| Front | Back | | --- | --- | | What is Collingwood's distinction between art proper and craft? |

Art proper is an exploratory process where the creator clarifies an unclear impulse and discovers the outcome through making.
Craft is the execution of a predetermined plan, where the creator knows exactly what will be made beforehand.

| | State one major objection to Collingwood's sharp distinction between the artist and the craftsperson. | The boundary is a matter of degree rather than kind. Many artists work with careful, predetermined plans (such as architects), while many craftspeople exercise creative judgment (such as a master potter adapting to clay). | | What was William Morris's view on the distinction between fine art and craft? | He rejected the distinction, arguing that separating art from craft was an artificial product of industrial capitalism that degraded both by isolating creative genius from manual labor. | | How does Yanagi Soetsu's mingei (folk craft) philosophy challenge the Western concept of the individual artist? |

It argues that the greatest beauty emerges from anonymous, communal practice and self-forgetting, rather than individual genius.
It views the individual ego and striving for originality as barriers to genuine beauty.

| | According to critics, how did Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists (1550) shape the Western concept of the artist? | It established the myth of the artist as an individual heroic genius with divine inspiration, serving as a marketing innovation to elevate the financial value of patrons' art collections. | | How does artistic creation in Aboriginal Australian traditions challenge the Western model of the artist? | The creator acts as a custodian of collective knowledge, channeling ancestral Dreamtime stories belonging to the community, rather than expressing a unique, personal individual vision. | | Why is artistic creation traditionally anonymous in the Islamic artistic tradition? | The beauty of geometric patterns and calligraphy is attributed to divine inspiration rather than individual talent. The creator acts as a channel for sacred beauty, not a self-expressing ego. | | What is Chinua Achebe's critique of the Western separation of art from ordinary life? | He argues that in many African traditions, creative activities (singing, carving, storytelling) are woven into everyday communal life rather than isolated as the domain of specialized individuals called artists. | | Contrast the role of the artist as a reflector of values with the artist as an agent of change. |

As a reflector, the artist's role is to preserve, transmit, and reinforce existing cultural values.
As an agent of change, the artist deliberately challenges conventions, disrupts mainstream tastes, and critiques political structures.

| | Why is the division of artists into reflectors of values or agents of change considered a false binary? Give one example. | Many artists perform both roles simultaneously. For example, Ai Weiwei draws on traditional Chinese artistic forms while using them to critique political oppression. | | What did Joseph Beuys mean by his famous declaration that every human being is an artist? | He meant that every person has the innate capacity to shape life creatively and contribute to social sculpture, which is his term for how we collectively shape society through our choices. | | How does the existence of outsider art (art brut) support the claim that we are all born artists? | It demonstrates that powerful, complex art can be produced by self-taught individuals, children, and prisoners without formal training or institutional support, suggesting an innate human impulse. | | What is a major philosophical criticism of the art world's category of outsider art? | The label is constructed by the mainstream art world to maintain power and control, exoticizing self-taught creators or romanticizing mental illness while keeping them marked as other. | | Contrast the evolutionary perspective of artistic capacity with Aristotle's view on becoming an artist. |

The evolutionary perspective holds that artistic behavior is a universal biological endowment of all humans, evidenced by prehistoric cave paintings across cultures.
Aristotle argues that while potential is innate, becoming an artist requires cultivating a virtue (arete) through years of sustained, disciplined practice.

| | Collingwood distinguishes between "art proper," which is an exploratory process of discovery, and "craft," which is the execution of a predetermined plan. | Collingwood distinguishes between "art proper," which is an exploratory process of discovery, and "craft," which is the execution of a predetermined plan. | | The Japanese philosophy of mingei (folk craft), developed by Yanagi Soetsu, holds that true beauty arises from anonymous, communal practice rather than individual genius. | The Japanese philosophy of mingei (folk craft), developed by Yanagi Soetsu, holds that true beauty arises from anonymous, communal practice rather than individual genius. | | The Western model of the artist as an individual heroic genius was historically established in 1550 by Giorgio Vasari in his book Lives of the Artists. | The Western model of the artist as an individual heroic genius was historically established in 1550 by Giorgio Vasari in his book Lives of the Artists. | | The term outsider art (or art brut) was coined by Jean Dubuffet in 1945 to describe powerful works created by individuals entirely outside the mainstream art world. | The term outsider art (or art brut) was coined by Jean Dubuffet in 1945 to describe powerful works created by individuals entirely outside the mainstream art world. |

1. Being human6 subtopics

2. Aesthetics3 subtopics

3. Epistemology3 subtopics

4. Ethics3 subtopics

5. Philosophy of religion3 subtopics

6. Philosophy of science3 subtopics

7. Political philosophy3 subtopics

8. Social philosophy3 subtopics

9. HL extension: Philosophy and contemporary issues3 subtopics

10. Prescribed philosophical texts12 subtopics

IB Philosophy 2.2.1 the Artist Flashcards