Abstract
In two empirical studies, this dissertation explores processes of constructing the Florida Highwaymen, a group of "rediscovered" Black artists, who painted from the end of the Jim Crow era to the present. The first study (Chapter 2) explores how cultural capitalists (e.g. promoters, collectors) market this loose association of artists. Examining cultural capitalists' writings, statements from interviews, and their interactions with audiences at public events, I show how they represented the artists as both exotic self-taught artists and achievers of the American Dream. I introduce the term "racialized authentication" to describe the process through which cultural capitalists use both traditional and new racism to construct authentic artists. In conclusion, I address how these findings have implications for contemporary research on race, as well as sociological studies of art worlds. Taking an identity work approach in the second study (Chapter 3), I explore the negotiation of the imposed identity of "Highwaymen" and associated identity codes of "self-taught artists" by a group of Black self-taught artists. Drawing on interviews and participant observation, I examine how artists selectively integrated accounts of their own life experiences with promoters' representations to construct a standardized story of being an "artist-entrepreneur." I find the artists created accounts that both signified their artistic genius as self-taught artists and their entrepreneurial spirit, constructing stories that resonated with the art world and broader audiences. Overall, my research shows how people can selectively draw on identity codes to construct positive moral identities in the face of potentially derogatory imposed ones.
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