?
Authenticityrefersto the recognitionof difference.BarbaraKirshen-
blatt-Gimblettsuggests that authenticityis linked to an absence of
cognitive understanding,creating an unmediatedexperience1 - sin-
cere, innocent, original, genuine, and unaffected,distinct from strate-
gic and pragmaticself-presentation.12 Regina Bendix13 in In Searchfor
Authenticitysuggests that the core of authenticexpressionis that it is
linked to the moral authorityof the creatorand simultaneouslyto the
fact that the objectwas made by hand, not mechanicallyreproduced.

Althoughthe domain of self-taughtart is ostensiblydefinedby the fact

the artistshave not been formallytrained,in practiceself-taughtart is
known throughthe social position of the creators,and, thus, I label it
as IdentityArt. By this I referto the fact that it is the social location of
the artists that links the works together, not formal qualities of the
work, social ties among artists,self-imageof the artists,or the accept-
ance of a theory of artisticproduction.As used here, identityrefersto
the artist'simage in the eyes of the art world - the location in social
space'4 - ratherthan to self-image.These artists are definedas being
outsideof the art community.Brubakerand Cooper suggest underthe
rubric of identitariantheorizingthat identity refers to "position in a
multidimensional space defined by particularistic categorical attrib-
utes,"such as race, ethnicity,or gender.15 The issue is not how these
artists conceive of their own identities and self-concepts, but rather
with the positions into which they are placed. As Bourdieunotes in
156

Rules of Art, there is a need for a "creatorof the creator"- a conse-

crateddiscovererwho legitimatesthe work and the art.16

The artists' shared lack of training - the quality of being self-taught

(i.e., not being taught throughart world institutions)- connects their
varied social positions into a single identitycategory.While the con-
cept of self-taughtnesshas blurryboundaries,in practicethese artists
are uneducated,elderly,black, impoverished,mentallyill, criminal,or
rural. Within the art market, they lack social capital, ties to elite
communities,and are not fully integratedprofessionalsin this main-
stream art world.17 It is their lack, rather than their attributes,that
definesthem.The art of integratedprofessionals18 is genericallylabeled
contemporaryart. Even though self-taughtartists are our contempo-
raries,they are not labeled as such. Most of these artists are not self-
consciouslyinvolvedin pricingor in shapingtheircareers(and, indeed
often do not perceivethemselvesas having careers- a set of strategic
choices designedto build capital or status).Although some artists are
more involvedthan others, in generalself-taughtartists stand outside
the market,in contrast to their professionalcolleagues, passivelyper-
mittingtheir reputationsto be establishedby others.19

Not only are these artists outside the art market,but also the value of
their works is directlylinked to the biographiesof the artists and the
stories of authentic creation that the objects call forth. Life stories
infuse the meaning of the work. It is the purityor unmediatedquality
of the productionof the work, in the view of its audience,that provides
the work with significance,and, not incidentally,with value as a com-
modity,creatinga biographyof the object.20

Uncoveringthe field

For this ethnographicstudy,I spent five years (1995-2000) examining

the worldof Americanself-taughtart throughparticipantobservation,
in-depth interviews, participation on an e-mail list, and document
analysis. Unlike many ethnographicinvestigations,there was no one
location in which membersof the communityroutinelycongregated-
no workplace,clubhouse,or streetcorner.As a result,I did not examine
a spatiallydefinedgroup, but an ever-changing,migratingsocial net-
work. Over the years, I attended annual meetings of the Folk Art
Society of America four times, the OutsiderArt Show in New York
five years,Collect-O-Ramain Chicagothreetimes, Folk Fest in Atlan-
 157

ta twice, and a large numberof art openings, smaller shows (such as

the respectedKentuck Festival in Northport, Alabama and others in
Gainesville and Columbus, Georgia, and Harbert, Michigan), auc-
tions, tours,and symposia,writingextensivefieldnotes aftereach event.

Bolsteringmy observations,I conductedtaped in-depthinterviewswith

74 people, including artists, dealers, collectors, academics, and cura-
tors. Most interviewswere over an hour in lengthwith severalrunning
longer than three hours. In addition to carryingout observationsand
interviews,for two years I was a memberof a lively,and occasionally
contentious, e-mail discussion group, organized and moderatedby a
prominentNew Yorkdealer and critic.Topics on this list varied from
philosophicaldiscussionsof aestheticsto evaluationof particularartists
and exhibits to the pragmaticsand ethics of the dealer-collectorrela-
tionship.Participantson the list includeddealers,collectors, and even
the more technologicallysophisticatedself-taughtartists.

I spent a month duringthe summerof 1999as a guest researcherat the

National Museum of American Art at the SmithsonianInstitution.
While there, I examined the Archives of American Art, including
interviewsof artists, dealers, and collectors and the papers of impor-
tant figures such as collectors Jan and Chuck Rosenak and Bert
Hemphill, dealer Jeff Camp, and artist Rev. Howard Finster. I also
read the run of relevantperiodicals including Clarion/FolkArt, Folk
Art Finder, Folk Art Messenger, Raw Vision, and Spaces, as well as
catalogs, art periodicalarticles,and newspaperaccounts.

The fallacy of immaculateperception

What do art objects mean? Shelly Errington21argues that: "Artifacts

themselvesare mute and meaningless.... Discoursescreate objects....
Objectsmay physicallypreexistthose discoursesand their institutions,
and they may persist beyond them; but, appropriatedby new institu-
tions, their meanings are remade and they are transformedinto new
kinds of objects.The notion of 'discourse'also includes the notion of
power."Marshall Sahlins22emphasizesthat there is no such thing as
"immaculate perception."Art audiences think of themselves - or
others - as having an eye, but according to Bourdieu,"The eye is
always a product of history, reproducedby education."23As Sally
Price argues,focusingon the constructionof the aesthetic,our appre-
ciation and interpretationof primitiveor ethnographicart stands in
158

contrastto a view that emphasizestaste, and alwaysis shapedby social

and politicalcategories.24 Art worldsare status and powergames with
the objectas a strategicpiece.

Michael Thompson,25speakingof rubbishtheory,suggests that some

objectsare definedas durablesand othersas transients.Durableobjects
- art works, for instance - gain value over time, while transients-
cars, for instance - lose value and are discarded.Thompson notes,
however, that durablesdo not always survive and transientsdo not
alwaysdisintegrate,rathertheir categorizationis a control mechanism
by those with power (and, not incidentally,those with the most dura-
bles).Wherean objectfits in this categoricalsystemis subjectto defini-
tional change. Howard Becker26aruges that what is art and what is
craft shifts over time and according to the definitions of influential
actors, as in the case of photographyor ceramics.

