Process and practice have been central to what visual artists do for a long time. It's easy to forget that until about a century ago technique in the service of an established cannon of officially approved subjects was normative. There was a reason the avant garde was synonymous with radicalism. In the half century that linked Impressionism to Dada and Surrealism a series of avant garde movements were overwhelmingly regarded with ridicule and hostility. The infrastructure of market and critical support was virtually non-existent. It's easy to romanticize a glamour that, with very rare exception, was not present.