Narrating Authenticity: Meaning-Making and Boundary Negotiation in the Outsider Art World

Authenticity plays a crucial role in the legitimation and valorization within the cultural field. This study examines outsider art, a category labeled as “identity art” and characterized by a “culture of authenticity.” Based on data collected from 104 galleries and studios, it employs the narrative approach to analyze 663 artists’ biographies constructed by dealers, who serve as key distributors in the art market and cultural intermediaries in civil society. Through elaborately crafted narratives, dealers portray outsider artists as heroic, disinterested creators while embedding their artworks in broader civic agendas related to race, poverty, disability, and other critical social issues. Meanwhile, they combine “bio first” and “art first” approaches to integrate artistic creativity with artists’ life stories. By connecting the material qualities of artworks with civic codes such as sincerity, equality, and inclusion, dealers initiate iconic experiences for audiences, immersing them in aesthetic feelings that are channeled into collective social meanings. Furthermore, boundaries once defined by “self-education” are increasingly blurred through diverse publicizing strategies and moral logics. Contributing to the “new sociology of art” and cultural sociology, this research reveals how dealers, beyond brokering, serve as cultural critics who construct meanings, mediate boundaries, and foster civic discourses within the contemporary art world.