Artist
Artist is a descriptive term applied to a person who engages in an activity deemed to be an
art. It 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 'high culture', activities such as
drawing,
painting,
sculpture,
acting,
dancing,
writing,
filmmaking,
photography and
music — people who use imagination, and talent or skill, to create works that can be judged to have an
aesthetic value.
Art historians and
critics will define as artists those who produce
art within a recognised or recognisable discipline.
The term is also used to denote highly skilled people in non-"arts" activities, as well — crafts, medicine, alchemy, mechanics, mathematics, defense (martial arts) and architecture, for example. The designation is applied to illegal activities, like a "scam artist". The term 'artist' could also refer to a con artist.
There is no consensus about what constitutes "art" or who is, or is not, an "artist". Often, discussions on the subject focus on the differences between "artist" and "
technician" or "
entertainer," or "
artisan," "
fine art" and "
applied art," or what constitutes art and what does not. In addition, the
French word
artiste (which in French, simply means "artist") has been imported into the
English language; in English-usage it has connotations (some of them derogatory) which differ somewhat from the English term
artist.
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.
(referenced from: )
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. Our word art is derived from the Latin "ars", which, though literally defined means "skill method" or "technique", holds a connotation of
beauty.
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 easily standardized without corruption into
kitsch.
*
Actress:
Vanessa Redgrave*
Architect:
Antoni Gaudí*
Ballet:
Ivan Petrov*
Calligraphy:
Hokusai*
Ceramicist:
Lucie Rie*
Choreographer:
Martha Graham*
Collagist:
John Heartfield*
Comics:
Will Eisner*
Composer:
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi*
Conceptual artist:
Vanessa Beecroft*
Digital collage:
Istvan Horkay*
Dancer:
Isadora Duncan*
Designer:
Arne Jacobsen*
Entertainer:
PT Barnum*
Fashion designer:
Alexander McQueen*
Fashion model:
Daria Werbowy*
Neo-Figurative Artist:
Veronica Ruiz de Velasco*
Game designer:
Shigeru Miyamoto*
Graphic designer:
Saul Bass*
Hacker Artists:
Don Hopkins*
Horticulture:
André le Nôtre*
Illusionist:
Houdini*
Impressionist:
Claude Monet*
Industrial designer:
Pininfarina*
Jeweller:
Fabergé*
Movie director:
Sergei Eisenstein*
Muralist:
Diego Rivera*
Musician:
Niccolò Paganini*
Novelist:
Jack Kerouac*
Musical instrument maker:
Stradivari*
Orator:
Cicero*
Outsider Art:
Henry Darger*
Painter:
Jackson Pollock*
Performance Art:
Istvan Kantor*
Photographer:
Robert Mapplethorpe*
Pianist:
Glenn Gould*
Playwright:
Alan Bennett*
Poet:
Frank O'Hara*
Potter:
Bernard Leach*
Printmaker:
Albrecht Dürer*
Sculptor:
Michelangelo Buonarotti*
Typographer:
Jan Tschichold*
Conceptual artist:
Lin Hong Wen 
