Divine Genius, Subversive Hero, or Creative Entrepreneur? Exploring Various Facets of the Artist as a Mythical Figure
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People have always related art to the creation and transmission of myths. While myth as a theme in art has been thoroughly addressed, research about the “mythic” nature of the artist figure is far less common. The 20th and 21st centuries brought challenges to the status of art and artists in society, historically situated archetypes and stereotypes that we associate with the figure of the “artist” still survive to this day (e.g. “genius”, “subversive artists”, “child prodigy”, “eccentric”, etc.). In this paper, we set out to analyze various tropes used persistently to describe artists and explore how relevant the resulting myths are in (self) perceptions of Serbian contemporary artists. Our multidisciplinary approach to this topic combines a historicaltheoretical and empirical perspective. Through historical research of the relevant literature, we described and mapped the key tropes of the (mythical) artist figure as it developed in Western culture. In the theoretical analysis we addr...ess the inseparability of digital culture with everyday life of people today, which we call postdigital. We explore how the transition into contemporaneity affects the determination of the “artistfigure”, i.e., how it impacts the contemporary process of mythmaking. Following our historicaltheoretical analysis, we conducted five indepth interviews with contemporary Serbian artists to understand better how relevant the artist myth tropes are for their selfperception.
Keywords:
myth / artist identity / history of the artist / postdigital / SerbiaSource:
Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU, 2023, 71, 1, 99-121Publisher:
- Beograd: Etnografski institut SANU
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Note:
- Tema broja - Hit I identitet: kroskulturalni I intertemporalni pristup (ur. Đurđina Šijaković Maidanik) / Topic of the Issue - Myth and Identity: A Cross-Cultural and Intertemporal Approach (ed. Djurdjina Šijaković Maidanik).
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IFDTTY - JOUR AU - Mevorah, Vera AU - Guga, Jelena AU - Markov, Čedomir PY - 2023 UR - http://rifdt.instifdt.bg.ac.rs/123456789/2827 AB - People have always related art to the creation and transmission of myths. While myth as a theme in art has been thoroughly addressed, research about the “mythic” nature of the artist figure is far less common. The 20th and 21st centuries brought challenges to the status of art and artists in society, historically situated archetypes and stereotypes that we associate with the figure of the “artist” still survive to this day (e.g. “genius”, “subversive artists”, “child prodigy”, “eccentric”, etc.). In this paper, we set out to analyze various tropes used persistently to describe artists and explore how relevant the resulting myths are in (self) perceptions of Serbian contemporary artists. Our multidisciplinary approach to this topic combines a historicaltheoretical and empirical perspective. Through historical research of the relevant literature, we described and mapped the key tropes of the (mythical) artist figure as it developed in Western culture. In the theoretical analysis we address the inseparability of digital culture with everyday life of people today, which we call postdigital. We explore how the transition into contemporaneity affects the determination of the “artistfigure”, i.e., how it impacts the contemporary process of mythmaking. Following our historicaltheoretical analysis, we conducted five indepth interviews with contemporary Serbian artists to understand better how relevant the artist myth tropes are for their selfperception. PB - Beograd: Etnografski institut SANU T2 - Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU T1 - Divine Genius, Subversive Hero, or Creative Entrepreneur? Exploring Various Facets of the Artist as a Mythical Figure IS - 1 VL - 71 SP - 99 EP - 121 DO - 10.2298/GEI2301099M ER -
@article{ author = "Mevorah, Vera and Guga, Jelena and Markov, Čedomir", year = "2023", abstract = "People have always related art to the creation and transmission of myths. While myth as a theme in art has been thoroughly addressed, research about the “mythic” nature of the artist figure is far less common. The 20th and 21st centuries brought challenges to the status of art and artists in society, historically situated archetypes and stereotypes that we associate with the figure of the “artist” still survive to this day (e.g. “genius”, “subversive artists”, “child prodigy”, “eccentric”, etc.). In this paper, we set out to analyze various tropes used persistently to describe artists and explore how relevant the resulting myths are in (self) perceptions of Serbian contemporary artists. Our multidisciplinary approach to this topic combines a historicaltheoretical and empirical perspective. Through historical research of the relevant literature, we described and mapped the key tropes of the (mythical) artist figure as it developed in Western culture. In the theoretical analysis we address the inseparability of digital culture with everyday life of people today, which we call postdigital. We explore how the transition into contemporaneity affects the determination of the “artistfigure”, i.e., how it impacts the contemporary process of mythmaking. Following our historicaltheoretical analysis, we conducted five indepth interviews with contemporary Serbian artists to understand better how relevant the artist myth tropes are for their selfperception.", publisher = "Beograd: Etnografski institut SANU", journal = "Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU", title = "Divine Genius, Subversive Hero, or Creative Entrepreneur? Exploring Various Facets of the Artist as a Mythical Figure", number = "1", volume = "71", pages = "99-121", doi = "10.2298/GEI2301099M" }
Mevorah, V., Guga, J.,& Markov, Č.. (2023). Divine Genius, Subversive Hero, or Creative Entrepreneur? Exploring Various Facets of the Artist as a Mythical Figure. in Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU Beograd: Etnografski institut SANU., 71(1), 99-121. https://doi.org/10.2298/GEI2301099M
Mevorah V, Guga J, Markov Č. Divine Genius, Subversive Hero, or Creative Entrepreneur? Exploring Various Facets of the Artist as a Mythical Figure. in Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU. 2023;71(1):99-121. doi:10.2298/GEI2301099M .
Mevorah, Vera, Guga, Jelena, Markov, Čedomir, "Divine Genius, Subversive Hero, or Creative Entrepreneur? Exploring Various Facets of the Artist as a Mythical Figure" in Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU, 71, no. 1 (2023):99-121, https://doi.org/10.2298/GEI2301099M . .