First Advisor

Robert Liebman

Date of Publication

1-1-2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.) in Sociology

Department

Sociology

Language

English

Subjects

Artist collective, Collaborative, Oregon Painting Society, Cooperative, Underground movements in art, Artists -- Oregon -- Portland -- Intellectual life, Group work in art -- Oregon -- Portland

DOI

10.15760/etd.188

Physical Description

1 online resource (vi, 139 p.) : ill.

Abstract

This ethnography explores the underground art world in Portland, Oregon by showing how a Portland area artist collective, Oregon Painting Society, navigates their art world. Participant observation, in-depth interviews, and a short latent content analysis triangulate data to show the features and values of the underground art world. Using Becker's concept of art worlds, I show how artists working outside of a traditional art career in a commercial gallery system do their work by exploring how Portland's art world is structured and sustained. I find that group work, cooperation, and resource sharing in a vibrant neighborhood based social network enables artists to substitute resources usually provided by gallery representation and sustain their ability to make artwork without financial support. This is a network that rejects the competitive structure of the commercial system and runs more smoothly the more artists participate in it. I also explore the reasons for Portland's particular ability to support this kind of environment, citing geographic proximity to other art cities, DIY cultural roots, neighborhood structure, affordable city amenities, and a creative class population.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Comments

Portland State University. Dept. of Sociology

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/8117

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