What's the Difference Between Art & Design?

What counts as design? What counts as art? And how did this debate start? In this episode of Crash Course Art History, we’ll trace the history of privileging some materials and techniques over others. We’ll explore how street fashion, dinner plates, and a swan candelabrum blur boundaries that were never clear-cut to begin with.

Crash Course Art History #14
Introduction: "The Dinner Party" 00:00
A Timeline of the Debate 02:03
Folk Art 05:12
The Sapeurs 06:59
Blending Art & Design 08:04
Review & Credits 10:06

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[JaimeNyx]

I'd fallen off of Crash Course for a couple of years now, but this came up in my feed and I really enjoyed it. I never got to fit in an art history course in college, so I'm looking forward to using this as a strong substitute. Thanks for the great vid!

[rochelle]

Thank you for laying this out in such a thoughtful way! I’m also interested in the class element involved: craft as associated with labor and therefore lower in the hierarchy. It also makes me think of the recent tendency for clothing companies to say on their labels that something was “designed” in, say, San Francisco, even if it was sewn in China or Bangladesh—as if the physical act of making doesn’t matter.
Also, it’s a small thing but I really appreciate that you simply said Brazzaville and Kinshasa without prefacing them with Africa, just as if you were talking about Paris or Miami, or any other major city.

[jakefrechette]

I am loving this series! I'd love to hear your thoughts on Gardens. As a gardener, when the blurred lines of Design and Art were brought up I immediately thought of a garden, or living space. I personally see them as pieces of sculpture that are in constant flux because you aren't the only artist in control; Time and Nature are always adding their masterful brush strokes too.

[anotherhappyday]

As a Graphic Designer, this is one of my favorite topics to discuss. I often tell people that Design and Art are the extremes of a spectrum, cominication vs evocation, utility vs beauty. I don't believe that any one piece of art or design can be categorized as entirely one or the other, rather any piece can be placed somewhere in the spectrum.

[rosestormwolf]

My dad is an artist and also a professor whose subject of instruction is exactly the overlap in the venn diagram. His department’s name translates to “creative cultural industries” and he basically teaches students to look at design and capitalist creations through the lens of art, art history, and creativity.

[slashfilledmind]

I studied to be a carpenter and design furniture. I remember our class having a discussion about where to draw the line between art and well designed furniture. We all agreed that the Rietveld chair should be considered art, because with how uncomfortable it is, it's an absolute failure as furniture. So seeing it put in the catagory of things with a practical purpose makes me think whoever put it there never tried sitting on it.

[d]

I have always loved Judy Chicago's Dinner creation.

[debrachambers]

Design also has a lower tendency to be representational. A chair can just be itself, it can be carved to look nice but usually isn't trying to represent something else.

[ehthwjk]

So happy to see Sarah back and doing these art videos!

[Anil]

I trained as a contemporary jewelry designer in Italy.
Fine design requires a rigorous thought process aside from function. If you observe, you can really tell the difference between a pleasant piece made merely to serve a purpose, and a piece with a developed thought process behind it, even if you don't know what that thought is.

The way I see it, design is the point of tension between art and function.

[damon-burton]

I love how it challenges the traditional boundaries between the two. The examples of Judy Chicago's Dinner Party and the Sapuers are perfect illustrations of the blurred lines. It's important to remember that art and design are often intertwined, and that's what makes creativity so fascinating.

[KannikCat]

As an architect I really was excited to see this one explored. And as always, Sarah didn't disappoint! "Human creativity is too vast and varied to be limited by our pesky urge to define it." So well said. Where does spatial art like that of Richard Serra or James Turrell end, and a building such as a Ghery or an Ando begin? There's no line, it's always such a gradient (or venn diagram, as the video started with). Even if we limit it to 'purely architecture' where we might look at form/aesthetics compared to function; again, a gradient. Intention might be key, but it's not a dichotomy nor does it need to be a battle with one winning. :) Great episode, thank you!

[BrookieSmallz]

"Human Creativity is too vast and varied to be limited by our pesky urge to define it"
I love that

[rebeckaroy]

As a maker who lives in the land of textiles, I really enjoyed this! We talk about these things all the time. In my guild, some of us focus on making primarily functional cloth, others focus on tapestry that will mostly be displayed, and on and on.
I think I have a feel for which "language" I am speaking, or Venn circle I am working in depending on the project.
For example, today I am spinning yarn for a specific piece of clothing. I am thinking about it's wearability but not really that I have anything to "SAY" right now with this project. But that will be different on another day when I am working on a weaving primarily for hanging, even though the skills of my hands are involved in all the making. But that is from the maker's point of view and really depends on understanding context and intention....

[SpeakShibboleth]

I do love when people build beauty and meaning into everyday things. I tried to do it myself in my work as a design engineer and now i try to instill the philosophy in my team as an engineering manager. If it works, good. If it works and looks nice, great. If it works, looks good, and conveys the meaning, you're a star.

[judyormshaw]

I particularly enjoyed your choice of sweater for this one!

[superkoopatrooper]

Before watching, I assume design is utilitarian in nature. Art is expression. Edit: They can overlap and also stand on their own.

[nixi]

I'm gonna say Diderot had soft hands. He might be a critic but I don't think he had a lot of experience with making art. Good design takes a lot of problem solving and thinking through how it will function and the users experience. He might have had a different take if he had had to assemble something from IKEA 😂

[ndemers]

Hmm I'd never heard of La Sape! I'm seeing some parallels between it and NY's ball culture as shown in Paris is Burning. Ball / vogueing / drag is definitely an art form!

[SergioRodrigues]

I think your's is on of the best crash courses ever