Anartist is a person engaged in creatingart, or practicingthe arts. The most common usage in everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in thevisual arts only.
However, the term is also very widely used in theentertainment business to refer toactors,musicians,singers,dancers , and otherperformers.[1] TheFrench wordartiste is sometimes used inEnglish in this context, although this has become old-fashioned. The use of the term "artist" to describewriters is valid, but less common, and mostly restricted to contexts such as critics' reviews;[2] "author" is generally used instead.
While the use of the word 'artist' is common, there is no agreed upon definition of art[3]—this makes the definition of who is and is not an artistindeterminate. Artists and philosophers still debate their interpretation of art's definition—on what does and does not count as art.[3]
I am only pointing out that my project, like Collingwood's, Osborne's, and others', ismetaphysical in nature. I am interested in trying to find out what a work of artis and what it isessentially.
— James C. Anderson, Aesthetic Concepts of Art, Theories of Art Today page 68
No muse was identified with the visual arts ofpainting andsculpture. In ancient Greece, sculptors and painters were held in low regard, the work often performed by slaves and mostly regarded as mere manual labour.[5][6]
Even if you should become aPheidias or aPolykleitos and should create many marvellous works, everyone will praise your skill for sure, butnone of your admirers, if he had sense,would want to be like you; for whoever you might become,you would still be considered a laborer, a man who lives by his hands and has nothing but his hands.
— Lucian of Samosata, The Dream, or Lucian's Career, Lucian, vol. III, page 223
The wordart derives from the Latin "ars" (stemart-), which, although literally defined means "skill method" or "technique", also conveys a connotation of beauty.
Leon Battista Alberti - Finitorium from his bookDe pictura explaining how to think about the creation of a sculpture.
During the Middle Ages the wordartist already existed in some countries such as Italy, but the meaning was something resemblingcraftsman, while the wordartisan 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 astextiles) 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 ofLeon 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 aproject behind).[7]
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 intokitsch.
Some artists explain their beliefs about art or in being an artist. These beliefs may compel them to take actions outside of the act(s) of creating art but are still related to their work.
Doechii (Jaylah Ji'mya Hickmon) is an American singer, song writer, and rapper who won Best Female Artist in 2025 at theBET Awards. She stated her position as an artist requirescivic responsibility while receiving this award.[8]
I feel it's my responsibility as an artist to use this moment to speak up for all oppressed people. For Black people, for Latino people, for trans people, for the people in Gaza. We all deserve to live in hope and not in fear, and I hope we stand together, my brothers and my sisters, against hate, and we protest against it.
— Jaylah Ji'mya Hickmon, Doechii Takes Center Stage As Winner Of Best Female Hip Hop Artist!, BET Awards '25 Ceremony
A single artist may create anart manifesto to explain their work while multiple may join or startart movements of ideologically aligned people to create a set of guidelines or rules to follow when making art.
One of them is theManifesto of Futurism, created by an Italian poet calledFilippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909. It lists 11 declarations of what Futurism means and then goes on to explain in further detail. He discussed the progress ofautomobiles,steamers, andaeroplanes and how it created new beauty—speed. He believed literature would be absorbed, not overshadowed, by such progress. Literature and poetry would become an aggressive force against the world.[9]
This manifesto partially inspired people to choose fascism in Italy. "From the 1920s to the 1940s he [Filippo Tommaso Marinetti] allied himself with theFascist leaderBenito Mussolini. Sharing a vision of a new Italy empowered by national and cultural supremacy, they relied on each other for inspiration and collaboration. Marinetti hoped that by supporting Fascism, Futurism would win the backing of the regime, become the official art of the state..."[10]
9. We will glorify war — the only true hygiene of the world —militarism,patriotism, the destructive gesture of anarchist, the beautiful Ideas which kill, and the scorn of woman. 10. We will destroy museums, libraries and fight againstmoralism,feminism and allutilitarian cowardice.
— Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, DECLARATION OF FUTURISM, Poesia, Volume 5, Number 6, April 1909
India, Mughal, 17th century - The dream of Zulaykha, from the Amber Album at the Cleveland Museum of Art
In 1556 a new leader was given control ofDelhi who would create a major shift in the design, construction, and aesthetics of Indian art—12 year oldAkbar. He formed a royal manuscriptatelier (modern-day term:artist collective) consisting of 30 painters and 70 assistants from Central Asia, India, and Persia. Their earliest works had them work in teams to create large pieces for public instead of private viewing. "Each illumination focuses on a single dramatic episode, which retains its primacy even if it is set among a host of subsidiary vignettes."[11]
The main source of skill for both craft artists and fine artists is long-term repetition and practice.[12] 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.[12] About half ofUS 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 Our Time: The ArtistBBC Radio 4, TX 28 March 2002
^Samosata, Lucian (1921),"The Dream, or Lucian's Career",Lucian (Free online English translation of The Dream, or Lucian's Career), vol. 3, translated by Harmon, Austin, Cambridge, Massachusetts London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd, pp. 215–233, Q51866088
^P.Galloni,Il sacro artefice. Mitologie degli artigiani medievali, Laterza,Bari, 1998
^MoMA,Words in Freedom: Futurism at 100 (Primary texts and images from the Words in Freedom exhibit at The Museum of Modern Art), Chiara Bernasconi, Sheelagh Bevan, Sara Bodinson, Allegra Burnette, Michelle Elligott, Emma Enderby, Scott Gerson, Julianna Goodman, Jodi Hauptman, Pablo Helguera, Milan Hughston, Charlie Kalinowski, Rebecca Roberts, Jennifer Tobias, and Wendy Woon.,archived from the original on 12 April 2009
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