Defining the Real Difference Between Art and Craft
Until now, people are trying their best to establish the difference between art and craft although these two are related closely and interconnected. This scene made difficulty for people to point out the difference between them. In addition, there have some artists would view art is being better when compare to the craft. And this superiority which art have make people overlook the achievement or the fantasy which craft brings.
Although art and craft are very close to each other, there still have some difference in terms of meaning, what they emphasize or what they want to create. For people who understanding the factors which encompass art and craft can help them simplify the differentiation of the two fields. I would say the most distinction area for craft and art is the meaning of the each of the activities. People classify art as transformative in comparison to the conservative craft. People see art as a creative thing which can express their emotions, thoughts and visions which is unstructured. They think art can express the thoughts of workers to viewers. They work which made by artists are full of thoughts. For craft as an activity which is people use the tangible things and do the repetitive work then finish it. This technique is very easy and always can be learned or become very perfect thought many times practice. There seem have no thoughts inside the things which made by craftspeople. Hence, art leads the production of original items that is hard to quantify same one of it or replicate, on the other hand, one person can easily replicate the products of craft as they use the right or same tools, materials and techniques as the original one. Thus, the definition of art can be viewed as a special gift which give to the artist and help them to express freely. However, for the craft, it just the combine of material and skills. Therefore, people can determine the order of art and craft though these defining aspects.
Craft had lost some of creative curators in this field of art. “Between 1967 and 1983, Robert Morris produced an extensive group of sculptures made of single material: industrial felt”. His design is very simple, and compositions of his work is task-oriented. He attracted the attention of people by using felt as a raw, soft and nonprecious material. Especially, artist is very concentrated on creating the new items by using the qualities of the material. Morris developed different forms of it by “susceptibility to the forces of gravity, humanity and its own weight and density. In most cases, curators think the craft would be the use of material to come up with objects, but for Morris the use of felt required a new investigation of tools, nature of material, and method of making so that can accurately place his sculptures in the right category of art. However, Morris simplified this study by giving out all the advantages of using felt. According to the opinion by Morris, the focus on matter and gravity as a means of coming up with the objects resulted in forms which could not be projected in advance. So, artist think these objects are difficult to be duplicated or even replace the work. And they accept. In addition, the people who has interacted with Morris’ felts gave the feedback show that the forms can elicit feeling and emotions which can be called art.
Leo Rubinfien who is a photographer described them as voluptuous, rich and luxurious. Hence, although material works always being classified as craft, people would think Morris felts were art since they were original and very hard to be duplicated. Moreover, it can connect with the emotions of viewers. It seemed all the characterized which art have all showed from the work of Morris' Another controversial use of material is from Eva Hesse who use rope, string and cord. The artiste utilized braided and twisted fiber as signature materials in her work due to their qualities such as “weight, elasticity, unruliness, pliability and tactility, especially in the detail of the small bit of rope” which allowed her to create sensuousness While Morris labeled his work as a craft by publishing them as art, the embrace of feminism that was adopted by critics of Hesse’s works such as Lippard, helped people to see the artist’s objects and use of fiber as a material of art rather than craft. Also, Hesse’s compositions were seen as “pliable, waver, flexible rather than dry brittle” which brought out the female nature of her works. According to combine with the feminist, the works of Hesse can be classified as work of art by the critic. And in that period of time, the whole world would classify women as craft makers since their works are beautiful and repetitive. Thus, the use of fiber which by Hesse can be approved as art since it caused the emotions and express their thoughts to viewers.
Craft are always being a kind of work which under the shadow of art and this is the same when comparing the circumstance to the feminist. First of all, craft and feminist all acknowledge inferiority of both of them. Feminism is a kind of movement which find the equal rights for women with man. Similar to craft, craft also hope it can have the same influence as art does. They don not just hide the shadow of art. Second, beneficiaries of feminism do not want the association to it. This problem is very usual in the craft as well. The artists who develop the craft do not hope people view them as craftspeople. They hope people can see their work or themselves as a kind of art which can express the emotion or thoughts to people. So, they would try to change the old cultures or ideas which help craft go into the art area. In addition, much as women do not like their reference as females, and what they do can only be accept as a craft for people. Finally, feminist hope they can express what they thought freely and get out from the restrictions from the people or the whole world. This promotion is same as the craft people who seek the position in art. Craft try to combine itself with art. Hence, there are many similarities of difficulty between craft and feminist. Craft can be described as being feminine. Artists are seen as winners of a battle with materials, while craftspeople only produce a pleasing surface effect. Viewers think art is real, on the other hand, they described craft is feminize since craft show the weakness in their decorative.
Finally, criticizer connect art with thoughts or mind, craft with material or body together. These two ways can directly link to female and male since they describe art as male so it above craft. Lippard expressed this opinion just like Heeze says that “women are always derogatorily associated with crafts and have been conditioned towards such chores as tying, sewing, knotting, warping, binding, knitting and so no”. Craftspeople already accept the truth that people always described the art as feminine and show the inferiority of art. Queer theory can be a thing which can help revive craft and help it stand out of the art. Craftspeople who allow them to place craft on the shadow of art is that they allow to accept the limitation from art. These stakeholders permit themselves to be subject of stereotypical notions of how art is all about ideas and craft centered on process or materials. Also, they need to bear the craft as a decoration but for art they are more attractive and knowledgeable. Just like Roberts observes, craft can challenge the rebuild of art and break the prejudice of it and keep the visual feeling. So, the craftspeople should take actions and rebuild their areas and make a new plan which change their actions can not only be described as decorative. And this can break the old ideas or thoughts which people think to craft. In addition, craftspeople can create more crafts to the world which can push them to show their field to the public. Hence, people can feel this action can attract attention from people and help them builds a different entity. While people think there some close connection between art and crafts. However, art is superior than craft since it can be defined as creative, meaningful to people. People think art there is no boundary for art.
Art always express the thoughts or ideas to viewers from workers. It seemed the work who classified as art is full of meaningful. However, for craft, people think it as a work which is just repetitive work and use the old experience and mature techniques to produce the work. People always classify the use of the material which are rope and felt as craft. However, craftspeople would hope people to label them as art when they use these materials to make things. Moreover, just like feminist, craft also face the problems which are lacking support or always hide the shadow of art. Also, people think craft as a thing which is feminine since they are natural and beautiful. But for art, people think them are manly since they full of thoughts and work always want to express things to people. According to the queer theory, craft can change itself. This need to break the stereotype of craft and rebuild a new identification for craft so that can bring craft get out of the shadow of art.
