The meaning of the word artist

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the person who is engaged in arts. For the person that is also known as an artist, see Singer.

An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The 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, especially in a business context, for musicians and other performers (although less often for actors). «Artiste» (French for artist) is a variant used in English in this context, but this use has become rare. Use of the term «artist» to describe writers is valid, but less common, and mostly restricted to contexts like used in criticism.

Dictionary definitions[edit]

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the older broad meanings of the term «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 term[edit]

The Greek word «techně«, often translated as «art,» implies mastery of any sort of craft. The adjectival Latin form of the word, «technicus«,^[1]
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, somewhere between freemen and slaves, their work regarded as mere manual labour.^[2]

The word art derives from the Latin «ars» (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).^[3]

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 much the same way that the features constituting beauty and the beautiful cannot be standardized easily without moving into kitsch.

Training and employment[edit]

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies many visual artists as either craft artists or fine artists.^[4] 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.^[4] 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 other fields.^[4] 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.^[4] This compares to US$61,000 for all art-related fields, including related jobs such as graphic designers, multimedia artists, animators, and fashion designers.^[4] Many artists work part-time as artists and hold a second job.^[4]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

• 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

External links[edit]

• The Artist on In Our Time at the BBC

• Afrikaans: kunstenaar
• Albanian: artist (sq) m, artiste (sq) f, piktor (sq) m, piktore (sq) f
• Arabic: فَنَّان‎ m (fannān), فَنَّانَة‎ f (fannāna); رَسَّام‎ m (rassām), رَسَّامَة‎ f (rassāma)

  Egyptian Arabic: فنان‎ m (fannān)

• Armenian: նկարիչ (hy) (nkaričʿ)
• Asturian: artista m or f
• Azerbaijani: rəssam (az)
• Bashkir: рәссам (rässam) (painter)
• Basque: artista
• Belarusian: маста́к m (masták), маста́чка f (mastáčka), маля́р m (maljár), маля́рка f (maljárka), арты́ст m (artýst), арты́стка f (artýstka)
• Bengali: শিল্পী (bn) (śilpi)
• Bulgarian: худо́жник (bg) (hudóžnik), худо́жничка f (hudóžnička), арти́ст (bg) m (artíst), арти́стка (bg) f (artístka)
• Burmese: ပန်းချီဆရာ (my) (pan:hkyihca.ra)
• Catalan: artista (ca) m or f
• Chechen: суртдуьллург (surtdüllurg)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 藝術家／艺术家 (zh) (yìshùjiā), 畫家／画家 (zh) (huàjiā), 美術家／美术家 (zh) (měishùjiā)

• Czech: umělec (cs) m, umělkyně (cs) f, malíř (cs) m, malířka (cs) f
• Danish: kunstner (da) c
• Dutch: kunstenaar (nl) m, kunstenares (nl) f
• Elfdalian: konstnär m
• Esperanto: artisto
• Estonian: kunstnik (et), taidur
• Faroese: listamaður m, listakona f
• Finnish: taiteilija (fi), artisti (fi)
• French: artiste (fr) m or f, peintre (fr) m or f, peintresse (fr) f
• Galician: artista (gl) m or f
• Georgian: მხატვარი (mxaṭvari), ხელოვანი (xelovani)
• German: Künstler (de) m, Künstlerin (de) f, Maler (de) m, Malerin (de) f
• Greek: καλλιτέχνης (el) m (kallitéchnis), δημιουργός (el) m or f (dimiourgós)
• Greenlandic: eqqumiitsuliortoq
• Hebrew: אֳמָן‎ (he) m (omán)
• Hindi: कलाकार (hi) m (kalākār), फ़नकार m (fankār), शिल्पी (hi) m (śilpī), हुनरमंद (hi) m (hunarmand), आर्टिस्ट (hi) (ārṭisṭ), चित्रकार (hi) m (citrakār)
• Hungarian: művész (hu)
• Hunsrik: Kinstler m, Kinstlerin f
• Icelandic: listamaður m, listakona f
• Indonesian: seniman (id), artis (id)
• Irish: ealaíontóir m
• Italian: artista (it) m or f
• Japanese: 芸術家 (ja) (げいじゅつか, geijutsuka), 画家 (ja) (がか, gaka), アーティスト (ātisuto)
• Kazakh: суретші (kk) (suretşı), әртіс (ärtıs)
• Khmer: សិល្បករ (km) (səlləpaʼkɑɑ), វិចិត្រករ (km) (vicetraʼkɑɑ)
• Korean: 화가(畫家) (ko) (hwaga)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ھونەرمەند‎ (ckb) (hunermend)

