The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, sculpture, and paintings. The meaning of art is explored in a branch of philosophy known as aesthetics, practicing the arts The arts is a broad subdivision of culture, composed of many creative endeavors and disciplines. It is a broader term than "art," which as a description of a field usually means only the visual arts. The arts encompasses visual arts, literature and the performing arts - music, drama, dance and film, among others. This list is by no means and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech Speech is the vocalized form of human communication. It is based upon the syntactic combination of lexicals and names that are drawn from very large vocabularies. Each spoken word is created out of the phonetic combination of a limited set of vowel and consonant speech sound units. These vocabularies, the syntax which structures them, and their and academic discourse Discourse means either "written or spoken communication or debate" or "a formal discussion of debate." The term is often used in semantics and discourse analysis is a practitioner in the visual arts The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, printmaking, modern visual arts , design and crafts. These definitions should not be taken too strictly as many artistic disciplines (performing arts, conceptual art, textile arts) involve aspects of only. The term is often used in the entertainment Entertainment is typically passive - as in watching opera or a movie. Activities which involve participating in games or sports are more often considered to be recreation. Activities such as personal reading or practising a musical instruments are considered as hobbies business, especially in a business context, for musicians and other performers (less often for actors An actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity. The ancient Greek word for an "actor," ὑποκριτής (hypokrites), means literally "one who interprets"; in this sense, an actor is one who interprets a dramatic character). "Artiste" (the French for artist) is a variant used in English only in this context. Use of the term to describe writers, for example, is certainly valid, but less common, and mostly restricted to contexts like criticism Criticism is the judgment of the merits and faults of the actions or work of another individual. Criticism can mean merely to evaluate without necessarily finding fault; however, usually the word implies the expression of disapproval.
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Dictionary definitions
Wiktionary defines the noun 'artist' (Singular: artist; Plural: artists) as follows:
- A person who creates art.
- A person who creates art as an occupation.
- A person who is skilled at some activity.
The Oxford English Dictionary The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is a comprehensive dictionary of the English language. Two fully-bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. As of December 2008[update], the editors had completed one quarter of a third edition defines the older broad meanings of the term "artist,"
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- A learned person or Master of Arts (now rather obsolete)
- One who pursues a practical science, traditionally medicine, astrology, alchemy, chemistry (also obsolete)
- A follower of a pursuit in which skill comes by study or practice - the opposite of a theorist
- A follower of a manual art, such as a mechanic - partly obsolete
- One who makes their craft A craft is a skill, especially involving practical arts. It may refer to a trade or particular art a fine art
- One who cultivates one of the fine arts Fine art describes an art form developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than utility. Today, the fine arts commonly include visual and performing art forms, such as painting, sculpture, music, dance, theatre, architecture, photography and printmaking. However, in some institutes of learning or in museums fine art, and frequently - traditionally the arts presided over by the muses The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature are the goddesses or spirits who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths. In Boeotia, the homeland of Hesiod a tradition existed that the - now the dominant usage
A definition of Artist from Princeton.edu: creative person (a person whose creative work shows sensitivity and imagination).
History of the term
Although the Greek word "techně" is often mistranslated as "art," it actually implies mastery of any sort of craft. The Latin-derived form of the word is "tecnicus", from which the English words technique, technology Technology deals with human as well as other animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt to its natural environment. The word technology comes from the Greek technología — téchnē (τέχνη), 'craft' and -logía (-λογία), the study of something, or the branch of, technical are derived.
