I'm not an artist : reclaiming creativity in the age of infinite content / Giovanni Aloi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Aloi, Giovanni, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art--Economic aspects.

Art.

Artists.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 234 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Distribution:

London : Bloomsbury Publishing (UK), 2025.

Place of Publication:

London : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2025.

System Details:

text file HTML

Summary:

Romanticized notions of how one becomes an artist have long been questioned, so why do we still fetishize them in popular culture, turning a blind eye to the politics of exclusionism that characterize the art world and conforming our creative potential to well-trodden stereotypes? I'm Not an Artist is a critical appraisal of the role of the artist through time and an account of how successful artists have conquered their spot in the history of art, from the rise of the Renaissance artist star to the multiplicity of artistic identities we see in the creative landscape today. Entertaining, informative, and packed with important but lesser-known stories about how artists became famous, it examines the cultural importance of the professional label artist and invites readers to give up the artist myth in order to rediscover creativity beyond the stronghold of institutions, markets, trends, and cultural cliches. It s a book about art, artists, art history, and the art market as well as the role creativity plays in our lives and how outdated power structures and professional labels are a hindrance to unlocking creative potential. Openly engaging with the contradictions and paradoxes that currently define the relationship between artists, the education system, and the art market, the book proposes an eco-cultural model that can allow artists to reconfigure their identities, and in the process tilt the artworld s axis. By turns a critical framework for examining what constitutes the term artist , an alternative art historical account and a no holds barred guide to how the art world really works, this boundary-breaking book challenges existing practices, methodologies, and metrics of success, calling for a fairer art world that is non-elitist and multicultural. It allows readers to critically position themselves in today s art world in a clear, ethically grounded, and responsible way.

Contents:

Introduction

Animals Don't Make Art

Artist Mythologies, Genealogies, and Responsibilities

From Myth to Ecologies

Overview

Part I

1 Becoming an artist: Constraints and Freedom

Words and Visions: The Birth of a Myth

From Medieval Anonymity to Renaissance Divinity

Shamanism: The Root of the Artist's Superiority Complex

The Rise of the Artist Star: Myth, Power, and Money

When Art Became Institutionalized

Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?

Museums: Exclusionary Displays

2 The Modern Artist: A Rebel Without a Cause?

Postcards from the Revolution

The Artist Rebel: How to Make or Wreck a Career

Realism: The Birth of the Political Artist

Courbet and Bonheur: The Artist Entrepreneur

Manet: The Value of Controversy

Impressionist Cash: From Trickles to Waterfalls while Staring at Ponds

3 Modern Ecologies: Markets, Marketeers, and Alliances

Fearing the Mob: Elitism and Art

Markets, Marketeers, and Selling Out

Johanna van Gogh-Bonger: The First Art Market Guru

Art Historians Change the Past. . . If They Want To

Playing the Fame Game

Money, Art, and the Aura

4 Responsibility: Art that Builds Better Worlds

The Renaissance Masterpiece that Gave Us Conceptual Art

Dada: The Artist as (Penniless) Provocateur

Genealogies: Two Kinds of Artists?

Bauhaus: The Artist Diffracted

Edmonia Lewis: Black Artists Matter

WPA: Artists of the New Deal

Artists of the Masses: A Double-Edged Sword

5 Art Capital: The Infinity of Currencies

Worth Its Weight in Gold?

Accessibility: Philosophy and the Taxi Driver

Auctions Don't Make Artists Rich

Exposure Is Everything

Part II

6 Institutional Dissociative Identity Disorders.

Capitalism as Cultural Disease

Skin-Deep Diversity

The Art Market as Ecosystem

No Natural Evolution

Muddy Waters

Echoes in the Valleys

The M-Word: Exposure Doesn't Pay Bills?

NFT and AI: Is the Future Online (Is There Any Future Left)?

7 Outsiders and Professional Amateurs

The Artist's Voice: Canonical Deconstructions in the Age of Hypercriticality

Feedback Loops: Death by Referencing

Who's Left Outside and Why?

Decolonizing Art?

8 I'm Not an Artist

What's in a Word: The Capitalist Realist Matrix

Validation: Success as Existentialism

The Professional, the Hobbyist, and the Impostor

Shooting Stars

The F-Word

Blooming Narcissus

Reclaiming Creativity

9 In Private: Conversations

Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds: On Building Communities

Mandy Suzanne Wong: On Risk-Taking

Julian Montague: On Straddling Disciplines

Vivien Sansour: On Not Fitting In, Ever

Annie Freud: On Art as Encounter

Cannupa Hanska Luger: On Art as Process

Anicka Yi: On the Laws of Impermanence

Derrick Woods-Morrow: On the Nature of Success

Pamela Sneed: On Art as Poetry

Frances Whitehead: On Following Meaningfulness

Cecilia Vicuña: On a World of Precarity.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781350417960

1350417963

9781350417946

1350417947

9781350417953

1350417955

OCLC:

1481790505