Assigning meaning in self-taught art

The constructionistapproachto art is based on the claim that meaning

is socially assigned and not inherentin objects and performances.As
sculptorand collector Michael Hall noted tartly to a Chicago sympo-
sium: "We invent it all" (Field notes). Hall suggested that cultural
historian Kenneth Ames released an "ideological virus" - that of
constructionism - in his controversialtalk at the 1977 Winterthur
conferenceon folk art: "Amesdaredto suggest that maybe folk art as
such didn't exist and that the thing we call art might, itself, be just a
cultural fabrication. He concluded by taunting his audience by sug-
gesting that folk art as an idea was perhapsmore interestinglyviewed
as a fictive constructto be studiedfor what it tells us about ourselves
and about the worldswe inventto supportthe social-culturalmythswe
live by."27

In a similar vein, Ardery's analysis of Edgar Tolson's reputation is

predicatedon the belief that aesthetic appreciationis a contest, and,
thus, she titles her article "Loser Wins."28Ardery's view is that the
validation of self-taughtart is linked to the needs of trained regional
artiststo createa non-NewYorkmodel of credibility,pushingpersonal
artistic ambitions.29Those with personal or institutionalinterests -
artists, critics, or grassrootscommunityactivists - may strategically
appeal to the authenticityinherentin self-taughtart to validate their
position.
 159

Self-taughtart has beendefinedas "oneof the last frontiersof twentieth-

centuryAmericanart,"30giving it cachet within a culturein which the
image of frontierhas enormous cultural resonance.31This construc-
tion of the field served to create commodities out of what had previ-
ously lackedmaterialvalue. Michael Hall, referringto the situationof
Kentuckycarvers, suggests that over time: "the market emerged and
therewere profitsto be made and therewere careersto build and there
was power to wield.... The commodificationof folk art as an idea and
in terms of the objects is the thing that we saw take place in the mid
70s.... And we began to see careerismbeing a part of it. Self-taught
artistswho suddenlysaw careersavailableto themselves.Dealers who
saw careersin the promotionof the art of the self-taught.These things
weren't thinkablebecause they weren't doable in 1967.... There is a
legitimization that has taken place."32Yet, the changes that some
embrace,others,suchas folkloristJohnVlach,reject,callingit "'a fraud
perpetratedby the New York art establishment.You know the book,
ThePaintedWord?'he asks, referringto TomWolfe'sfamous expose of
the emptinessof modernart.'Well,this is TheFingerPaintedWord.'"33

Whetherone acceptsArdery'sview that the creationof the fieldwas an

attack on the New York establishmentor Vlach's view that it was a
knowing conspiracyby that same establishment,the consensusis that
these artists don't sell themselves,but must be sold - if they are to be
treatedas authentic- by those who have the authorityto speak about
art, those with institutionallyvalidatedculturalcapital.

Justifying the self-taught

How do elite participantsin this art worldjustify their attractionfor

those who, by definition,work outside of the standardsof professional
practice of the artistic community.How, in short, do they justify the
self-taught qualities of artists? In the case of self-taught art these
ideological structurespose alternativemodels of esteem, relating to
the power of the individual,the importanceof the creativeurge, and
the romanticnotion of the Other.34

Enshrining the individual

Fromthe nineteenth-centuryFrenchtravelerAlexis De Tocquevilleon,

many observerssuggest that "Americanexceptionalism"enshrinesthe
160

standingof the individual:the cowboy,the eccentricinventor,the self-

made man, the confidencetrickster.

Self-taughtart, by its label and its reference,ennobles the individual.

That we admire the autochthonous artist, the artist who allegedly
stands outside the community,is revealing. One collector explained
that he admired this art, because:"It's a personal statement.... The
intuitiveartists,they'remaking a very individualistexpression.This is
like a universewhich the artist has created"(Interview).This echoes
the comments of Bert Hemphill and JuliaWeissmanin their founda-
tional Twentieth Century Folk Art and Artists: "The vision of the folk
artist is a private one, a personal universe,a world of his or her own
making."35CuratorStacy Hollandernotes, similarly,that "the singu-
lar note consistently sounded in the twentieth century has been the
persistence of the individual, even when drawing upon convention,
tradition, or heritage. Perhaps the strongest bond shared by these
artists is the fulfillmentof their creative impulses through a process
that developed outside of the artworld."36Although these claims
downplaythe importanceof the artist'scommunity,institutionalaffili-
ations, and nation, they resonatein a culturethat wishes to believethat
persons can impulsivelycreate a meaningful world without relying
upon others.37What better justification for creativity than that it
doesn'tdependon and that it wasn'tproducedfor the benefitof others.

Creative urges

The ideology of authenticitysuggests that the self-taughtartist is not

merely isolated, but produces powerful,emotional images "from the
very heart of human expression, from the basic creative urge."38A
collector comments:"They are close to the unconscious.They create
archetypalthemes"(Field notes). Such a claim emphasizesa belief in
the centralityof intuition and the power of the voice within. A dealer
remarked:"Theyare ferociouslyhonest and they push the barriers....
What I like about the work of self-taughtartists is that perhaps it's
more easy to see the honestyin the workand the sincerityin the work"
(Interview).

Viewersfeel that their emotionalreactionvalidatesthe art'spower.As

dealerJoe Adams notes:"Contemporaryfolk art emergedbecauseit is
filled with passion! It communicates.A friendof mine says,'You have
to look at it with an open heart, not just an open mind.' It's not
 161

cerebral.You don't need someone to analyzeit for you to criticizeand

intellectualize.With folk art, you'reeithergoing to love it or hate it. But
you'renevergoing to forget it."39 Or in the words of a collector,"Why
are people drawnto this art? Because they connect with it.... I think
it's somethingthat anybodycan look at this and get attached.There's
an emotional level that is displayed"(Interview).

While not all accept these paeans to the ineffable,and some find them
insufficiently theoretical and perhaps insufferablyanti-intellectual,
these are common arguments.The assumptionof unmediatedcommu-
nicationlegitimatesthe works.

The siren song ofpurity

All institutionsdesire a close relationshipwith values they deem im-

portant, and art worlds are no different.As Zolbergand Cherbonote,
purity,despite some uncomfortableracialechoes, is a centralimage in
the discourseof self-taughtart.40 Despite the multi-culturalemphasis
of the field, the image of purity regularlyreemerges as informants
attempt,awkwardlyor articulately,to explainwhat made this body of
work special. In the words of a museumdirector:"My view of it is that
there'snothingpure,but this is closer to purethan a lot of the academ-
ic art that gets made for galleries."And, yet, what does puritymean in
this artworld?Partof the referenceis the emotionaldirectness,described
above, and part is a child-likevirtue - the very ignoranceof the artist
who lacks theory that might interferewith the process of unmediated
creation.A collector asserted:"Thecommon threadthat runs through
all of it is a naivete.... Backto our intuitivecore"(Interview).

These artists are treated as noble savages,directingour sophisticated

eyes to what we claim is important and real. CuratorRoger Manley
notes, referringto well-knownself-taughtartists:"The odd thing is, I
think people like ... you and me do need people like Clyde.... Artists
like ClydeJones,Annie Hooper,VollisSimpsonand Sam Doyle, Geor-
gia Blizzardand Lonnie Holley,though the objectsthey make and the
environmentsthey build, help give our communitiesa sense of place,
help combat the modern tendency of everythingtoward mass same-
ness, towardshoppingmall and fast-food,multiplex-cinema
America."41
Manleyemphasizesthat these artistsare not "youand me."
162

Such romantic images are easy to skewer. As curator/criticJoanne

Cubbs suggestswith some skepticism:"Themythic antithesisof mod-
ern society,the idea of natureis often called upon to protestthe ethical
and spiritualcorruptionof society.... OutsiderArt servesas a contem-
poraryconstructthroughwhich western culturecan continue to exer-
cise its belief in the mysterious,ineffable,and transcendentnature of
art itself. It is the most recent imaginarydevice through which the
Romantic idea of the artist as outsider survives."42For art historian
Kenneth Ames, this constitutes"a redemptivemyth, a narrativethat
supports a heroic image of the folk artist as a fiercely independent
handicrafterwho, in spite of his or her poverty,was happy to be living
in a democraticcountry."43CriticAlice Thorson opined of the 1990 0!
Appalachiashow, whose pieces: "fulfill the time-honored American
mythos of the artist as an inventiveand individualisticcharacter,while
ne'eris hearda criticalwordtowardthe ideologicaland politicalsuper-
structurewhich determinesthe world they inhabit"and "in the censo-
rious '90s, folk art may prove the perfect antidote to offensiveart....
Both prongs of the exhibittap the romanticmyth of the noble savage,
who, uncorruptedby the taint of 'civilization,'is deemedmore natural
and more moral than modern,'sophisticated'man."44And, so, critic
JamesYood argues:"Theenshrinementof outsidervision is a stalking-
horse concealing contempt for the aspirationsof high culture;it be-
comes a blindbehindwhichis concealeda disinclinationand antipathy
toward, and ignorance of, the dictates of contemporaryart. Intuitive
art is seen then as the sole art of Arcadia, all else is fraudulent,mired
in intellectual corruption, needlessly obscure and pretentious.What
was low now becomes high, what was high now becomes debased.
New York is Gomorrah, education causes loss of originality,knowl-
edge is insidious and rejectable,and anti-intellectualismis to be de-
fendedand made officiallyviable."45