  Northern Kurdish: hunermend (ku) m

• Kyrgyz: художник (ky) (hudojnik)
• Lao: ສິນລະປິນ (lo) (sin la pin), ຈິດຕະກອນ (chit ta kǭn)
• Latin: artifex f
• Latvian: mākslinieks m, māksliniece f
• Lithuanian: menininkas m, artistas m
• Luxembourgish: Kënschtler m, Kënschtlerin f
• Macedonian: уметник m (umetnik), уметничка f (umetnička), уметница f (umetnica)
• Malay: seniman, artis
• Maltese: artist m
• Maori: ringatoi, rehetoi
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: зураач (mn) (zuraač), жүжигчин (mn) (žüžigčin)

• Norman: artiste m or f
• Northern Sami: dáiddár
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kunstner (no) m

  Nynorsk: kunstnar m

• Occitan: artista (oc) m or f
• Ojibwe: mazinibii’igewinini
• Old English: cræftiga m
• Persian: هنرمند‎ (fa) (honarmand), آرتیست‎ (fa) (ârtist), نقاش‎ (fa) (naqqâš), نگارگر‎ (negârgar)
• Polish: artysta (pl) m, artystka (pl) f, twórca (pl) m, twórczyni (pl) f, malarz (pl) m, malarka (pl) f
• Portuguese: artista (pt) m or f
• Romanian: artist (ro) m, artistă (ro) f
• Romansch: artist m, artista f
• Russian: худо́жник (ru) m (xudóžnik), худо́жница (ru) f (xudóžnica), арти́ст (ru) m (artíst), арти́стка (ru) f (artístka)
• Scottish Gaelic: dealbhadair m, dealbhaiche m, ealantair m, neach-ealain m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: у̀метнӣк m, у̀мјетнӣк m, у̀метница f, у̀мјетница f

  Roman: ùmetnīk (sh) m, ùmjetnik (sh) m, ùmetnīca f, ùmjetnica (sh) f

• Slovak: umelec m, umelkyňa f, maliar (sk) m, maliarka f
• Slovene: umetnik (sl) m, umetnica f, slikar (sl) m, slikarka f
• Spanish: artista (es) m or f
• Swahili: msanii (sw), mwanasanaa
• Swedish: artist (sv) m, konstnär (sv) c
• Tagalog: dalubsining
• Tajik: ҳунарманд (hunarmand), рассом (tg) (rassom), наққош (naqqoš), суратгар (suratgar)
• Tatar: рәссам (tt) (rässam)
• Telugu: కళాకారుడు (te) (kaḷākāruḍu)
• Thai: ศิลปิน (th) (sǐn-lá-bpin), จิตรกร (jìt-dtrà-gɔɔn)
• Tibetan: རི་མོ་མཁས་པ (ri mo mkhas pa)
• Turkish: sanatçı (tr), dörütçü, dörütmen, ressam (tr)
• Turkmen: suratçy, hudožnik
• Ukrainian: худо́жник m (xudóžnyk), худо́жниця f (xudóžnycja), ма́ля́р m (máljár), ма́ля́рка f (máljárka), арти́ст (uk) m (artýst), арти́стка (uk) f (artýstka), мите́ць m (mytécʹ), мистки́ня f (mystkýnja)
• Urdu: فنکار‎ m (fankār), فنکارہ‎ f (fankārā)
• Uyghur: سەنئەتكار‎ (sen’etkar), رەسسام‎ (ressam)
• Uzbek: rassom (uz), xudojnik, sanatkor
• Vietnamese: họa sĩ (vi)
• Volapük: (♂♀) lekanan (vo), (♂) hilekanan, (♀) jilekanan
• Welsh: arlunydd m
• Yiddish: קינסטלער‎ m (kinstler), קינסטלערין‎ f (kinstlerin), אַרטיסט‎ m (artist), אַרטיסטקע‎ f (artistke)

