Artistic Legitimation and the Rise of Vernacular Modernism in America

• In Event: 1548 - Classification and Legitimation in the Sociology of Culture

Abstract

In this article, I advance three agendas: (1) a theory of legitimation attuned to the features of 20th century American artistic fields; (2) the argument that this process promoted a particular coherence of aesthetic features across art fields; and finally, (3) that preferences for this aesthetic coherence may be a dominant feature in contemporary, elite, American tastes. In this article, I analyze sixteen creative fields in the United States, delineating between five distinctive resources commonly employed during the artistic legitimation process: sacralization/authentication, professionalization, inculcation, evaluation, and specialization/segmentation. My evidence does not support the argument that sophisticated elites broadened their tastes to indiscriminately appreciate vernacular culture as art. Rather, it demonstrates how entrepreneurs increased elite capacity to apply what Alvin Gouldner called the "culture of critical discourse" to vernacular culture. This increased capacity was directed at a variety of fields, but unified in its valorization of specific aesthetic traits: those associated with vernacular modernism. I close with the potential consequences of these findings for the oft-touted turn of American elites toward "omnivorous" cultural tastes.

Author

• Jennifer C. Lena, Columbia University, Teachers College