Becausea grouppresentsan ideologicalformulationdoesn'tmean that

it is universallyaccepted. Indeed, the image of purity that some em-
brace is rejected by others. Yet, accepted or rejected, the image of
purityis a centralimage in the arsenalof proponentsof self-taughtart
- a qualitythat definesthe workwhetherpresentor absent.

Biographygames

Closely tied to the motivations and inspirations of artists are the

presentationsof theirbiographies.The biographiesof self-taughtartists
 163

justify their authenticity,serving as a primarycriterion of evaluation.

To be sure, the work itself matters, as many people have interesting
biographies,but the biographyinvests the materialwith meaning. As
dealers sell objects, they provide biographicaldetails, details that are
not equally emphasized by neighboring galleries that specialize in
contemporaryart. The identityof the artist is embeddedin the defini-
tions of the field and in the practicesof selling.

One dealer suggested that the status system of this market is upside
down. He reportedthat at a partyhe overhearda portion of conversa-
tion about an artist:"'Is he educated?''No,' 'oh, good.' 'Is he black?'"
(Field notes). This is an art world in which the standardcriteria for
status do not apply.Yet, not everyonecan be untrained.Becauseof the
apparent vitality of the field, many want to get in on "the folk art
bandwagon"(Field notes). As a gallery owner reported:"A woman
walkedup to me at a show and said ratherhaughtily,my daughterand
I are OutsiderArtists, but because we're white and middle-class,no-
body appreciatesus, and I said you can't be an OutsiderArtist and
stand there and tell me you are"(Interview).

However, the rush to the real is not unique to this artistic domain.
Americans yearn for authenticity,linked to a rejection of the plastic
culturein whichthe speakerfeels that he or she is embedded.Scholars
have begun to unpackthis idea, suggestingthat our searchfor authen-
ticity is illusory, although embraced in both academic and popular
discourse.46Miles Orvell finds a tension between imitation and au-
thenticityin Americanculture,with the latterincreasinglyveneratedin
the twentieth-century. We searchfor "therealthing,"as we mistrustthe
abilityof machinesto reproduce"originals."RaymondeMoulinspeaks
of an artistic ideology of the unique - part of the "returnto nature"
and the "returnto artisanship"- a social and aesthetic evaluation
(borrowingfrom Rousseau and Ruskin)producingrarityand value.47
Not incidentallythese reproductionshave a differentprice structure,
making them more accessible,and less availableas status symbols, a
form of conspicuous consumption. Genres, such as photography,
easily amenable to duplication, struggle to create the idea of the
unique, as by emphasizing the importance of the original print.48
Some arguethat in post-modernsociety it is difficultto distinguishthe
real from the simulacra,exceptthroughnarrativesof origin.49 Authen-
ticity implies to authenticate,and so is linkedto a marketsociety.50
164

Studentsof primitiveart have assertedthat authenticprimitiveart has

died, as all creatorsare now influencedby a global visual culture - a
process that operatedover the course of the twentiethcentury.As one
dealerin ethnicjewelryremarkedof her formersources:"It'sall going
downhill.These people used to lead such beautifullives, and now they
have pink plastic shoes.... So everything real is going up in price,
because they're not making it anymore."51 We search for "primeval
authenticity,"linkedto isolation fromestablishedinstitutions.52

RichardPeterson53argues that as early as 1953countrymusic record

producerswere searchingfor authenticityin new talent. He claims that
institutions,in this case the Nashville music industry,must fabricate
authenticity,just as they fabricatedthe vinyl on which records were
produced.These country musicians frequentlycame from the same
backgroundsas self-taughtartists.Julia Arderysuggestsin her analy-
sis of the creationof KentuckycarverEdgarTolson'sreputation:

Folk art has accordedwith the longingsof middle-classAmericans.It evokes

times past through agrarian,religious, and patriotic imagery,through its
wroughtevidence of the human hand, and, crucially,in the period under
reviewhere, throughthe charismaof the folk artist - typicallya ruralelder
like Tolson, who is assignedthe part of a crusty,mythicalgrandparent.An
object of nostalgic desire, folk art satisfiedfantasies of anchorage,tender-
ness, and controlamongthose who by choiceand social circumstancecannot
find such satisfactionsotherwise.

Theodor Adorno suggests we speak "the jargon of authenticity."55

Manypeople, includingself-taughtart worldparticipants,havebought
into this rhetoric.

Valuingauthenticity

Gerard Wertkin,the director of the American Folk Art Museum,56

once addresseda symposium,"This is an amazing field we'rein.... It
has more power and has more of an authenticvoice than most of the
art we look at today. It is that authenticitythat invites us in" (Field
notes). A member of an e-mail discussion group noted that there is
"the near universalpreferencethat collectors, dealersand critics have
for the so-called 'early& uninfluenced'or whereappropriate'environ-
mental'worksby an artist.... To condemna later phase in comparison
to an earlyone just based on 'timing'and a linkednotion of 'authentic-
ity' seems curious to me."The poster indicates that later work some-
 165

times has more artistic power, as the artist learns from experience.57
Beyond drawing our attention to the art world preference- and its
implicationfor the role of artist as incapableof learning - he empha-
sizes the belief in a difference between early (authentic) and later
(altered)art throughthe metaphorof "applesversus oranges."In this
metaphor the works are perceived as not only distinct, but also as
belonging to differentdomains.We find the same theme in the com-
ment of a curatorwho says of ("deafand dumb")artist James Castle
and others, "You have to understandthat they have a natural-born
instinct" (Field notes). This naturalizationof Idaho native Castle is
intendedhonorably,but it is not somethingthat one would likelysay of
Wyoming-bornJacksonPollack- an artist, but not one with "natural-
born"instincts.

Some parodythis desirefor authenticity,as did writerLarissaMacFar-

quhar in a 1996 New Yorkarticle, "But It Is Art?" MacFarquhar58
argues that the field is characterizedby: "a somewhat maudlin, neo-
modernist longing for art that feels authentic- the product of social
exile and misery, not northern-litstudios in the Hamptons. Outsider
art fits the bill perfectly:A typicaloutsidereitherlives in a ruralhamlet
in the South or suffers some sort of debilitatingmental disorder....
outsiderart is supposedto arise,twistedand singular,directlyfromthe
unconscious."

The un-real

Withinthe field of self-taughtart, a desireexists among collectors and

dealersfor gritty reality.Dealer Lois Zetternoted, with what I take to
be ironic detachment:"If one had a [James]Castle and was for some
reason going to part with it, potential buyerswho may be a tad, shall
we say,unsophisticatedmight balk at the 'spit'part of the ingredients-
But we! who 'get' it! It adds a certain frisson, I think."59A collector
jokes about dealerswho say of their artists,"'He is actuallya retarded
child who, at age eight, tore off his rightleg, and had nothingto do and
so he has begun with his one tooth that sticks out at a ninety degree
angle - he's begun to paint these paintings, and he does it only to
certain music.'Oh, come on. These stories are getting preposterous"
(Interview).As dealerRandallMorrisnotes,those artistswhoseauthen-
ticity is "beyondargument"are the ones who can sell their work in the
six-figurerange.60
166

If authenticitysells art, claims of inauthenticitycan be damaging.

