¶ … Power and the Changing Social Role of the Artist The process of artistic creation is often taken for granted as the product of some singularly brilliant talent acting alone in his or her inspiration. However, this notion undermines the importance of art as reflecting certain social or cultural conditions pertinent to the time and place of its creation. This is the premise at the center of the article by Wind (1985), which weighs the relationship between individual will power and artistic creation. Wind's writing offers a compelling and nuanced consideration of the ways in which the artistic processes has changed with the shifting of socioeconomic structures and how, accordingly, the artist's psyche must also change.

Article Summary:

Wind's article describes the considerable difference between producing art in the feudalist eras and today, examining various relationships between prominent artists and project commissioners over history. Largely, this describes a relationship between iconic artistic figures and members of royal families or religious authorities. Wind uses examination of these working relationships to deliver a thorough discussion on how changes in the way that members of the public consume art -- decidedly at a greater distance and in a more passive fashion than those who commissioned paintings during the Renaissance -- are constantly altering the way that the artist must behave in pursuit of his works. In particular, Wind considers the ways in which the artist must temper his own will and ego in order to satisfy consumer interests and desires, particularly now that artists will rarely work under the sometimes rigid terms imposed by commissioned works several centuries ago.

Thematic Approach:

The theme which largely drives Wind's approach is that relating to propositions of the human will. To Wind, the will plays a crucial part in helping humanity to breach new discoveries, to achieve innovations and to render expressions not heretofore uttered or exhibited. This denotes, Wind asserts, that the will is a fundamental instrument in supposing and pursuing...

Wind applies this notion to all matter of human interaction, describing for instance the crucial role played by will power in the process of scientific discovery. Accordingly, Wind observes that "the scientist acts on a hunch, for which the scientific evidence is incomplete; and his decision to act on that hunch, at the risk of being disappointed, is as certainly an act of the will as is the contrary, and more common decision, namely, not to risk that disappointment, and hence to forego the chance of making a discovery." (Wind, p. 77)
This provides a useful thematic starting point for a discussion on the role played by the will in both the inception and the appreciation of art. Just as with science, Wind indicates, the moment of inspiration by which an artistic endeavor is begun is one that must be stimulated by a surge of will. The very ambition or egoism that would predicate artistic expression must be present in order to goad one forward with the confidence or even the arrogance to make any such statement. However, this is also an area in which Wind provides an extremely compelling discussion on the dividing line between the need for this will and the need to suspend it. Again, as this applied both to those who would create and those who would consume art, acts and demonstrations of the will can be obstructive to creation or appreciation. Just as with science, following the demonstration of will that allows for the initiation of an exploratory endeavor, Wind indicates that there must be a point at which we sublimate our will to the more pressing evidence before us. Where this refers to science, such is to say that there is a destructive and blinding effect upon the actor who's will prevents him from responding to facts and evidences that may refute the theoretical assumptions of the will. Where this applied to the artist, Wind describes a point at which "in the moment of creation his personal will must be suspended; otherwise his work will be contrived and forced -- what the French very fittingly called voulu, which means 'strained' or 'laboured'…