What is an artist?

Art has evolved from its earliest times to the 21^st century. I believe that an artist is one who can express themselves, whether visually or through other means, and portray their imagination or thought to an audience creatively. The way communication, ideas and technology have evolved, paintings and sculptures are not the only way one can express art. Poems, movies, photographs and music among others are all ways through which art can be expressed. An artist, in the 21^st century, has an endless amount of resources to effectively demonstrate their work. As we saw at the MoMA, one does not need to create the art in order to be considered an artist. By stimulating the human mind to evoke ideas about an art piece that one didn’t have before, art can be re-expressed in endless forms.

I believe that an artist in the 21^st century should be able to create art that is universal. Not only should it be understood by the citizens of the artist’s country, but be global. Whereas earlier artists were specific to their city, today, art can be seen and interpreted differently throughout the world. Thus, when an artist can captivate inhabitants of different country, they know that they have truly arrived, whether through paintings, crafts, music or videos. Whereas painters and sculptors that were renowned during their time had to go through intense training, the revered artists of today are placed under an even greater microscope today. The globalization that has occurred from the late 19^th century, the rise of the internet and the ability of the mass media to disseminate information has made art even more universal today. Societies can see art from different people around the world at museums and galleries or instantly through the internet and an artist is one who could effectively speak to them all. An artist in the 21^st century must create beauty, but has more choices than those of previous times as to how they’d like to go about it. They can choose to create art in any number of fields and the development of society and what we view as art has allowed the artist to take new forms.