Last Updated:
11 Apr 2023
— Updated example sentences

You can select from two other preset expressions, or input your own variation such as $artist — $album, or any combination of the variables $artist, $album, and $ignore. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Not only can TagScanner clean up the artist, album, song title, and track number information for your digital music files, it can rename your songs based on a pattern you define like %artist% — %title%, it can make music playlists, and search online databases like freedb and Amazon to automatically tag music missing information. ❋ Unknown (2008)

Woman or artist — there’s no word so naked and empty to me as just _artist_ —- » ❋ Will Levington Comfort (1905)

I will use her term «artist and muse,» which they each were for each other. ❋ Maria Rodale (2011)

Some people probably object to me using the term artist about such a lowly profession. ❋ Unknown (2011)

The main artist is Karl Kerschl, whose style leans away from what Douglas Wolk calls the «default style of the superhero mainstream» toward a half-cartoony look. ❋ Unknown (2009)

I think the word artist is overused in the entertainment community. ❋ Kenneth Calhoun (2003)

The word artist tends to be over-used when describing popular musicians, but it seems apt for Polly Jean Harvey, such is her creative ambition and fierce focus on the integrity of her work. ❋ Unknown (2011)

GABE TIBERINO, Features recent work from the title artist, who paints frequently for the Mural Arts Program. ❋ Unknown (2009)

MICHAEL GALLAGHER, Features the title artist‘s acrylic abstractions, which use broad brushstrokes and warm, burnt colors. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Features photographs by the title artist, who captures tiny details: a fire hydrant, a neon ❋ Unknown (2009)

Features work by the title artist, who pioneered the use of plastic in jewelry-making to allow for large-scale pieces that would otherwise be too heavy to wear. ❋ Unknown (2009)

NIKI BOMBSHELL, Features the title artist‘s inks and acrylics on wood, cardboard and other found platforms. ❋ Unknown (2009)

FRAN GALLUN, Features collage, multimedia works and prints by the title artist, who explores her everyday surroundings through a geometric perspective.

HATAIIA, Features the title artist‘s bold photographs of curvaceous women in the nude. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Those who can paint [realistically] or not are artists for they [transfer] life onto a surface such as paper or [canvas].
Drawing is a form of artistry. ❋ RuffledRaven (2013)

duchamp; [el greco]; [stanely] kubrik; lydia lunch; ray [bradbury] (you get the point) ❋ Stacy (2004)

[Lynda] [marveled] at the sculptors skill as she gazed at the realistic deer, soldered out of pieces of scrap metal.
Dr. Smith was quite surprised and blushed when he realized that the artist he had been [talking down] to was also a doctor.
Ralph, an aspiring artist, worked long and hard on his painting and was proud of the result. ❋ Qazsw23 (2011)

I’m don’t think of myself as an artist, just a person with [some shit] on his [mind that] needs to [get out]. ❋ JeremiahTwine (2011)

1.»I am an artist!»
«But you never draw?»
«I know…» ([cries in] corner)
2. [Poets], authors, and dancers deserve the title of artist.
3. «That two year old is a real artist, proper [Picasso]! Smeared paint all over my new Lamborghini!» ❋ Bee.the.glorious.weedsnack (2019)

«damn, he ate all [the pizza]?»
«yeah»
«all ten [slices].»
«yeah.»
«damn, that kids a straight murk-artist.»
«you got there [in ten] minutes»
«yeah, i’m a fuckin’ skirtist.» ❋ Dingdingding (2007)

[That person] looks like an artist. They look like they get [no sleep] so they have to [be an] artist. ❋ I’m An Artist. (2020)

[I would] [respect] her more if she weren’t such a [gossip] artist. ❋ The Return Of Light Joker (2012)

finding solace in art was the hard earned result of a 40 year elimination process.
while i was working on building a life around art (i.e. writing about it, communicating with people) i refused to accept that i had every damn right and [raison] [d’]être to be an artist myself. And to this day i struggle to give myself that title. Artist.
maybe start a [daily mantra]: i am an artist. i am an artist. my work is equally worthy. equally worthy. artistic worth. i am an artist. ❋ Dia Spora (2020)

