Collingwood’s Distinction between Art and Craft

In The Principles of Art (1937) R. G. Collingwood makes a number of distinctions between the artist, the craftsperson and what they produce, the most fundamental on the basis of the relationship between them,  their products and emotion. The relationship between art and emotion is far more complex than that between craft and emotion. Though the practices of both are intentional and directed, art is a means of emotional expression and clarification, towards an unknown material end, while the planned end product of craft entails that it be a means of arousal for others. The products of the artist are intellectual and non-reproducible, going beyond predetermined ends, those of the craftsperson material and intended for reproduction. 

Art is a vehicle for the process of emotional self-discovery. It is not concerned with ‘simple’ emotions (for example joy, fear and anger) but with those which are complex, transactional and evaluative of the artist’s relations with the world (for example, moral emotions). These emotions have a complexity and cognitive density such that, in freely and imaginatively exploring them through their art, the artist can move from confusion to clarity - to the full expression and understanding of an emotion in its distinctiveness. In so doing, the result of the artist’s attainment of self-knowledge becomes a means of self-knowledge for all who see and think about his artwork. The test that an artist has clarified an emotion is that others understand his completed work. 

Collingwood wrote that ‘at first (the artist) is conscious of having an emotion, but not conscious of what this emotion is.’ He is conscious of a ‘perturbation’ or ‘excitement’ within him, the nature of which he is ignorant. All he can say is that he feels something but doesn’t know what it is. ‘From this helpless and oppressed condition he extricates himself by doing something which we call expressing himself. ... His mind is somehow lightened and eased.’ In exploring his emotions the artist explores his medium for expression and vice versa. Even though the artist works towards an end, neither that end nor any particular technique for expression can be preconceived. The artist does not want a thing of a certain kind (such as a product of craft), he wants a certain thing - the knowledge that comes with emotional clarification. 

Craft, on the other hand, has a pre-determined function or end. The craftsperson aims at the production of a certain state of mind in his customers - the state of having certain demands satisfied. His focus is general not individual. Craft involves a number of distinctions, primarily that between means and ends. In craft, not only the means but the actions concerned with them (e.g. operating the tools) are ‘traversed’ towards the end, then left. This is not possible in art because the end is not known independently of the means.

In craft there is a distinction between planning and execution. While the artist does do a degree of planning (e.g. they know what category of art they intend to engage with), freedom is central to their practice - planning is central to craft. In craft there is a distinction between raw material (matter) and the finished product, the craft transforms the form of the matter. Every craft has an hierarchical character, either within the craft or between crafts (re- materials, means and parts) where one supplies what another needs, one uses what another provides. Most of these points are involved with every craft. As with representational art, the ‘so-called’ artist knows exactly what kind of emotion he wants to arouse. 

Collingwood allowed that some works of art can also be craftwork - for example, a building. He wrote ‘It may very well be true ... that the greatest and most serious (works of art) always contain an element of planning and therefore an element of craft.’ An obvious example of this in Australia is the Opera House which, while it can be analysed on the basis of craft, fulfilling pre-determined ends, is considered a major work of art. Cavell also gave the example of Hollywood movies from the 1930s and 1940s as ‘great art’. In such cases you would have to distinguish on the basis of the above contrasts to decide which aspects are craft and which art.

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