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Re: artist/craftsperson
- To: BOOK_ARTS-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Subject: Re: artist/craftsperson
- From: charles alexander <chax@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1998 09:16:03 -0700
- In-reply-to: <199803151434.HAA15369@pantano.theriver.com>
- Message-id: <199803151615.IAA18236@SUL-Server-2.Stanford.EDU>
- Sender: "Book_Arts-L: The list for all the book arts!" <BOOK_ARTS-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>This, I believe, points EXACTLY to the difference between the artist and
>the craftsperson. The FIRST person who threw a paint bucket at the wall
>was an artist--challenging our notions about what art is. Throwing the
>paint DIDN'T take skill--but thinking to do so DID. AFTERWARDS, every
>other "idiot" who threw a bucket in hopes of making art, is a craftsperson,
>following a recipe the first artist figured out.
So (to make a leap), by this definition, Cezanne may (historically, there
may be argument) be the first person to cut up a painting's visual
'reality' in a way which is at least a precursor to cubism. And Picasso,
Braques, Gris, and many others would be "idiots" who joined in the act, and
they would be craftspersons. Can't they all be artists AND craftspeople? I
don't think the first person to do a thing is the only one who can be
called an artist.
charles