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13.1: Art

  • Page ID
    5647
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    330px-Art-portrait-collage_2.jpg
    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) - Clockwise from upper left: a self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh; a female ancestor figure by a Chokwe artist; detail from The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli; and an Okinawan Shisa lion.

    Art is a diverse range of human activities in creating visual, auditory or performing artifacts – artworks, expressing the author’s imaginative or technical skill, intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power.[1][2] In their most general form these activities include the production of works of art, the criticism of art, the study of the history of art, and the aesthetic dissemination of art.

    The oldest documented forms of art are visual arts, which include creation of images or objects in fields including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and other visual media. Architecture is often included as one of the visual arts; however, like the decorative arts, it involves the creation of objects where the practical considerations of use are essential—in a way that they usually are not in a painting, for example. Music, theatre, film, dance, and other performing arts, as well as literature and other media such as interactive media, are included in a broader definition of art or the arts.[1][3] Until the 17th century, art referred to any skill or mastery and was not differentiated from crafts or sciences. In modern usage after the 17th century, where aesthetic considerations are paramount, the fine arts are separated and distinguished from acquired skills in general, such as the decorative or applied arts.

    Art may be characterized in terms of mimesis (its representation of reality), expression, communication of emotion, or other qualities. During the Romantic period, art came to be seen as “a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science”.[4] Though the definition of what constitutes art is disputed[5][6][7] and has changed over time, general descriptions mention an idea of imaginative or technical skill stemming from human agency[8] and creation.[9]

    Notes

    1. a b “Art: definition”. Oxford Dictionaries.
    2. “art”. Merriam-Websters Dictionary.
    3. “Art, n. 1”. OED Online. December 2011. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com. (Accessed 26 February 2012.)
    4. Gombrich, Ernst. (2005). “Press statement on The Story of Art”. The Gombrich Archive. Archived from the original on 6 October 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
    5. Stephen Davies (1991). Definition of Art. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-9794-0.
    6. Robert Stecker (1997). Artworks: Definition, Meaning, Value. Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 978-0-271-01596-5.
    7. Noël Carroll, ed. (2000). Theories of Art Today. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-16354-9.
    8. |url=http://www.ubc.ca/okanagan/creative/...t_is_Art_.html |date=20120427192624 |df=y What Is Art?Archive copy at the Wayback Machine
    9. a b “art”. Encyclopedia Britannica.

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