Painters' participation in collective activities of Iranian Society of Painting Art

Through confirmation and conferring prizes, the artistic institutions such as museums, galleries, academic centers, and governmental institutions legitimatize artistic innovations. At the same time, these institutions may have a restricting function upon artists' innovation because they often support recognized and established styles of art. For example, art galleries, as economic foundations, normally exhibit recognized and confirmed works. Therefore, in order to establish their avant-garde and deconstructionist works, the innovative artists need to find artistic groups and societies so that they could confirm, establish and support them while maintaining their own artistic independence.
Founding artistic associations, of course, needs a high level of social participation among artists. Romantic isolation of artists in the society, however, acts as an obstacle that reduces social participation. Therefore, the paper addresses this question that how mental patterns and romantic orientation of "being an artist" affect painters' participation in collective artistic activities. In other words, to what extent do painters tend to participate in collective activities regarding painting? In order to answer this question, first, the collective and institutional activities in the Iranian Society of Painting Art were identified, and three forms of activity, namely artistic gatherings, artistic groups, and artistic associations, were studied. Then through a field study, the effect of variables such as gender, age, education, and social and economic status of the artists as well as their attitude towards social art and individualism in painting on their tendency to participate in collective activities was examined.
The results obtained from interviews with 135 painters indicate that although Iranian painters maintain a positive view on collective work, their actual participation is lower than average. Also, a comparison of three types of participation in occasional gatherings, artistic groups and artistic associations showed that tendency to group participation is more prevalent, followed by occasional gatherings, and organized participation is the last form of collective activity preferred by the painters. It means that painters are hardly interested in institutionalized and associational activities. Painters' non-participation and lack of integration in the artists' social relations network bring about their inability to express their civil rights and unionist demands on the one hand and underdevelopment of artistic innovation on the other hand. The Iranian Society of Painting Art is dispersed. Individualism has prevented artists to join other artists, express their innovative ideas, and expand social and professional support and confirmation. Finally, recognizing artist's innovation in creation of a work as a new set of artistic rules requires artistic institutions which could confirm these rules.