What is art, and what is craft?

I think it's a craft if you could teach you preschooler to do it. Like making dolls and wreaths and things. It's art if you put so much into that it would take skill to recreate.

My wife is an artist, and she hates when I call her things crafts... but sometimes they are. I know that's unrelated.

So, what if you're Barnett Newman and paint a huge canvas solid red with one yellow verticle line running the length of the canvas. It's classified as art and hangs in a famous art museum, but it takes no skill to paint whatsoever.

Or Jackson Pollock. He had an idea to drip paint on a canvas lying on the floor. It takes no skill, but his paintings sell for millions, and museums recognize him as a great artist.

What if someone builds a beautiful wooden table from plans. It takes a lot of skill, but it wasn't his design. Is it art or craft?

In the first two cases, I do not believe that is art.

I'm going to disagree with you, Scoates, because I have seen beautiful craftsmanship that only highly trained artisans can accomplish. I think the problem arises from the stigma attached to the words "art" and "craft." The reason for the distinction is/was so that artists can/could achieve higher status in society than a craftsman. Case in point, Veslasquez would never have been so close to the royal family were he a fancy cabinet maker. The difference between art and craft is all about status, and the differentiation between the two varies throughout time and place - but is usually based upon one conveying ideas (inventive visual ideas, philisophical ideas, emotional observations, creative narrative) and the other not (simply being what it is.)

One difference certainly is that craft is more mass produced than art - that's why there is in German the word "Kunsthandwerk", meaning something similar to "crafts and art" and being 'in between' (e.g. pottery).


When you look back in history, there were mostly "craftsmen" no artists at all.
And a 'masterpiece' was done by a 'master' of his craft, e.g. Rembrandt.

Rembrandt was definitely recognized as an artist in his time. He was collected (for his prints much more than his paintings) and revered.

I think that artists were also given high status in ancient greece. It all depends on the location and time period. I think the status of the artist goes through cycles with the development (and undevelopment) of a society.

I doubt that - definitely: he was - like all other painters of that time - a member of the local painters' corporation (guild/Gilde/Zunft).
Rembrandt became a member of the Amsterdam painter's guild in 1634 (some year, as he got the citizenship). Thus, he got the customary guild funeral token bearing his name: 'Rembrant Hermans [Painter]'.

He was famous for his etchings and engravings which were the major source of income for him.

Fine. But what is the difference between art and craft?

For instance, I sold pottery to the Free Flight Gallery in Dallas—now defunct—for years. Their motto was "The fine art of crafts." What does that mean to you?

I think we're trying to define different meanings of the same word. Portal, your definition of craft is true, in one sense of the word. But there is an entire branch of art that is deemed art in almost a derogative sense, almost to say "It is a craft, because it does not qualify as art." The history of the word is an entirely different thing that the way I hear it commonly used.

By pretending you are better than someone else you can charge more. Those snooty art elites are snooty out of necessity to seperate themselves - in order to appear better. It is silly to superimpose a hierarchy on ideas and media - it is the execution that makes all the difference.

I frequently hear people snobbing craft, or various art movements that are currently not in heyday. Maybe this is an extension of playground phenomena? You become cool by deciding what is not cool?

It is not something I partake in, I try to appreciate things for what they are - a beautiful cabinet is a beautiful cabinet, a beautiful painting is a beautiful painting. That doesn't make one better than the other by way of being a cabinet or a painting. They can be more succesful at doing different things. A painting may have more color sensitivity, convey more meaning. Put just try putting your stuff inside of a painting. Similarly, a painting is likely not going to have nice, skilled woodcarving in it.
Any subjective quality judgements I make are just that - subjective.

Hmm, I still don't think you understand. Where I live, I never hear anyone refer to a cabinet as a craft, although is does qualify under one definition. I only hear craft where it applies to things like dolls and wreaths, and macaroni and glue projects your preschooler brings home. For example, when my wife makes her own decorations around the house, that is a craft. If she spent days maing a beutiful cabinet, then the act would a craft, but not the final project. It is just a matter of semantics. We are working with different definitions.

Try this on:

If you make something original, that is, you designed it or thought of the concept, this is the artistic aspect of creativity.

The execution of the piece, the skill involved in making it is the craft aspect of creativity.

You can have art without craft; a minimalist painting or abstract painting would be examples.
However, a realistic painter would not only need a good sense of design and conception, but he would also have to have the skill, the craft to apply the paint. He might spend a large portion of his life learning the craft of painting before he can conceive of something original, develop his own style.

Likewise in a clay medium. There are potters that can throw over a hundred flower pots in a day. They are excellent craftsmen, but there's no art involved because he's just copying a design. But you can have a potter both design and skillfully throw a beautiful pot and you have both art and craft involved. You might say he's artfully crafted the pot, the art of fine craft.

The potter is creating a vessel, but the vessel is in various stages of openness. A nearly closed vessel could be a vase, but a totally closed vessel would be a sphere and virtually lose all function, and would be akin to sculpture.

A nearly fully open vessel could be a platter, but a totally open vessel—flat—would lose function other than to decorate and hang on a wall, akin to a canvas.

In those cases I'm assuming your first definiton would apply - something unskilled. Unless you know a preschooler who's macaroni gifted!

I see those crafts as having a purpose too though - a functional purpose. They are there to make you feel good. To show your workmanship - that you did something to make your home nicer or to show someone appreciation. It is probably better that these things not be hoity toity - or they would be demanding - not relaxed and kind of cute. These kinds of craft function as a comfort/nesting sort of thing.

hmm, the different between craft and art...
I try to answer with my poor english

for me is craft, if somebody use a technic for making a work without a own idea. some people are perfect in a kind of technic .
if somebody do some work out of the innerself vision ... its art.
(for me)

It depends on what the consumer requires..
If a consumer thinks it shoud be craft it is craft, while if a consumer demands it should be art it is art.
If consumers get to think pottery should be art, then pottery will be art.

I honestly think that art & craft can be interchangeable terms...as an artist I understand that unique ideas and concepts are put into each piece i create..I don't consider my work to be craft, but that doesn't mean that someone else will do the same...trying to categorize art is really going against everything it truly is...art is indefinable, abstract, functional, and imaginative..it's everything and nothing at the same time...besides, when using these terms like art or craft we also must consider the context they are used in and who exactly is using them...everyone has different definitions for specific words...a "pie" in new york can mean pizza and a "pie" in california can mean dessert...

Heliopo: Are you saying that if somebody skillfully copies a painting, he's a craftman, but if he's skillfully paints a picture of his own vision, he's a craftsman and an artist?

Art is a guy with no arms and no legs who hangs on your wall . . .


Kraft is a giant conglomerate noted for producing foods alleged to contain or derive from cheese . . .

yes coluber, this is what I meant.