His thesis echoes also Roland Barthes' 'death of the author,' although, while Barthes substitutes the reader's interpretation for the author's creative genius, Staten appeals to the tradition of skilled practice. Instead, Staten cites Plato and Aristotle, about whom he demonstrates considerable expertise, 20 th century French and Irish poets writing autobiographically, and a British art historian writing on Picasso. Staten is well versed in both ancient and continental philosophical traditions, and so his sources are not what an analytic philosopher like myself would expect - philosophers such as Arthur Danto or Noël Carroll who emphasize the importance of the art-historical tradition for making and understanding art at any given time, or the above-mentioned cognitive psychologists who have developed a rich literature on the nature of creativity. Along with current psychologists who write on creativity, Staten claims to demystify creative activity. He notes that the Romantic model persists among audiences for art but not among modernist and post-modernist artists themselves reacting against Romanticism more broadly.

Each model has dominated in different historical contexts, and Staten is one representative of the swing of the pendulum back in the direction of the more mundane and claimed to be less mysterious theory of creativity. In fact, both of these sharply opposed models of artistic creation can be traced back to Plato, who viewed the poet as possessed, in a state of quasi-madness, and the painter as a highly skilled craftsman who could fool viewers of their works into thinking them real. Traditionally sponsors told artists what to paint, and the artists then drew on their extensive practical knowledge and skill in painstakingly executing the work in the available materials. Staten notes that this view of the artist as skilled craftsman predates the Romantic elevation of the artist to mystical creative genius. Implied in this tradition are possibilities for its extension discovered by the artist, who must then elaborate on and embody them in her material through her highly skilled practice. She creates this work in a moment of divine-like inspiration ex nihilo.įor Henry Staten, by contrast, there is no sharp line to be drawn between art and craft, as the artist, like the highly skilled craftsman, draws on a tradition of practical know-how built over long periods in domains within a culture. For the Romantic, the true genius's work will violate all past conventions and practices in embodying a radically new concept. Its thesis is opposed to the Romantic view of the artist as a lone genius who creates completely original works in flashes of inspired insight from the depths of his soul or deeply personal emotion.

This is a book about creativity in the arts.

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