Intended Learning Outcomes

At the end of the session, the student will be able to:

2.1. Compare and contrast art as a social activity and a singular creative act:
2.2. Discuss historical forms of artistic training:
2.3. Describe the cultural ties to artistic process and training:

The Artistic Process

How many times have you looked at a work of art and wondered “how did they do that”? Some
think of the artist as a solitary being, misunderstood by society, toiling away in the studio to
create a masterpiece, and yes, there is something fantastic about a singular creative act
becoming a work of art. The reality is that artists rely on a support network that includes family,
friends, peers, industries, businesses, and, in essence, the whole society they live in. For
example, an artist may need only a piece of paper and pencil to create an extraordinary drawing
but depends on a supplier in order to acquire those two simple tools. Whole industries surround
art-making, and artists rely on many different materials in order to realize their work, from the
pencil and paper mentioned above to the painter’s canvas, paints and brushes, the sculptor’s
wood, stone and tools and the photographer’s film, digital camera, and software or chemicals
used to manipulate an image.

After the artwork is finished there are other support networks in place to help exhibit, market,
move, store and comment on it. Commercial art galleries are a relatively recent innovation,
springing up in Europe and America during the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century.
As these societies concentrated their populations in cities and formed a middle class, there was
a need for businesses to provide works of art for sale to a population that began to have more
spare time and some discretionary income. As art became more affordable, the gallery became
a place to focus solely on buying and selling, and, in the process, making art a commodity.

Museums have a different role in the world of visual art. Their primary function is in the form of a
cultural repository – a place for viewing, researching, and conserving the very best examples of
artistic cultural heritage. Museums contain collections that can reflect a particular culture or that
of many, giving all of us the chance to see some of the great art humanity has to offer.
The role of the critic commenting on art is another function in the process. Critics offer insight
into art’s meaning and make judgments determining ‘good’ or ‘bad’ art based on the intellectual,
aesthetic, and cultural standards they reflect. In this way,
museums, galleries, and critics have become gatekeepers in helping to determine what is
considered art within a culture like our own.

The Individual Artist

Inasmuch as we have seen art as a community or collaborative effort, many artists work alone
in studios, dedicated to the singular idea of creating art through their own expressive means
and vision. In the creative process itself there are usually many steps between an initial idea
and the finished work of art.

Artists will use sketches and preliminary drawings to get a more accurate image of what they
want the finished work to look like. Even then they’ll create more complex trial pieces before
they ultimately decide on how it will look. Artists many times will make different versions of
artwork, each time giving it a slightly different look.

Some artists employ assistants or staff to run the everyday administration of the studio;
maintaining supplies, helping with setting up and lighting, managing the calendar, and all the
things that can keep an artist away from the creative time they need in order to work.

Artistic Training Methods and Cultural Considerations

For centuries craftsmen have formed associations that preserve and teach the ‘secrets’ of their
trade to apprentices in order to perpetuate the knowledge and skill of their craft. In general, the
training of artists has historically meant working as an apprentice with an established artist. The
Middle Ages in Europe saw the formation of guilds that included goldsmiths, glassmakers,
stonemasons, medical practitioners, and artists, and were generally supported by a king or the
state, with local representatives overseeing the quality of their production. In many traditional
cultures, apprenticeship is still how the artist learns their craft, skills, and expressions specific to
that culture. Some nations actually choose which artists have learned their skills to such a
degree that they are allowed and encouraged to teach others. An example would be artists
considered National Treasures in Japan. In the developed nations, where education is more
available and considered more important than the experience, art schools have developed. The
model for these schools is the French Royal Academy founded by Louis XIV in the 17th century.
In the 19th century, the Victorians first introduced art to the grade schools, thinking that teaching
the work of the masters would increase morality and that teaching hand-eye coordination would
make better employees for the Industrial Revolution. These ideas still resonate and are one of
the reasons arts are considered important to children’s education. A recent New York Times
article by Steve Lohr explains how this notion has carried into the realm of high technology and
the digital arts. A woman quoted in the article says that proficiency in digital animation is an
asset less for technical skills than for what she learned about analytic thinking.
Like most skilled professions and trades, artists spend many years learning and applying their
knowledge, techniques, and creativity. Art schools are found in most colleges and universities,
with degree programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. There are independent
art schools offering two and four-year programs in traditional studio arts, graphic arts, and
design. The degree earned by students usually ends with a culminating exhibition and directs
them towards becoming exhibiting artists, graphic designers, or teachers. Such degrees also
consider the marketing and sales practices of art in contemporary culture.

