"Craftsmanship is the foundation of Art."
Must objects be practical, functional, or utilitarian in order to be considered "CRAFTS"?
Aren't all ARTS fundamentally grounded in craftsmanship?
Lexington-based weaver and author Philis Alvic aptly describes this entire terminological area as "quicksand!"
Mildred Constantine, long-time curator at the Museum of Modern Art, said: ''Craft is the mastery of techniques and materials; art is the investment of spirit in whatever materials are used.''
The distinction between ART and CRAFT may be so vague that it's meaningless; yet the terms bear significantly different connotations. See: Terminology & Definitions
Artists Versus Craftspeople (from http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/crafts-history-types.htm#artists):
"Despite a general resurgence in the world of handicrafts and decorative arts - especially ceramics, glass-blowing, furniture and fashion design - the sheer diversity of craft disciplines has made it all but impossible to establish common standards of training and production. Inevitably, therefore, the craftworker functions more like an artist and less like an artisan. However, society continues to deny craftspeople parity with fine artists.
True, many craft activities (producing beautiful functional items) can be clearly distinguished from the fine arts (producing beautiful items for beauty's sake), but a large number of craftspeople who create one-off pieces would rightly consider themselves artists. For example, there seems no logical reason to classify a unique piece of pottery, or stained glass, or wood-carving, or textile (e.g., tapestry), as a "craft product", rather than a "work of art." In fact, by comparison with many modern-day conceptual artists and other exponents of contemporary art, ceramicists, wood-turners and stained glass artisans are infinitely more 'artistic'."
Is there ANY way to tell if an artifact (i.e., a man-made object) lacking contextual information is an item of "art," "craft," or some other form of manufacture?
This controversy is fundamentally a conceptual opposition, a spectrum of meanings and social values. Rarely are actual objects or practices purely at one end or the other:
And the persons who create objects may be labeled—by themselves or others—along a spectrum from pure utility to pure expression, as:
YET: In the early 21st century, an increasingly common way to avoid addressing the connotational distinctions between "arts" and "crafts" is to simply offer terms like "MAKERS" or "CREATIVES" for those who produce objects along the spectrum of production values shown above...
Additional oppositions that are useful in considering objects in the world of craft are:
Terminology in this area is very flexible; the terms "arts" and "crafts" may often be employed more for their implied contextual or connotational values than for precise delineation of a skill set.
Thus, in the building trades, those who want to emphasize the quality of their work may term themselves "industrial craftsmen."
And practitioners of nearly any job may similarly use the term "craft" for its positive connotation of SKILL... →
