An artist is someone who creates art, such as paintings, music, dance, or other forms of creative expression. They use imagination and skill to communicate ideas or emotions.
From French “artiste,” from Italian “artista,” from Latin “ars” meaning “art” or “skill.” It originally referred to anyone skilled in the arts, including scholars.
An artist’s real material isn’t just paint or sound—it’s attention. They notice what most people ignore and then hand it back to us in a way that makes us feel, “I’ve seen that a thousand times, but never like this.”
Art history and markets have long privileged male artists, leading to a default assumption that notable artists are men and marginalizing women and non-binary creators. Women’s work was often categorized as ‘decorative’ or ‘amateur’ rather than recognized as fine art.
Don’t assume an artist’s gender; use their name or neutral terms like "the artist" unless their self-identified gender is known and relevant. When discussing canons or movements, note how women and other marginalized artists were excluded or later rediscovered.
Women artists across periods—from painters and sculptors to photographers and digital artists—have significantly shaped artistic movements but were frequently omitted from training, exhibitions, and histories; explicitly naming them helps correct this imbalance.
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