Is the art in the idea or in the craft?
I found this very interesting article in The Independent, and wonder what the perspectives of Culturalistas are on this subject:
What does it mean about an artist when they are not critically involved in the actual making process of an art piece but instead rely on artisans and craftsmen to create their finished product? Is the art in the idea or the craft?
Replies to This Post
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Permalink Reply by glen s. gardner on -
"Critically involved" is the imperative. But this does not necessarily mean hands on. Throughout history artists from all disciplines have relied on others to birth their concepts. I have no problem with Michelangelo or Frank Loyd Wright barking orders for getting the job done. However, the ethics involved simply passing a vague concept along with a detached command to make it so, is another story.
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Permalink Reply by Wayne Harjula on -
Hi Nico, excellent question for us.
Good artist, bad artist, artist yes or artist shmo!
Perhaps this question is also hinting at a divergence from studio to factory and the transition of artistic accomplishment to business success! Which asks the question of where to draw the line, and how can integrity be maintained with all these distractions.
The sketch or concept is fundamental to the starting point of the artist’s inspiration.
The realization as a theoretical proposal into a real life object or product is not always managed by the entrepreneur, equally the concept can be borrowed by a third party who use it as inspiration to an alternative rendition even sometimes as a mere verbal description/lecture. The fear often in our present consumer based survival is of course copyright/patent issues which are clearly starting to wither. Probably some statistics on how many patents end to end would stretch to the moon and back or use all the trees on earth to print them..
In my own creativity I find multimedia has its challenges despite my having a strong concept. I often seek knowledge or help from other motivated people who have specialized in the field I require. Their help can for-see pitfalls or gains (even a target audience) I hadn’t anticipated, a few of my own such examples would be website design, gallery presentation, video or music producing, graphics, software, and new innovations with electronics to name a few. I spend untold hours with all of these but understand that its not where my energy is best put when more urgent art is expected of me.
My job as an artist is to ensure that the finished job gets my approval and to understand where compromise is important in order to have a conclusive result. The role of a professional is to learn from mistakes and yet apply an ability of clear guidance and confidence to one’s helpers and bring an abstract or ‘foreign’ character into the evolution of art.
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Permalink Reply by eunoia on -
What a question! and in Moses' fashion of parting the Red Sea, it could be one side or the other (why I had to bring up that image is a mystery to me). It can be a matter of preference. Your either craft-oriented, which when too much on one side can be associated with craftsmaking OR your idea-oriented, which when too much on one side can be extremely alienating conceptual art (AKA only the artist understands). Perhaps art lies in striking a kind of balance between thought and execution?
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Permalink Reply by Anthony Westrup on -
This is a very interesting question. If you take the question out of the context of art, into another arena like business, the answer seems much clearer. For example, someone has an idea for a product, gets a designer to draw the sketches, a manufacturer to make the product, and a marketing team to sell the product. In the context of business, the credit would go to the person who came up with the idea. It seems we have an emotional attachment to art where we feel less connected when there are people other than the artist involved. So, if you saw a work of art without knowledge about who made it or how it was produced - and were somehow touched by the piece, would you feel differently about the piece after knowing its history? I can objectively say, I don't know....
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