[What the fuck is that] [shit]?
That «shit» is [art bitch]. ❋ Whipset (2005)

художник, артист, мастер своего дела, эстрадный артист

существительное ↓

Словосочетания

an artist with a fragile ego — художник с уязвимым самолюбием  
the artist’s daring use of color — смелое цветовое решение этого художника  
an artist who works with enamels — художник, который работает с эмалями  
an artist by birth — художник по призванию  
black and white artist — художник-график  
a complete artist — настоящий художник  
bilge artist — краснобай; болтун  
artist by birth — художник по призванию  
artist-blacksmith — кузнец, изготавливающий художественные изделия  
be worthy of an artist’s brush — быть достойным кисти художника  
bunco artist — профессиональный лгун; стукач  
bunko artist — профессиональный лгун; кидала; стукач  

Примеры с переводом

Примеры, ожидающие перевода

Возможные однокоренные слова

artistic  — художественный, артистический
artistical  — художественный, артистический

Формы слова

noun
ед. ч.(singular): artist
мн. ч.(plural): artists

The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The normal meaning in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only. The term is often used in the entertainment business, especially in a business context, for musicians and other performers (less often for actors). «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.

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 .
# A person who is skilled at some activityThe Oxford English Dictionary defines the older broad meanings of the term «artist,»

:* 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 fine art:* One who cultivates one of the fine arts — traditionally the arts presided over by the muses — 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

In Greek the word «techně» is often mistranslated into «art.» In actuality, «techně» implies mastery of a craft (any craft.) The Latin-derived form of the word is «tecnicus», from which the English words , technology, technical are derived.

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, somewhere between freemen and slaves, their work regarded as mere manual labour. [«In Our Time: The Artist» BBC Radio 4, TX 28th March 2002] The word art is derived from the Latin «ars», which, although literally defined means, «skill method» or «technique», holds 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 «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’s works («De re aedificatoria, 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 behind). [P.Galloni, «Il sacro artefice. Mitologie degli artigiani medievali», Laterza, Bari, 1998)] With the Academies 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, resisting aesthetic prescription, in much the same way that the features constituting beauty and the beautiful, cannot be standardized easily without corruption into kitsch.

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 in, innovative in, or adept at, an artistic practice.

Most often, the term describes those who create within a context of ‘high culture’, 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. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=L2ChiO2yEZ0C&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=artist++uncomplimentary+%22artiste%22&source=web&ots=hxsr0c9Db2&sig=e66MaUj3vzQQJmsA2N9zdp3GMFo&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result] ]

The English word ‘artist’ has thus, a narrower range of meanings than the word ‘artiste’ in French.

Examples of art and artists

* Abstract: Jackson Pollock
* Actress: Greta Garbo
* Animation: Walt Disney
* Architect: Antoni Gaudí
* Ballet: Margot Fonteyn
* BioArt: Hunter O’Reilly
* Calligraphy: Rudolf Koch
* Ceramics: Grayson Perry
* Choreographer: Martha Graham
* Comics: Will Eisner
* Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
* Conceptual art: Sol LeWitt
* Cubism: Pablo Picasso
* Dancer: Isadora Duncan
* Designer: Arne Jacobsen
* Doll Maker: Greer Lankton
* Entertainer: PT Barnum
* Fashion designer: Alexander McQueen
* Fluxus art: Yoko Ono
* Game designer: Peter Molyneux
* Graphic Artist: Ludwig Merwart
* Graphic designer: Peter Saville
* Horticulture: André le Nôtre

* Illusionist: Houdini
* Illustrator: Quentin Blake
* Impressionism: Claude Monet
* Industrial designer: Pininfarina
* Jewelry: Fabergé
* Landscape architect: Frederick Law Olmsted
* Minimalist artist: Donald Judd
* Movie director: Sergei Eisenstein
* Muralist: Diego Rivera
* Musician: John Lennon
* Novelist: Charles Dickens
* Musical instrument maker: Stradivari
* Orator: Cicero
* Outsider Art: Nek Chand
* Painter: Rembrandt van Rijn
* Performance Art: Carolee Schneemann
* Photographer: Bill Brandt
* Photomontage: John Heartfield
* Pianist: Glenn Gould
* Playwright: Alan Bennett
* Poet: Pablo Neruda
* Potter: Bernard Leach
* Printmaker: William Hogarth
* Sculptor: Michelangelo Buonarotti
* Singer: Maria Callas
* Street Art: Banksy
* Surrealism: André Breton
* Typographer: Eric Gill