Ironicallycollectors themselvessometimesset this process in motion;
by suggestingthemes and materials;the patroncan alter the aesthetic
of the object and damage the artist's financial future.61Something
similarapparentlyhappenedwith J.B. Murry,as two patronseach felt
that the other was overly influencingthe artist by providing sugges-
tions and material (Interview).These artists are no longer creating
from the heart, but are driven to be more marketable.

Authenticitycan be lost: a problem for well-establishedartists too

attuned to the market. Some suggest that the late ReverendHoward
Finster was seduced by the market. Finster'searly works are revered
by collectors and are expensive.His later works, cheaper,more routi-
nized, are less regardedand worth less, even if they meet customer
demand. Many assume that by the end his family was doing much of
the work. I was told that some of the works Finster signed were dated
when he was in the hospital. One collector commented:"This is not
good. Right therethat throwsa wrenchinto the idea of Howard"(Field
notes; emphasisadded).His toll-freenumber(1-800-FINSTER)didn't
help. Finsteris given a pass by some because, as a minister,he wishes
to proselytizeand his earlyworkswere so profound,but few claim that
his output of the past fifteenyears is very significantaesthetically.One
collector felt that Finster has become "infectedby popular acclaim"
(Interview).BruceJohnson,a formermuseumdirector,commented:"I
have troublewith many of these [twentieth-centuryworks]becausethe
artists, as soon as they reach a point of commercialsuccess, quickly
lose the innocence I like about folk art."62

One collector who had purchasedthe work of a recently discovered

Southern artist and was enthusiasticabout it-she had describedthe
artist as "really untutored"-later told me that she finds his work
"bogus."She explains that he is the wealthiest person in his (rural)
town, living in a "nicenew rustichouse"and adds:"Welivedwith it for
two weeks beforewe began laughingat it.... We fell for it. Everything
is so overdone.So hyped.This guy is rich!"(Field notes). This collec-
tor, living in an upscale suburb,admiredthe piece until learningof the
artist'ssocial status. Newly acquireddetails of biographychangedthe
meaning of the painting. A dealer noted of one of her artists:"He's
very well-organizedand has a color Xerox of all his paintings, and
does duplicatepaintings of some of them.... I don't show people his
color Xerox brochures,because I think that detractsfrom his authen-
ticity.I think he is authentic,but I think it turnedpeople off.... I don't
 167

think they should be really good at marketing themselves. I think it

detracts from their authenticity" (Interview).

Drawing lines

Given this complaint, how can one establish the authenticity of an

artist? What constitutes the basis for a symbolic boundary? Take the
case of Albert Louden, a British artist, whose career was detailed in
Raw Vision,a leadingjournal of self-taughtart:

It isn'teasy being an outsider.Once elected,thereare appearancesto be kept

up: the solitarylifestyle,the nuttyhabits,the freedomfromartisticinfluences.
Above all, indifferenceto earningmoney.Scroungingfor canvas and point,
going without luxuries such as food and socks, are all part of the life of
austeritythat one's public demands.In the end, the outsider'ssurestway of
proving his integrityis to be dead. [Louden's]crime is that he broke the
outsider'svow of poverty- by selling his paintingsto commercialgalleries.
Such is the outsider'sCatch 22. Some of the very dealerswho bought and
sold his worknow regardhim as the oustedoutsider.Untouchable.He might
as well be mainstream.A self-taughtpainterand van driverby trade,Louden
lives on his own in a tiny two-story[house].He pads barefootfrom room to
room rifflingthroughthe stacksof paintings,whose sheernumber,overflow-
ing into gardensheds,hints at obsessiveness.Outsiderbonuspoint.6

The author argues that Louden is being punished for his desire to be
commercial. Whether Louden is "truly" an outsider artist is not at
issue. What is important is that the author defends him by emphasizing
his eccentricity, his poverty, and that he is self-taught, while others
reject him because he is too knowledgeable about the artworld.

The drawing of symbolic boundaries is particularly problematic for

educated artists who wish to be seen as outsiders,64 with one dealer
referring to the need for an "anti-resume"65 and one artist contending
that a law school education did not disqualify her as an outsider artist,
because of her psychiatric difficulties. Consider Malcolm McKesson,
87 years old at the time, as described by his advisor, an art history
graduate student:

In terms of Malcolmbeing an "outsider",self-taught,folk artist,etc., I have

somewhatmixed feelings. Clearlyhe is being marketedas an outsider.He
shows ... at the OutsiderArt Fair where many people have collected his
work.... His work is in the [collectionof] the Musee de l'Art Brut in Lau-
sanne.He lives a relativelyreclusivelife in his rundownNew Yorkapartment.
In many ways, he is completelyin his own world - he has been obsessively
168

workingfor decadeswith no real interestin sales. His work is clearlyobses-

sive and clearlydrivenby his sexualfantasieswhichare quite"exotic"to say
the least. However,he is a Harvardgraduate,relativelywell-traveled,taught
art educationat schoolsand is a veryliterate,intelligentman.

As a matter of the politics of authenticity, does being weird trump

being trained? Curator Lynne Adele speaks of a "gray area" between
trained and self-taught.67 This blurriness led Jean Dubuffet to create
the category New Invention for artists too influenced by mainstream
art to be considered exemplars of Art Brut.68 In practice, self-taught
art is market-driven; the test of legitimacy is whether dealers show the
work and collectors buy it.

Identity art

I don't know Clyde Angel. Neither, it appears, does anyone else. How-
ever, if God ever decided to create a self-taught artist, He might well
have named him Clyde Angel with its combination of backwoods ethos
and divine inspiration. Consider an account of Angel's biography:

Angel, Clyde(b. 1957)ClydeAngel was born in BeaverIsland,Iowa, and is a

"highwaywanderer"who makeshis art from scrapmetal he picks up along
the road, often tin cans and rustycar parts. He is a reclusewho lives some-
where in Iowa and does not want to know people or interactwith society.
Angel says people can know him from his art and the writings he often
includeswith it. He learnedrudimentaryweldingtechniquesfrom a welder/
firemanwho became a friend and who allows Angel to use his tools. He
makes two- and three-dimensionalfiguresof imaginarywomen, men, and
animals.

It is also reported that Angel was hospitalized as a paranoid schizo-

phrenic. Clyde Angel is currently represented by the Judy Saslow
Gallery, a prestigious Chicago dealer, and his work sells for up to
$1500. Saslow hasn't met him;70 his work - along with his writings
and videos - is delivered by a friend, his authorized agent, Iowa
sculptor Vernon Willits.

Recently, in the weekly Chicago Reader,71 Jeff Huebner recounted his

unsuccessful attempt to track down Angel, even combing birth records
from Beaver Island, which is today uninhabited (there were no recorded
births on the island in 1957), examining county school records, and
talking to former island residents. Ultimately the author doesn't reach
a final conclusion, suggesting that "Some people believe in angels;
 169

othersdon't";72 the generalconclusionof the secularart world - which

had whisperedabout Angel's authenticity- is that Clyde Angel is a
monikerused by a trainedartist.

