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An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only.
However, the term is also often used in the entertainment business to refer to actors, musicians, singers, dancers and other performers, in which they are known as Artiste instead.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Artiste (French) is a variant used in English in this context, but this use has become rare. The use of the term "artist" to describe writers is valid, but less common, and mostly restricted to contexts such as critics' reviews;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> "author" is generally used instead.
Dictionary definitionsEdit
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the older, broader meanings of the word "artist":
- A learned person or Master of Arts
- One who pursues a practical science, traditionally medicine, astrology, alchemy, chemistry
- A follower of a pursuit in which skill comes by study or practice
- A follower of a manual art, such as a mechanic
- One who makes their craft a fine art
- One who cultivates one of the fine arts – traditionally the arts presided over by the muses
History of the termEdit
The Greek word {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, often translated as "art", implies mastery of any sort of craft. The adjectival Latin form of the word, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}},<ref> Oxford English Dictionary s.v. technic </ref> became the source of the English words technique, technology, and technical.
In Greek culture, each of the nine Muses oversaw a different field of human creation:
- Calliope (the 'beautiful of speech'): chief of the muses and muse of epic or heroic poetry
- Clio (the 'glorious one'): muse of history
- Erato (the 'amorous one'): muse of love or erotic poetry, lyrics, and marriage songs
- Euterpe (the 'well-pleasing'): muse of music and lyric poetry
- Melpomene (the 'chanting one'): muse of tragedy
- Polyhymnia or Polymnia (the '[singer] of many hymns'): muse of sacred song, oratory, lyric, singing, and rhetoric
- Terpsichore (the '[one who] delights in dance'): muse of choral song and dance
- Thalia (the 'blossoming one'): muse of comedy and bucolic poetry
- Urania (the 'celestial one'): muse of astronomy
No muse was identified with the visual arts of painting and sculpture. In ancient Greece, sculptors and painters were held in low regard, the work often performed by slaves and mostly regarded as mere manual labour.<ref>In Our Time: The Artist BBC Radio 4, TX 28 March 2002</ref>
The word art derives from the Latin "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" (stem art-), which, although literally defined means "skill method" or "technique", also conveys a connotation of beauty.
During the Middle Ages the word artist already existed in some countries such as Italy, but the meaning was something resembling craftsman, while the word artisan 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 at least to the works of Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472): De re aedificatoria, De statua, De pictura, which focused on the importance of the intellectual skills of the artist rather than the manual skills (even if in other forms of art there was a project behind).<ref> P.Galloni, Il sacro artefice. Mitologie degli artigiani medievali, Laterza, Bari, 1998</ref>
With the academies in Europe (second half of 16th century) the gap between fine and applied arts was definitely set.
Many contemporary definitions of "artist" and "art" are highly contingent on culture, resisting aesthetic prescription; in the same way, the features constituting beauty and the beautiful cannot be standardized easily without moving into kitsch.
Training and employmentEdit
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies many visual artists as either craft artists or fine artists.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A craft artist makes handmade functional works of art, such as pottery or clothing. A fine artist makes paintings, illustrations (such as book illustrations or medical illustrations), sculptures, or similar artistic works primarily for their aesthetic value.
The main source of skill for both craft artists and fine artists is long-term repetition and practice.<ref name=":0" /> Many fine artists have studied their art form at university, and some have a master's degree in fine arts. Artists may also study on their own or receive on-the-job training from an experienced artist.
The number of available jobs as an artist is increasing more slowly than in other fields.<ref name=":0" /> About half of US artists are self-employed. Others work in a variety of industries. For example, a pottery manufacturer will employ craft artists, and book publishers will hire illustrators.
In the US, fine artists have a median income of approximately US$50,000 per year, and craft artists have a median income of approximately US$33,000 per year.<ref name=":0" /> This compares to US$61,000 for all art-related fields, including related jobs such as graphic designers, multimedia artists, animators, and fashion designers.<ref name=":0" /> Many artists work part-time as artists and hold a second job.<ref name=":0" />
See alsoEdit
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- Art history
- Arts by region
- Artist in Residence
- Humanities
- List of painters by name
- List of painters
- List of photographers
- List of composers
- List of sculptors
- Mathematics and art
- Starving artist
- Tattoo artist
- Tortured artist
ReferencesEdit
Works citedEdit
- P.Galloni, Il sacro artefice. Mitologie degli artigiani medievali, Laterza, Bari, 1998
- C. T. Onions (1991). The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Clarendon Press Oxford. Template:ISBN