Meaning of эмалер and полистывать

Question

I can't find the meaning of the word 'эмалер' and the verb 'полистывать'.

Context:

Виталий Петров (Праски ВИТТИ) обременен званиями, международными премиями и известностью среди многочисленных западных и немногочисленных российских эмалеров.

I think эмалер is derived from the German word Maler = painter?

Выпускник Мухинского училища никогда не был диссидентом, но журналы соцсодружества и происхождения далее Берлинской стены, как всякий уважающий себя артстудент, начал полистывать еще во время учебы в Чебоксарском художественном училище.

Thank you very much for your help!

Answer 1

No, эмальер (a word I wasn't aware of, and hence missed the typo; see Shady_arc's answer) is from эмаль, enamel. Maler has entered Russian via Polish as маляр, and only means a non-artistic painter (one that paints fences, walls, etc.)

To полистывать is to occasionally листать. По-+root+-ыва- expresses irregularly repeated action, often with a suggestion of a leisurely attitude: поглядывать "to glance from time to time"; помахивать хвостом better describes the slow, one-wag-at-a-time action of a cat's tail as opposed to a dog’s more enthusiastic махать хвостом.

Answer 2

There is a typo here, it should be "среди немногочисленных... эмальеров" from "эмальер". It somes from эмаль, which is "enamel". So the work mentioned here is actually about making enameled objects.

полистывать — from "листать" (to flip through pages). Such a construction sometimes makes a more cozy coloquial verb "to leisurely do the action once in a while, occasionally and without much work".

As for German "Maler", Russian «маляр» comes from it. But it means a construction worker who does painting (like, painting walls of a builiding)