My concern is not to track down the elusive Mr. Angel, but to ask
about the power of authenticity.Does it matter if Angel is real? The
sculpturesare real, so the question is whetherit mattersif the biogra-
phy is accurate.As one writer suggested,"it wouldn'tsurpriseme if it
was a made up story and who cares anyway.[If] the work speaks for
itself that'sall that reallyinterestsme."73

Perhaps the question is how it matters, in that it surely matters if

dealers have been providingclients with inaccurateinformation.Why
would a prominentand respecteddealer,such as Saslow,be willing to
take the risk?Saslow was so confidentin the work that she includedit
in the show of work from Chicagocollections that she organizedat the
Halle Saint Pierrein Paris in 1998.74Saslow explains that, along with
the art itself, the mysteryis part of the appeal. She explains:"Privacy
comes with the territory- it's part of the deal. If you love the art, you
accept the terms of that. I just try to enjoy the finishedproductand try
not to ask any questions. If I ask too many questions, I spoil the
relationship.I respectit, not just for businessreasonsbut also because
I don't want to betrayany trust or confidence.It wouldn'tbe fair. Any
good story has a hint of mystery. It's an unusual story, but not a
singular one. Clyde's singular personality is what makes the work
more unusual,but the rest is none of my business."75

Surelymost of the details of the account don'tmatter to collectors. If

Clyde Angel were not his real name, if he were not born in 1957,if he
never lived on Beaver Island, none of that would really matter in a
world that is used to pseudonymsand creativebiography;the shaping
and fabricationof biographyis not limited to this aestheticdomain,76
even if biographyis a more centralsellingpoint here.Withinthe world
of self-taughtart, more important, essential even, is the fact that he
was mentallyill, is homeless, and especiallythat he was not trainedat
art school. Facts have differentweight in the creation of an outsider
artist.

Althoughit wouldbe nice to imaginethat biographicalaccountsreflect

the lives of artists,such is not alwaysthe case, as perhapsin the case of
Clyde Angel. Some individuals,in a sense, forge a life. In the words of
one dealer: "Condescensionis perpetratedby building false biogra-
170

phies, stories that clean up the truth, narrativesdesigned to falsely

conjureup images of the sweet old naif or the noble primitivesavage,
or that emphasizepsychologicalflaws we imagine cause people to be
creative."77 A curatornoted that,"Pickersin particularmakeup stories
to sell stuff.... This is the isolated,uneducatedblackwoman.Domestic
all these years.It might not everbe as made up as it could.Theremight
be some grains of truth in it, but taking a Southernstereotype... not
reallygetting the biographyfrom the artist, or taking it from the sur-
face and going off" (Interview).People sometimestidy up (or mess up)
life stories to make them more appealingand more salable.Why not
have the life that would be most helpful,as long as it is not toofalse?

Sometimes the changes seem fairly minor, as the spelling of a last

name, transforminga normalname into a folk art name:"I asked [Dr.
Rollins, J.B. Murry'sdoctor, friend and advisor]how do you spell his
name.... He said, Murray[the interviewer'spreference]how do you
want your name spelled?And Rollins said that they decidedon M-u-r-
r-y, but in my thinking he didn't care. He didn't write, he was not
literate,and I reallyfelt that M-u-r-r-ywas connectedwith the outsider
way of seeing him.... It's not the typicalway of spelling Murray.M-u-
r-r-a-y is very common. It's like changing the spelling of Smith. It
makes it a little distinctive.But I didn'twant to do it that way because
his family doesn't spell it that way."Mose Tolliverwrites the "S"in his
first name backwards.I was told this was because "a white educated
womantaughthim to do that, thinkingit would make it more cute and
fluffy"(Interview).

One white self-taughtartist reportedlyclaimed at first that his work

was by "this poor black guy in the woods of Alabama that only he
knows about."My informanttold me that "It does make a difference.
It's like selling dishonesty.Everyonebelieves to be a good folk artist,
you need to be poor, black, dead, disabled,uneducated."Yet, the belief
is that biography sells. Two collectors joked that they would begin
producingart, "We'lllive out in the woods.... We could write a credi-
ble tear-jerkerstory. Our fathersabused us, our mothers beat us. For
each story our prices would go up $100."They decide that they should
take turns living in the woods and selling the art (Field notes). The
market for authenticityis such that these literary fancies have their
pull.

The battle over biographyreminds us that, in the words of Chicago

dealer Carl Hammer,there is "a heavy relianceupon the extremismof
 171

the story and not consistentlyon the works of art."78For many, it is

not simplythe work, isolated on the whitewall of a museumor gallery,
but in the words of New York dealer Randall Morris,"no work can
speak for itself... because without knowing its original context we are
listening to ourselves,not the voice of the work of art."79Further,the
uncertaintyof the art world'sresponseto Angel's work suggests that,
contraryto formalistclaims, one cannot tell fromthe workwhetherthe
artist and the work are authentic.

Biographyand reputationmatter, but how much?ThroughoutWest-

ern art, with its emphasison personalgenius, knowledgeof the artistis
important - what Bourdieu speaks of as a "theological logic" that
places "faith in the creator."80Scholars, such as Bernard Berenson,
diligently search for names to which they can attach anonymous
works: the name of the artist enrichesthe work.With the recognition
of an artistic avant garde, the sufferingin an artist's life served to
legitimatethe artist'screativity.What is so centralin self-taughtart is
not absent elsewhere.Yet, beauty and power supposedlyresidesin the
works. As a result, a tension exists between those who emphasize
biographyand those who emphasize the art works. The explicitness
and bitterness of this debate in the world of self-taughtart suggests
that this artisticdomain differsfrom others in which consensualbelief
exists that the art has priority,even if knowledgeof the artist alwaysis
important. If biography matters throughout the art world, in most
domains it is taken as informingthe art, ratherthan justifying it. As
one formerdealerexplained,"ifyou buy a Rauschenberg,... you'renot
interestedin whether Rauschenbergis married and has children and
whether he lives in a pokey little home" (Interview).An art writer
noted: "These circumstances [poverty,racism, religious conviction,
illiteracy]shouldnot be used as neat anecdotesto show how "different"
the artistsare, pushingthem further"outsidethe white-walledrooms"
of art history. Imagine if every scholarly discussion of Jean-Michel
Basquiat'swork focused on his heroin addiction and whetheror not
he was ripped off by drug-providingcollectors.... Consider if every
lectureon the Renaissancemasterswas interruptedto determineif the
Medicis commissionedany of the work, exercisingundueinfluenceon
its style and content."81Collectors of contemporaryart buy for the
name, but not - typically- for the story.In contrast,in self-taughtart
few in either "camp"- the biographicalor the aesthetic - would deny
the value of the other.
172

Biofirst

Biographicalnarrativeis centralto the field. CollectorChuckRosenak

refersto this as "the legend of the artist,"a basis for labeling art and
estimating value. In the case of Kentuckysculptor EdgarTolson his
manychildren,violence,primitivereligion,alcoholism,lung problems,
poverty,and ruralisolation all addedto the value of his work.82

These biographicalaccounts matter explicitly:collectors buy stories

that they share with visitors when they display their art. This is so
evident that a journalist remarks, the "OutsiderArt Fair is about
stories."83One collector explains:"I'm a student of literatureand a
formerEnglishteacher,and I just love the stories that go with it, and I
always need to know the stories" (Interview).Another told me, "In
many cases with this work, the story is far more importantthan the art
is, and people are buying the story as opposed to the piece of art for
art's sake, and, you know, who's to say that's a problem.... There are
artists I've supportedfinanciallyjust because I like them, and I like
theirstory,but not becauseI believethe pieces are outstanding"(Inter-
view). One gallery worker notes, "I do buy pieces that I don't like. I
mean I've bought art beforethat I haven'treallyliked when I first look
at it, but as I learned more about the people and more about the
process and where it comes from, I gotta have the piece" (Interview).
It is remarkablethat collectors admit - without embarrassment- to
purchasingworks that they don't admire, but such is the lure of the
story.In the words of one curator,biographyis the "callingcard of the
field.... It's not the work itself" (Field notes).