Many artists learn their craft on their own through practice, study, and experimentation. Whether
they come from art schools or not, it takes a strong desire to practice and become an artist
today. There are no longer historical opportunities to work under a church, state, or cultural
sponsorships. Instead, the artist is driven to sell their work in some other venue, from a craft fair
to a big New York City gallery (New York City is the official center of art and culture in the
United States). There are very few communities that can support the selling of art on a large
scale, as it is generally considered a luxury item often linked to wealth and power. This is a
modern reflection of the original role of the art gallery.
What is required to become an artist? Skill is one of the hallmarks that we often value in a work
of art. Becoming skilled means a continual repetition of a craft or procedure until it becomes
second nature. Talent is certainly another consideration, but talent alone does not necessarily
produce good art. Like any endeavor, becoming an artist takes determination, patience, skill, a
strong mental attitude and years of practice. Creativity is another element necessary to become
an artist. What exactly is creativity? It’s linked to imagination and the ability to transcend
traditional ways of thinking, with an exaggerated use of alternatives, ideas and techniques to
invent new forms and avenues of expression. The music composer Leo Ornstein (Links to an
external
site.) described creativity this way:

“Once you’ve heard what you’ve created you can’t explain how it’s done. But you look at it and
say ‘there’s the evidence.”
Creativity is used in traditional (Links to an external site.) art forms as well as more innovative
ones. It’s what an artist uses to take something ordinary and make it extraordinary. Creativity
can be a double-edged sword in that it’s one thing that artists are most criticized for, especially
in the arena of buying and selling art. In general, the buying public tends to want things they
recognize, rather than artwork that challenges or requires thinking. This dichotomy is illustrated
by a poem by English writer Robert Graves, “Epitaph on an Unfortunate Artist”: He found a
formula for drawing comic rabbits This formula for drawing comic rabbits paid. So, in the end, he
could not change the tragic habits This formula for drawing comic rabbits made.
Art as Social Activity
Some of the grandest works of art are made not by a single person but by many people.
Pyramids in Egypt and Mexico are massive structures, built by hundreds of laborers under the
direction of designers and engineers. Egyptian pyramids are tombs for individual royalty, while
those in Mexico function as spiritual altars dedicated to gods or celestial objects. They are
typically placed at a prominent site and give definition to the surrounding landscape. Their
construction is the cumulative effort of many people, and they become spectacular works of art
without the signature of a single artist.

A more contemporary example of art-making as a community effort is the AIDS Memorial Quilt
Project. Begun in 1987, the project memorializes the thousands of lives lost to the disease
through the creation of quilts by families and friends. Blocks of individual quilts are sewn
together to form larger sections, virtually joining people together to share their grief and
celebrate the lives of those lost. The project is evidence of the beauty and visual spectacle of
huge community artwork. Today there are over 40,000 individual blocks. The quilt project is
ongoing, growing in size, and exhibited throughout the world.

Many artists collaborate with non-artists in arrangements designed to produce work for a
specific place. Public art is a good example of this. The process usually begins with a select
panel of the public and private figures involved in the project who call for submissions of
creative ideas surrounding a particular topic or theme, then a review of the ideas submitted and
the artist’s selection. Funding sources for these projects vary from private donations to the use
of public tax dollars or a combination of the two. Many states have “1% for Art” laws on the
books which stipulate that one percent of the cost of any public construction project be used for
artwork to be placed on the site.
Public art projects can be subject to controversy. It’s not easy for everyone to agree on what
constitutes ‘good’ or ‘bad’ art, or at least what is appropriate for a public space. The issue takes
on a more complex perspective when public money is involved in its funding. One example
involves Richard Serra’s sculpture Tilted Arc from 1981.
 EXERCISE #2
Writing a journal

Name: Course, year & section: Score:

Instruction: Choose at least one of the following prompts. Try to write roughly a page on each
prompt you select. Write your answer in the space provided.

Journal Prompt #1: Who Makes Art?

Answer the following questions and support your discussion with examples. You may include images to
help you in your explanation.
1. Who makes art?
2. Do you think artists have innate ability or acquired skill (or both)?
3. How do artist’s roles change with different cultural considerations?

Journal Prompt #2: Art21

View at least five short videos from ART21. You can search for artist’s names by alphabet at the top middle
of Art: 21’s homepage. Watch how they work and what they say about their process. Then, place one artist
in each of the following categories:
1. Artist most concerned with the process of making the work.
2. Artist most concerned with creativity in the idea for their art or the work itself.
3. Artist most concerned with materials
4. The artist who surprised you the most?
5. List the artists you viewed.

Link: [Link]
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Journal Prompt #3: Social Art vs. Creative Art

Instructions: Compare and contrast art created as a social activity and as a singular creative
act.
1. What are the differences?
2. Why are they important?
3. Do their functions ever overlap? How?