I Am
a Genius: Artistic Identity and the Changing Status
of Artists
Lecturer: Linda Smith
This lecture looks at the idea of artistic genius. It
traces the development of the familiar stereotype of a tortured and
misunderstood melancholic from its early appearance during the
Renaissance, down through the carefully-managed Bohemianism of the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, to the international celebrity
status achieved by a few artists today. The evolution of this type
of persona is discussed in the context of various factors, including the
usual suspects of class and gender, but the key issue is how art and
artists have been regarded and valued in society. How and when did
artists stop being craftsmen paid by the yard and become superstars, and
why did we let them get away with it?