Stories affect sales. At one gallery, a couple was told of a homeless

artist who madejewelry from leftoverMardiGras trash.The husband
doubted the story, but the wife told him that the story might be true,
and as the pin was selling for $30, the story was worth the price (Field
notes). On anotheroccasion, a collector commentedcriticallyabout a
dealer who was selling work by an artist who lived under a bridge,
noting "She was pulling on our heartstrings.She was piquing our
curiosity. It was like selling tickets to a freak show."Her husband
added, "Webought on emotion" (Field notes). The recognitionof the
manipulationwas not sufficientto offset the dealer's strategy.Some
collectors specialize in troubleddomains,"askingfor work from spe-
cific pathologies,schizos or autistics."84
 173

Both dealers and curators play on the emotions of their audience. On

one occasion, a dealer reported the tragedies that had recently befallen
one of his artists: her home was flooded; her adult son with a mental
age of five, who had been institutionalized, fell off a ladder, splintering
his leg and had to move home; and she almost died from an eye
operation. I felt that the dealer was attempting to increase her "bio-
graphical value" (Field notes). Her bad fortune was good fortune for
her dealer. To understand the role of misfortune as a marketing strat-
egy, consider the case of Robyn "The Beaver" Beverland:

Beverland,Robyn(1958-1998).Robyn"TheBeaver"Beverlandlived in Old-
smar,Florida,in a house next door to his parents.Robynenjoyedhelpinghis
parentsin theiryardand evenmorehe enjoyedthe pleasurehe gaveto people
with his paintings.He had a very rarediseasecalled Wolfrand[sic:Wolfram]
Syndrome,which left him blind in one eye and only partiallysightedin the
other. He also had diabetesand a mild case of cerebralpalsy.Yet he was a
cheerfulpersonwhoseworldwas his family,his Bible,and his art. He painted
"from his own mind's experiences"and used housepaintand plywood or
cardboard.One of his most often repeatedimages was one of severalfaces
of differentcolorscalled"WeAre All One."After severalboutswith pneumo-
nia, "TheBeaver"spent his last months on a respiratorand died August 20,
1998.85

After his death, his parents placed a full-page ad in Folk Art, the glossy
magazine of the Museum of American Folk Art, thanking his collec-
tors. The text of the notice read in part, "Robyn's world was His
Family, His Bible, His Town, His Art Work, and YOU, the thousands
of beautiful people who smiled when you viewed his little paintings....
EVERYDAY WAS BEAUTIFUL TO OUR 'BEAVER'.... He just
wanted you to smile at this art work.... Maybe GOD will let him paint
the HEAVENS now and then - Robyn always called his paintings 'HIS
CHILDREN'. Robyn, your children will live forever."86

The Beaver would sit at a booth at art shows and paint contentedly.
His family sold his works for modest prices. Without his story, most
collectors wouldn't find his works compelling. Yet, his work sold,
making (low-end) collectors smile, even while his presence upset other
collectors who felt, despite their sympathy, that he was a "trained
monkey." His biography was what journalist Wendy Steiner referred
to as a "frog-prince parable" of the sufferer who through his art finds -
and gives - satisfaction.87
174

Artfirst

PhyllisKind, a prominentNew Yorkdealer,explainedto a criticintent

on discussingbiography,that she is "interestedin art and not sociol-
ogy."88Her point is that it is the object that matters.Expressingthis
theme are the commentsof a respecteddealer:

I wentto a show yearsago in Cincinnati,and I lookedat a piece and it looked

like an imitation of Dali. And I said, you know, why is this here. It wasn't
appealing,it wasn'tinteresting.It lookedlike a bad imitation.It lookedmore
like a thriftstorepaintingthansomethingthatshould'vebeenin this museum.
And the person said, you should hear the story of this guy. Well, that's
ridiculous. If the story is what's interestingand appealing, then write a
book. Don't hang his work.... People are losing sight of the piece and
embellishingit with stories.... I think it's wrong. I think that there is no
more reason to put into these resumespersonalthings than there is in your
resume.If you want to tell what surgeriesyou'vehad in yourlife, that'syour
business.... If I happento know that he had fatheredillegitimatechildrenor
his wife left him 'causehe was an abuser,I wouldn'tshare that with you.
(Interview)

The exhibitof severaldozen art works of Sybil,a womanwith multiple

personalities,raised this issue.89 A dealer noted that "the articleends
by sayingthat the paintingsaren'tverygood, but the storyis fascinating.
The implicationrunningthroughit is that Outsiderart reallyisn't very
good either but the stories sure are. Again the battle cry; art before
bio."90

An artistnoted that clientsexpectedthese details:"Why,you may ask,

does a person have to buy a story as well as a piece of art? ... When I
first started exhibiting, I was in the pithy observation business....
When I would meet people who had alreadyseen my work, they would
often be disappointedthat I was not (pick one): divorced, obese, in
therapy,from anothercountry,and severalother equallyrandomcate-
gories that they somehow inferredfrom my work. It was as if, in my
still married,averageweight, untherapized,American-bornlife, I was
not ... authentic. My paintings were not supposed to stand on their
own; instead,they were supposedto be props for my personaldog and
pony show."91This artistcontendsthat her biographysubvertsher art,
preventingpeople fromseeingher vision. It is in the biographythat the
marketfinds the artist'sintention,not in what is on canvas.
 175

Creating authenticity

The identityof artists is essential in Westernart marketsin which the

conceptions of genius and creativityare so essential. Influentialand
powerful actors create the creatorthrough the shaping of biography.
While this is true in art worldsgenerally,nowhereis it truerthan in the
artisticdomain of self-taughtart in which the authenticityof the artist
justifiesthe authenticityof the art work.The work doesn't stand on its
own as an aestheticobject,but it made so by virtueof the fact that even
these creators can have genius. By examiningthe ideological stances
and organizingprinciples of this art world, it is possible to examine
how authenticityis created in practice as a symbolic boundary,sepa-
rating those whose authority is taken-for-grantedand those whose
authorityis given by the very fact of their abilityto create at the mar-
gins.Throughthe workingsof the art marketthese productsby the dis-
advantagedand the outsiderbecome prestigegoods - not despitethese
backgrounds,but precisely because of them. The conditions of their
productionlegitimatetheirotherness,and, hence,justify their value.

As the opening example of Hans Jorgensenattests, not every artist

knows what to make of these claims; they live and work and find that
others wish to define and value them in particularways. It is not their
self-image that is at issue, but the attributionsof selfhood made to
them. While some artists become savvy about this elite interest, this
involvementmay come at a cost in that it is the separation,the dis-
tance, that defines authenticity.The greaterthe involvement,the less
the claim to an authenticstatus.

To be authenticis, typically,to have an authenticbiography.Biography

becomes a market asset for an artist, even if he or she does not
recognizeit. If Clyde Angel's works are made by a trainedartist, that
artist is tradingon the value-addedqualityof a suitablelife history.If
not, Angel is doing the trading,althoughthe enigma of his biography
may now be workingagainsthim, transformingan asset into a liability.