In Greek culture each of the nine Muses The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature are the goddesses or spirits who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths. In Boeotia, the homeland of Hesiod a tradition existed that the oversaw a different field of human creation:
- Calliope In Greek mythology, Calliope was the muse of heroic poetry, daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, and is now best known as Homer's muse, the inspiration for the Iliad and the Odyssey (the 'beautiful of speech'): chief of the muses and muse of epic or heroic poetry An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form. Nonetheless, epics have been written down at
- Clio In Greek mythology, Clio or Kleio is the muse of history. Like all the muses, she is a daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne. She had one son, Hyacinth, with the King of Pieria, Pierus. Some sources say she was also the mother of Hymenaios. She is often represented with a parchment scroll or a set of tablets and is also known as the Proclaimer. The name (the 'glorious one'): muse of history History is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns of cause and effect that determine events
- Erato In Greek mythology, Erato is one of the Greek Muses. The name means "desired" or "lovely", being derived from the same root as Eros, as Apollonius of Rhodes alludes to in Book III of his Argonautica (the 'amorous one'): muse of love or erotic poetry Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning. Poetry may be written independently, as discrete poems, or may occur in conjunction with other arts, as in poetic drama, hymns or lyrics, lyrics, and marriage songs
- Euterpe In Greek mythology, Euterpe (pronounced /juːˈtɜrpiː/, [eʊ̯térpɛ̀ː] in Ancient Greek, or [ɛfˈtɛrpi] in Modern Greek; "rejoicing well" or "delight" from Ancient Greek εὖ (well) + τέρπειν terpein (to please)) was one of the Muses, the daughters of Mnemosyne, fathered by Zeus. Called the "Giver of (the 'well-pleasing'): muse of music and lyric poetry Lyric poetry is usually a form of poetry with rhyming schemes that express personal feelings. It doesn't need to, but can be set to music. Aristotle, in Poetics 1447a, merely mentions lyric poetry along with drama, epic poetry, dancing, painting and other forms of mimesis. The modern concept of a lyric poem, dating from the Romantic era, does have
- Melpomene Melpomène ("to sing" or "the one that is melodious") , initially the Muse of Singing, she then became the Muse of Tragedy, for which she is best known now. Her name was derived from the Greek verb melpô or melpomai meaning "to celebrate with dance and song." She is often represented with a tragic mask and wearing (the 'chanting one'): muse of tragedy Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that paradoxically offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western civilization. That tradition
- Polyhymnia Polyhymnia (Πολυύμνια, Πολύμνια), in Greek mythology, was the Muse of sacred poetry, sacred hymn and eloquence as well as agriculture and pantomime. She is also known as the Muse of mime. She is depicted as very serious, pensive and meditative, and often holding a finger to her mouth, dressed in a long cloak and veil and resting or Polymnia (the '[singer] of many hymns A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word hymn derives from Greek ὕμνος , "a song of praise". Collections of hymns are known as hymnals or hymnbooks'): muse of sacred song Holiness, or sanctity, is in general the state of being holy or sacred (considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspiring awe or reverence among believers in a given set of spiritual ideas). In other contexts, objects are often considered 'holy' or 'sacred' if used for spiritual purposes, such as the worship or service of gods, oratory Oratory refers to the ancient art of speaking. In ancient Greece and Rome, oratory was studied as a component of rhetoric (that is, composition and delivery of speeches), and was an important skill in public and private life. Aristotle and Quintilian discussed oratory, and the subject, with definitive rules and models, was emphasised as a part of, lyric Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of expression. The lyricist of traditional musical forms, singing Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can either be sung a cappella or accompanied by musicians and instruments ranging from a single instrumentalist to a full and rhetoric Rhetoric normally explains the three arts of using language as a means to persuade . As well as the five canons of Rhetoric: memory, invention, delivery, style, and arrangement. Along with grammar and logic or dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. From ancient Greece to the late 19th Century, it was a central part of
- Terpsichore In Greek mythology, Terpsichore (Τερψιχόρη) "delight of dancing" was one of the nine Muses, ruling over dance and the dramatic chorus. She lends her name to the word "terpsichorean" which means "of or relating to dance". She is usually depicted sitting down, holding a lyre, accompanying the dancers' choirs (the '[one who] delights in dance'): muse of choral A body of singers who perform together is called a choir or chorus. The former term is very often applied to groups affiliated with a church and the second to groups that perform in theatres or concert halls, but this distinction is far from rigid. The term "Choir" has the secondary definition of a subset of an ensemble; thus one speaks song and dance
- Thalia Thalia can refer to four distinct entities in Greek mythology, two of whom were daughters of Zeus, and a third of whom bore him sons. The name Thalia, or Thaleia is spelled Θάλεια in Greek and derives from the same stem as θάλλειν "to bloom" (the 'blossoming one'): muse of comedy Comedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in Ancient Greece. In the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was and bucolic poetry Pastoral, as an adjective, refers to the lifestyle of shepherds and pastoralists, moving livestock around larger areas of land according to seasons and availability of water and pasturage. "Pastoral" also describes literature, art and music which depicts the life of shepherds, often in a highly idealised manner. It may also be used as a
- Urania In Greek mythology, Urania , was the muse of astrology. Some accounts list her as the mother of the musician Linus. She is usually depicted as having a globe in her left hand. She is able to foretell the future by the arrangement of the stars. She is often associated with Universal Love and the Holy Spirit. She is dressed in a cloak embroidered (the 'celestial one'): muse of astronomy Astronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere (such as the cosmic background radiation). It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the formation and development of the universe
No muse was identified with the visual arts of painting and sculpture. In ancient Greece sculptors and painters were held in low regard, somewhere between freemen and slaves, their work regarded as mere manual labour.[1]
The word art is derived from the Latin "ars", which, although literally defined means, "skill A skill is the learned capacity to carry out pre-determined results often with the minimum outlay of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of work, some general skills would include time management, teamwork and leadership, self motivation and others, whereas method" or "technique", holds a connotation of beauty Beauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction.[citation needed] Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology, and culture. An "ideal beauty" is an entity which is admired, or possesses features widely attributed.