See also

* Art
* Art history
* Arts by region
* Fine art
* Mathematics and art
* Humanities
* Social sciences
*List of sculptors
*List of composers

Notes

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

An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only. The term is often used in the entertainment business, especially in a business context, for musicians and other performers (less often for actors). «Artiste» (the French for artist) is a variant used in English only in this context; this use has become rare. Use of the term to describe writers, for example, is valid, but less common, and mostly restricted to contexts like criticism.

Dictionary definitions

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the older broad meanings of the term «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 term

The Greek word «techně», often translated as «art,» implies mastery of any sort of craft. The adjectival Latin form of the word, «technicus», became the source of the English words technique, technology, 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, somewhere between freemen and slaves, their work regarded as mere manual labour.

The word art derives from the Latin «ars» (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 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 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).

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 much the same way that the features constituting beauty and the beautiful cannot be standardized easily without corruption into kitsch.

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 him- or herself through a medium». The word is also used in a qualitative sense of, a person creative in, innovative in, or adept at, an artistic practice.

Most often, the term describes those who create within a context of the fine arts or ‘high culture’, activities such as drawing, painting, sculpture, acting, dancing, writing, filmmaking, new media, 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 define artists as those who produce art within a recognized or recognizable discipline. Contrasting terms for highly skilled workers in media in the applied arts or decorative arts include artisan, craftsman, and specialized terms such as potter, goldsmith or glassblower. Fine arts artists such as painters succeeded in the Renaissance in raising their status, formerly similar to these workers, to a decisively higher level.

The term may also be used loosely or metaphorically to denote highly skilled people in any non-«art» activities, as well— law, medicine, mechanics, or mathematics, for example.

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.

The English word ‘artiste’ has thus a narrower range of meaning than the word ‘artiste’ in French.

In Living with Art, Mark Getlein proposes six activities, services or functions of contemporary artists:

1. Create places for some human purpose.
2. Create extraordinary versions of ordinary objects.
3. Record and commemorate.
4. Give tangible form to the unknown.
5. Give tangible form to feelings.
6. Refresh our vision and help see the world in new ways.

After looking at years of data on arts school graduates as well as policies & program outcomes regarding artists, arts, & culture, Elizabeth Lingo and Steven Tepper propose the divide between «arts for art’s sake» artists and commercially successful artists is not as wide as may be perceived, and that «this bifurcation between the commercial and the noncommercial, the excellent and the base, the elite and the popular, is increasingly breaking down» (Eikhof & Haunschild, 2007). Lingo and Tepper point out:

1. arts consumers don’t restrict themselves to either «high» or «common» arts; instead, they demonstrate «omnivorous tastes, liking both reggae and Rachmaninoff» (Peterson & Kern, 1996; Walker & Scott-Melnyk, 2002)
2. data indicates «artists are willing to move across sectors and no longer see working outside the commercial sector as a badge of distinction or authenticity» (Bridgstock, 2013; Ellmeier, 2003)
3. academic, policy, and government leaders are adapting—widening—programs & opportunities in recognition of «the role of artists as drivers of economic growth and innovation» (Bohm & Land, 2009; DCMS, 2006, 2008; Florida, 2012; Hesmondhalgh & Baker, 2010; Lloyd, 2010; Iyengar, 2013).
4. arts graduates name «business and management skills» as the «number one area [they] wish they had been more exposed to in college» (Strategic National Arts Alumni Project [SNAAP], 2011; Tepper & Kuh, 2010).

Training and employment

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics classifies many visual artists as either craft artists or fine artists. 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. 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 other fields. 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. This compares to US$61,000 for all art-related fields, including related jobs such as graphic designers, multimedia artists, animators, and fashion designers. Many artists work part-time as artists and hold a second job.