Perhapsthe work should be more importantthan the story,but at the

moment the who, the identity,matters greatly.The biographyof the
artist rubs off on the collector: you are the artist you display.Perhaps
for this reason in a group that values a multi-culturalperspective,
awash in tolerance,the work of vernacular,marginalizedartists is so
valued. It is not that this work should not be appreciatedon its own
meritsabsenta colonialistmentality;it should, if it could.
176

Ultimatelyself-taughtart is a form of identityart in which the charac-

teristics of the creators matter as much as the characteristicsof the
work. Although this study focuses on an art market,the construction
of images of authenticityapplies to other domains - aestheticworlds,
leisureworlds,personalgrowthmovements,and the politics of Orien-
talism and multi-culturalism.The politics of authenticitycan trump
the traditionalstatus structure,assigningvalue to those with the least
social and culturalcapital. In the words of Julia Ardery,Loser Wins,
but if losers win, their victories occur in a social system in which they
remainpowerless.Still losers, afterall.

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Julia Ardery, Howard S. Becker, Lynne

Browne,and TonyRajerfor commentson an earlierversion.

Notes

1. Interviewof Hans Jorgensenby Willem Volkersz, March 7, 1975, Archives of

AmericanArt transcript,25-26.
2. Tom Wolfe, Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers (New York, 1971).
3. GeraldL. Pocius,"Art,"Journalof AmericanFolklore108(1995):413.
4. George Dickie, Art and the Aesthetic: An Institutional Analysis (Ithaca: Cornell
UniversityPress,1973).
5. Tom Wolfe, The Painted Word(New York: Bantam, 1976);Arthur Danto, "The
Artworld," Journal of Philosophy 61 (October 15, 1964): 571-584.
6. Howard Becker, "Art as Collective Action," American Sociological Review 39
(1974):767-776.
7. JanetWolff,TheSocial Productionof Art (New York:St. Martins,1981).
8. Anne E. Bowler,"AsylumArt:The Social Constructionof an AestheticCategory,"
in VeraL. Zolbergand Joni MayaCherbo,editors,OutsiderArt: ContestingBoun-
daries in Contemporary Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997),
29.
9. ElsewhereI discussthe battles("termwarfare")over the appropriatelabel for the
field - the competitionamong proponentsof outsiderart, folk art, and self-taught
art. In this article,I use the term "self-taughtart,"the least controversiallabel to
referto the fieldas a whole.
10. Dean MacCannell, The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class (New York:
Schocken, 1976); Jane C. Desmond, Staging Tourism. Bodies on Display from
Waikikito Sea World(Chicago:Universityof ChicagoPress,1999);xix; John Urry,
The Tourist Gaze. Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies (London: Sage,
1990).
11. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Destination Culture. Tourism, Museums, and Heri-
tage (Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress,1998),239.
 177

12. For extensionsof this argument,emphasizingdefinitionsof genuinenessand core

beliefs, particularlyas relatedto the constructionof the self, see Lionel Trilling,
Sincerityand Authenticity(New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1972);Richard
Sennett, The Fall of Public Man (New York:Vintage, 1978);CharlesTaylor,The
Ethics of Authenticity(Cambridge:HarvardUniversityPress, 1991).These argu-
ments, limningthe authenticself, are, of course, derivativefrom those of Martin
Heidegger (Being and Time [New York: Harper, 1962]),whether supportiveor
critical.
13. Regina Bendix, In Search of Authenticity: The Formation of Folklore Studies (Madi-
son: Universityof WisconsinPress,1997):13-14.
14. ViktorGecas and PeterJ. Burke,"Selfand Identity,"in SociologicalPerspectiveson
Social Psychology,Karen S. Cook, Gary Alan Fine, and James S. House, editors
(Boston:Allyn and Bacon 1995),42.
15. Rogers Brubakerand FrederickCooper,"Beyond"Identity,"Theoryand Society
29/1 (2000):7.
16. Pierre Bourdieu, The Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field
(Stanford:StanfordUniversityPress,1996),168.
17. HowardBecker,Art Worlds(Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress,1982),258-269.
18. Admittedly,thereare numerousstylisticgroupsin the contemporaryart world,and
many(if not all) mightconsiderthemselves"outof the mainstream."
19. Jane Becker, Selling Tradition: Appalachia and the Construction of an American
Folk,1930-1940(ChapelHill: Universityof North CarolinaPress,1998),194.
20. ArjunAppadurai,"Commoditiesand the Politicsof Value,"in ArjunAppadurai,
editor.TheSocialLifeof Things(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1986),6.
21. Shelly Errington, The Death of Authentic Primitive Art and Other Tales of Progress
(Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress,1998).
22. MarshallSahlins,Islandsof History(Chicago:Universityof ChicagoPress,1985).
23. PierreBourdieu,Distinction(Cambridge:HarvardUniversityPress,1984),iii.
24. SallyPrice, PrimitiveArtin CivilizedPlaces(Chicago:Universityof ChicagoPress,
1989),7-22.
25. Michael Thompson, Rubbish Theory: The Creation and Destruction of Value (Ox-
ford:OxfordUniversityPress,1979),9.
26. HowardBecker,"Artsand Crafts,"AmericanJournalof Sociology,83 (1978):862-
889; HowardS. Becker,"La Confusionde Valeurs,"in Pierre-MichelMengerand
Jean-ClaudePasseron,editors,LArt de la Recherche:Melanges(Paris:La Docu-
mentationFrancaise,1994),11-28. Availablein English("Confusionsof Value")at
http:/ /www.soc.ucsb.edu/faculty/hbecker/Confusion.html.
27. MichaelD. Hall, "TheMythicOutsider,"NewArt Examiner(September1991):16.
See also Donald Kuspit, "The Appropriationof Marginal Art in the 1980s,"
AmericanArt 5/1-2 (Winter/Spring1991):134.
28. JuliaArdery,"'LoserWins':OutsiderArt and the Salvagingof Disinterestedness,"
Poetics24 (1997):329-346.
29. We see this processin the enshrinementof self-taughtartistsby comparingthem,
favorably,with canonizedartists.Thus,MAFAdirectorRobertBishopcould say of
Mose Tolliver'swork at the Corcoranshow:"I would say in comparingTolliver's
workto Picasso, it is of equal value - you can hang him beside a Picasso and you
have the same kind of creativityand deep personalvision"(Anton Haardt,"Mose
TolliverGoes to Washington,"Raw Vision12 (Summer1995):28).
30. Lynne Adele, Spirited Journeys: Self-Taught Texas Artists of the Twentieth Century
(Austin:ArcherM. HuntingtonArt Gallery,1997),13.
178

