“I Am Not an Artist, I Make Art”: Amateurish Artists in Israel and the Sense of Creativity

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.