During the Middle Ages the word artist already existed in some countries such as Italy Italy /ˈɪtəli/ (Italian: Italia, [iˈta:lja]), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica Italiana), is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia, but the meaning was something resembling craftsman, while the word artesan was still unknown. An artist was someone able to do a work better than others, so the skilled excellency was underlined, rather than the activity field. In this period some "artisanal" products (such as textiles) were much more precious and expensive than paintings or sculptures.
The first division into major and minor arts dates back to Leon Battista Alberti Leon Battista Alberti was an Italian author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer, and general Renaissance humanist polymath. In Italy, this first name is usually spelled "Leone", but Alberti is known as Leon. Alberti's life was described in Giorgio Vasari's Vite's works (De re aedificatoria De re aedificatoria is a classic architectural treatise written by Leon Battista Alberti between 1443 and 1452. Although largely dependent on Vitruvius' De architectura, it was the first theoretical book on the subject written in the Italian Renaissance and in 1485 became the first printed book on architecture. It was followed in 1486 with the, De statua, De pictura), focusing the importance of intellectual skills of the artist rather than the manual skills (even if in other forms of art there was a project A project in business and science is a collaborative enterprise, frequently involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim behind).[2]
With the Academies An academy is an institution of higher learning, research, or honorary membership. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, north of Athens, Greece in Europe (second half of XVI century) the gap between fine and applied arts was definitely set.
Many contemporary definitions of "artist" and "art" are highly contingent on culture Culture is a term that has different meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions. However, the word "culture" is most commonly used in three basic senses:, resisting aesthetic prescription, in much the same way that the features constituting beauty and the beautiful, cannot be standardized easily without corruption into kitsch Kitsch is a German word denoting art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons while making cheap mass-produced objects that are unoriginal. Kitsch also refers to.
The present day concept of an 'artist'
Artist is a descriptive term applied to a person who engages in an activity deemed to be an art. An artist also may be defined unofficially, as, "a person who expresses themselves through a medium". The word also is used in a qualitative sense of, a person creative Creativity is a mental and social process involving the discovery of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. Creativity is fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight. An alternative conception of creativeness is that it is simply the act of making something new in, innovative Innovation is a new way of doing something or "new stuff that is made useful". It may refer to incremental and emergent or radical and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations. Following Schumpeter , contributors to the scholarly literature on innovation typically distinguish between invention, an idea in, or adept at, an artistic practice.
Most often, the term describes those who create within a context of 'high culture High culture is a term, now used in a number of different ways in academic discourse, whose most common meaning is the set of cultural products, mainly in the arts, held in the highest esteem by a culture. In more popular terms, it is the culture of an elite such as the aristocracy or intelligentsia. It is contrasted with the low culture or', activities such as drawing, painting, sculpture, acting, dancing, writing, filmmaking, photography, and music—people who use imagination, talent, or skill to create works that may be judged to have an aesthetic value. Art historians and critics will define as artists, those who produce art within a recognized or recognizable discipline.
The term also is used to denote highly skilled people in non-"arts" activities, as well—crafts, law, medicine, alchemy, mechanics, mathematics, defense (martial arts), and architecture, for example. The designation is applied to high skill in illegal activities, such as "scam artist" (a person very adept at deceiving others, often profiting (semi-illegally) from other people) or "con artist" (a person very adept at committing fraud).
Often, discussions on the subject focus on the differences among "artist" and "technician", "entertainer" and "artisan," "fine art" and "applied art," or what constitutes art and what does not. The French word artiste (which in French, simply means "artist") has been imported into the English language where it means a performer (frequently in Music Hall or Vaudeville). Use of the word "artiste" can also be a pejorative term.[3]
The English word 'artist' has thus, a narrower range of meanings than the word 'artiste' in French.
Examples of art and artists
See also
| Arts portal |
- Art
- Art history
- Arts by region
- Fine art
- Humanities
- List of composers
- List of sculptors
- Mathematics and art
- Social sciences
Notes
- ^ In Our Time: The Artist BBC Radio 4, TX 28th March 2002
- ^ P.Galloni, Il sacro artefice. Mitologie degli artigiani medievali, Laterza, Bari, 1998)
- ^ [1]
References
- P.Galloni, Il sacro artefice. Mitologie degli artigiani medievali, Laterza, Bari, 1998
- C. T. Onions (1991). The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Clarendon Press Oxford. ISBN 0-19-861126-9
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