31. The developmentof the fieldof self-taughtart has been a processthat has occurred
overthe courseof the twentieth-century, evenpriorto the writingsof JeanDubuffet
and MichaelHall. Earlyin the century,avant-gardeartistsappropriatedimagesof
the self-taught,notably,but not exclusivelyHenriRousseauin the earlyyearsof the
century,and mentally ill artists somewhat later. These embrasuresallowed the
avantgardeto attackthe canons of the institutionsof art. Again, the issue of the
authenticityof creativitywas central(see Bowler"AsylumArt";LuciennePeiry,Art
Brut: The Origins of Outsider Art (Paris: Flammarion, 2001)).
32. Interviewof Michael Hall with Julia Ardery,August 14, 1993,transcript,14-16.
Availablein OralHistoryArchives,Universityof KentuckyLibrary.
33. JackHitt, "The Sellingof HowardFinster,"SouthernMagazine(November1987):
54-55.
34. This last point is effectivelydiscussed in light of the history of the art of the
mentallyill, as describedby Anne E. Bowler,"AsylumArt," 12-15,31.
35. Herbert W. Hemphill, Jr. and Julia Weissman, Twentieth Century Folk Art and
Artists(New York:E. P. Dutton, 1974),9.
36. StacyC. Hollander,"Self-Taught Artistsof the 20th Century,"FolkArt23/1 (Spring
1998):46.
37. RalphTurner,"The Real Self: From Institutionto Impulse,"AmericanJournalof
Sociology81 (1976):989-1016.
38. John Maizels,"notitle,"Raw Vision11(1995):13.
39. Joe Adams,"JoeAdamsAnswersQuestionsFromNew CollectorsAbout Building
a Folk Art Collection."20th CenturyFolkArtNews(July1996):10-11.
40. Vera L. Zolberg and Joni Maya Cherbo,"Introduction,"in Vera L. Zolberg and
Joni Maya Cherbo, editors, Outsider Art: Contesting Boundaries in Contemporary
Culture(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1997),2. See also StevenDubin,
"TheCentralityof Marginality:Naive Artistsand SavvySupporters,"in ibid.,48.
41. RogerManley,"Robbingthe Garden,"FolkArtMessenger7/2 (Winter1994):5.
42. JoanneCubbs,"Rebels,Mystics,and Outcasts,"in MichaelD. Hall and EugeneW.
Metcalf, Jr., editors, The Artist Outsider: Creativity and the Boundaries of Culture
(Washington:SmithsonianInstitutionPress,1994),90.
43. Citedby JohnMichaelVlach,"TheWrongStuff,"NewArtExaminer19(September
1991):23.
44. AliceThorson,"TheTemptationof 'O'Appalachia,"NewArtExaminer18(October
1990):28, 30.
45. JamesYood,"Etin ArcadiaEgo?"NewArtExaminer19(April1992):26.
46. Regina Bendix, In Search of Authenticity, 3-4.
47. RaymondeMoulin,"La Genese de la Raret6Artisque,"in RaymondeMoulin,De
la Valueurde lArt: Recueil dArticles (Paris: Flammarion, 1995), 161, 167.
48. Ibid., 180-182.
49. Jean Baudrillard,Simulacraand Simulation(Ann Arbor: Universityof Michigan
Press,1994),9.
50. Alan Sondheim,"UnnervingQuestionsConcerningthe Critiqueand Presentation
of Folk/OutsiderArts,"ArtPapers(July/August1989):34.
51. Shelly Errington, The Death of Authentic Primitive Art, 118, see also 3.
52. JudithMcWillie,"FromIdeology to Identity:Syncretismand the Art of the XXI
Century," in Syncretism: The Art of the XXI Century (New York: Alternative
Museum,1991),5.
53. Richard A. Peterson, Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity (Chicago:
Universityof ChicagoPress,1997),3.
 179

54. JuliaS. Ardery,TheTemptation: EdgarTolsonand the Genesisof Twentieth-Century

FolkArt(ChapelHill: Universityof North CarolinaPress,1998),277.
55. TheodorW.Adorno,TheJargonof Authenticity(translatedby Knut Tarnowskiand
FredericWill) (Evanston:NorthwesternUniversityPress,1973).
56. In 2001, the museumsubtlybut significantlychangedits namefromthe Museumof
AmericanFolk Art to the AmericanMuseumof Folk Art: transformingitself into
a showcasefor internationalfolk art.
57. E-mailto outsiderart@onelist.com. "EarlyVersusLate - ApplesversusOranges?"
October30, 1999.
58. LarissaMacFarquhar, "ButIs It Art?"New York(January29, 1996):40.
59. E-mailfromLois Zetterto outsiderart@onelist.com, "re:Castle,"January19,1999.
60. E-mail from Randall Morristo outsiderart@onelist.com, "so anyway...," March
23, 1999.
61. RosemaryO. Joyce,"'FameDon't Makethe SunAny Cooler':Folk Artistsand the
Marketplace,"in John MichaelVlach and SimonJ. Bronner,editors,FolkArtand
Art Worlds(Logan,Utah: Utah StateUniversityPress,1986),226.
62. RichardBlodgett,"CollectorsFlock to Folk Art,"New YorkTimes(September12,
1976).
63. John Windsor,"Catch22: The Case of Albert Louden,"Raw Vision 18 (Spring
1997):50.
64. A prominentcollector was telling me about her lunch with an establishedself-
taught artist(althougha boundary-stretcher): "He'stalkingto me about his deals,
and he wantsto travelin Europeand he thinksit will affecthis oeuvre.I said, don't
ever use that word again.... I just said, don't use that word. Take it out of your
vocabularybecauseit doesn'twork"(Interview).
65. E-mailfrom Mike Smithto outsiderart@onelist.com, "Re:Collectors- Necessary
evil?"March24, 1999.
66. Letterfrom RobertManleyto Chuckand Jan Rosenak,May 11,1996,Archivesof
AmericanArt.
67. LynneAdele, SpiritedJourneys,14.
68. Allen S. Weiss, ShatteredForms:Art Brut,Phantasms,Modernism(Albany:State
Universityof New YorkPress, 1992),67; e-mail from Randall Morristo outsider-
art@onelist.com,"ASolutionperhaps,"September28, 1999.
69. Betty-CarolSellen, Self Taught,Outsider,and FolkArt (Jefferson,North Carolina:
McFarlandand Company,2000), 121-122.
70. It has been reportedthat his formerdealer,SherryPardee,has met Angel.
71. Jeff Huebner,"Has Anyone Seen Clyde Angel?" ChicagoReader29/28 (April 14,
2000): 1, 31-37.
72. Ibid., 37.
73. E-mail from geo to outsiderart@onelist.com, "Re: Clyde Angel,"April 16, 2000,
emphasisadded.
74. LaurentDancin and MartineLusardy,Outsiderand FolkArt:The ChicagoCollec-
tions(Paris:Halle Saint Pierre,1998),64-65.
75. Huebner,"HasAnyone Seen ClydeAngel?"32.
76. Gladys Engel Lang and Kurt Lang, "Recognitionand Renown:The Survivalof
ArtisticReputations,"AmericanJournalof Sociology94 (1988):92-95.
77. Randall Morris,"Self-TaughtEthics RegardingCulture,"NewArt Examiner22/1
(September1994):19.
78. Ibid.
79. E-mail from RandallMorristo outsiderart@onelist.com, "ClydeAngel,"April 16,
2000.
180

80. Bourdieu, The Rules of Art, 169.

81. ButlerHancock,"TheDesignationof Indifference,"
NewArtExaminer20 (October
1992):22, 25.
82. Julia Ardery, The Temptation, 254.
83. Ami Wallach,"TheThornyand ProfitableOutsiders,"New YorkNewsday(January
28, 1994).
84. E-mailfromRandallMorristo outsiderart@onelist.com,
"TroubledWaters,"April
23, 1999.
85. Sellen, Self Taught, Outsider, and Folk Art, 131. Robyn's brother, Shawn, "The
Birdman,"thoughlegallyblind,makesself-taughtbirdhouses.
86. "In Memoryof Our Most PreciousSon Robyn Banks Beverland,"Folk Art 23/4
(Winter1998/1999):70.
87. WendySteiner,"In LoveWiththe Mythof the 'Outsider,"'New YorkTimes(March
10, 1996):45, 48.
88. ThomasMcGonigle,"ViolatedPrivacy," ArtsMagazine55 (October1980):156.
89. Flora Rheta Schreiber,Sybil(New York:Warner,1974).
90. E-mail from Randall Morris to outsiderart@onelist.com,
"Sybil,"December22,
1998.
91. BarbaraSchreiber,"Notes From the Navel-StaringDepartment."Art Papers22/1
(January/February 1998):16-17.