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. Debate, both historical and present day, suggests that defining the concept of an artist will continue to be difficult.

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 cites 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 - the opposite of a theorist
• 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

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 technique, technology, technical are derived.

In Greek culture, the seven Muses each patronaged a different field of human creation:

• Epic poetry
• Lyric song
• History
• Erotic poetry
• Tragedy
• Sacred song
• Dance
• Comedy and bucolic poetry
• Astronomy

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. Looking to registries or acts of those times it is easy to find out how some goods (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).

Michelangelo Buonarroti is generally indicated as the first artist who separated his creative work from the committance requirements.

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 word "artist" is used as a pejorative in certain circles (connotating, for example, pretentiousness, selfishness, temperamentalness, egotism, and having an inflated sense of one's own self-worth).

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-illegaly) from other people) or "con artist" (a person very adept at committing fraud).

Additionally, the term "artist" is used as a pejorative in certain circles (connotating, for example, pretentiousness, selfishness, temperamentalness, egotism, and having an inflated sense of one's own self-worth).

There is no consensus about what constitutes "art" or who is, or who is not, an "artist". 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). 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
• Calligraphy: Hokusai
• Ceramicist: Lucie Rie
• Choreographer: Martha Graham
• Collage: Jonathan Talbot
• Comics: Will Eisner
• Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
• Conceptual artist: Damien Hirst
• Contemporary expressionist: Kelly D. Williams
• Dancer: Isadora Duncan
• Designer: Arne Jacobsen
• Entertainer: PT Barnum
• Fashion designer: Alexander McQueen
• Fashion model: Helena Christensen
• Floral designer: Junichi Kakizaki
• Game designer: Peter Molyneux
• Graphic designer: Peter Saville
• Horticulture: André le Nôtre
• Illusionist: Houdini
• Illustrator: Quentin Blake
• Industrial designer: Pininfarina
• Jewelry: Fabergé
• Landscape architect: Frederick Law Olmsted
• Movie director: Sergei Eisenstein
• Multimedia: Pablo Picasso
• Muralist: Diego Rivera
• Musician: John Lennon
• Novelist: Charles Dickens
• Musical instrument maker: Stradivari
• Orator: Cicero
• Outsider Art: Nek Chand
• Painter: Rembrandt van Rijn
• Performance: Lennie Lee
• Photographer: Bill Brandt
• Photomontage: John Heartfield
• Pianist: Glenn Gould
• Playwright: Alan Bennett
• Poet: Pablo Neruda
• Potter: Bernard Leach
• Printmaker: Albrecht Dürer
• Sculptor: Michelangelo Buonarotti
• Short Story Writer: Dorothy Parker
• Singer: Maria Callas
• Street Art: Banksy
• Typographer: Eric Gill
• Underground art: Mark Divo

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