The Bath, a painting by Mary Cassatt (1844–1926). Mary Stevenson Cassatt ( May 22, 1844 &ndash June 14, 1926) was an American painter and Printmaker.

The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night, Vincent van Gogh, September 1888. Cafe Terrace at Night, also known as The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, is an oil painting executed by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh on an

Art refers to a diverse range of human activities and artifacts, and may be used to cover all or any of the arts, including music, literature and other forms. The arts is a broad subdivision of Culture, composed of many expressive disciplines. Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter It is most often used to refer specifically to the visual arts, including media such as painting, sculpture, and printmaking. The visual arts are art forms that focus on the creation of works which are primarily Visual in nature such as Painting, Photography Painting (pān'tīng in Art, is the practice of applying Color to a Surface (support base such as e Printmaking is the Process of making artworks by Printing, normally on Paper. However it can also be applied to forms of art that stimulate the other senses, such as music, an auditory art. Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy which considers art. Aesthetics or esthetics ( also spelled æsthetics) is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values sometimes called

Traditionally the term art was used to refer to any skill or mastery, a concept which altered during the Romantic period, when art came to be seen as "a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science". Romanticism is a complex artistic literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the ^[1] Generally art is a (product of) human activity, made with the intention of stimulating the human senses as well as the human mind; by transmitting emotions and/or ideas. Beyond this description, there is no general agreed-upon definition of art. Art is also able to illustrate abstract thought and its expressions can elicit previously hidden emotions in its audience.

The evaluation of art has become especially problematic since the 20th century. Richard Wollheim distinguishes three approaches: the Realist, whereby aesthetic quality is an absolute value independent of any human view; the Objectivist, whereby it is also an absolute value, but is dependent on general human experience; and the Relativist position, whereby it is not an absolute value, but depends on, and varies with, the human experience of different humans. Richard Arthur Wollheim ( 5 May, 1923 &ndash 4 November, 2003) was a British Philosopher noted for original work on Moral realism (in the robust sense see below is the meta-ethical view which claims that Ethical sentences express Propositions Objectivity is both an important and very difficult concept to pin down in philosophy Compare Moral relativism, Aesthetic relativism, Social constructionism, Cultural relativism, and Cognitive relativism. Aesthetic relativism is the philosophical view that the judgement of Beauty is relative to individuals cultures time periods and contexts and that there are no ^[2] An object may be characterized by the intentions, or lack thereof, of its creator, regardless of its apparent purpose. A cup, which ostensibly can be used as a container, may be considered art if intended solely as an ornament, while a painting may be deemed craft if mass-produced.

Visual art is defined as the arrangement of colors, forms, or other elements "in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium". ^[3] The nature of art has been described by Wollheim as "one of the most elusive of the traditional problems of human culture". ^[4] It has been defined as a vehicle for the expression or communication of emotions and ideas, a means for exploring and appreciating formal elements for their own sake, and as mimesis or representation. In art theory, formalism is the concept that a work 's artistic value is entirely determined by its Form --the way it is made its purely visual Mimesis ( μίμησις from μιμεîσθαι) is a critical and Philosophical term that carries a wide range of meanings including Representation describes the signs that stand in for and take the place of something else ^[5] Leo Tolstoy identified art as a use of indirect means to communicate from one person to another. Leo Tolstoy, or Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy ( –) (Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й, was a Russian Writer widely regarded ^[5] Benedetto Croce and R.G. Collingwood advanced the idealist view that art expresses emotions, and that the work of art therefore essentially exists in the mind of the creator. Benedetto Croce ( February 25, 1866 – November 20, 1952) was an Italian critic idealist Philosopher, and Robin George Collingwood ( February 22, 1889 – January 9, 1943) was a British philosopher and historian In Western civilization, Idealism is the philosophy which maintains that the Ultimate nature of reality is ideal or based upon ideas values essences The so-called ^[6][7] Art as form has its roots in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and was developed in the early twentieth century by Roger Fry and Clive Bell. Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg Roger Eliot Fry (14 December 1866 – 9 September 1934) was an English artist and an Art critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury group Arthur Clive Heward Bell ( September 16, 1881 &ndash September 18, 1964) was an English Art critic, associated with the ^[5] Art as mimesis or representation has deep roots in the philosophy of Aristotle. Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. ^[5]

Usage

The most common usage of the word "art," which rose to prominence after 1750, is understood to denote skill used to produce an aesthetic result. A skill is the learned capacity or talent to carry out pre-determined results often with the minimum outlay of time energy or both. Aesthetics or esthetics ( also spelled æsthetics) is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values sometimes called ^[8] Britannica Online defines it as "the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others. The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc "^[9] By any of these definitions of the word, artistic works have existed for almost as long as humankind: from early pre-historic art to contemporary art. Human beings, humans or man (Origin 1590–1600 L homō man OL hemō the earthly one (see Humus --> In the history of art prehistoric art is all art produced in preliterate cultures (prehistory beginning somewhere in very late geological history Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. Much has been written about the concept of "art". ^[10] Where Adorno said in 1970 "It is now taken for granted that nothing which concerns art can be taken for granted any more[. Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund Adorno ( September 11, 1903 &ndash August 6, 1969) was a German -born international sociologist . . ],"^[11],^[12] The first and broadest sense of art is the one that has remained closest to the older Latin meaning, which roughly translates to "skill" or "craft," and also from an Indo-European root meaning "arrangement" or "to arrange". In this sense, art is whatever is described as having undergone a deliberate process of arrangement by an agent. A few examples where this meaning proves very broad include artifact, artificial, artifice, artillery, medical arts, and military arts. Artillery (from French artillerie) is a military Combat Arm which employs any apparātus machine Medicine is the art and science of healing It encompasses a range of Health care practices evolved to maintain and restore Human Health by the A military is an Organization authorized by its Nation to use force usually including use of Weapons in defending its Country (or by attacking However, there are many other colloquial uses of the word, all with some relation to its etymology. Etymology is the study of the History of Words &mdash when they entered a language from what source and how their form and meaning have changed over time

The second and more recent sense of the word art is as an abbreviation for creative art or fine art. Fine art means that a skill is being used to express the artist’s creativity, or to engage the audience’s aesthetic sensibilities, or to draw the audience towards consideration of the finer things. Often, if the skill is being used in a common or practical way, people will consider it a craft instead of art. Likewise, if the skill is being used in a commercial or industrial way, it will be considered Commercial art instead of art. Commercial art is a subsector of Creative services, and refers to Art created for commercial purposes primarily Advertising. On the other hand, crafts and design are sometimes considered applied art. Design is used both as a Noun and a Verb. The term is often tied to the various Applied arts and Engineering (See design disciplines Applied art refers to the application of Design and Aesthetics to objects of function and everyday use Some art followers have argued that the difference between fine art and applied art has more to do with value judgments made about the art than any clear definitional difference. ^[13] However, even fine art often has goals beyond pure creativity and self-expression. The purpose of works of art may be to communicate ideas, such as in politically-, spiritually-, or philosophically-motivated art; to create a sense of beauty (see aesthetics); to explore the nature of perception; for pleasure; or to generate strong emotions. NOTICE TO WOULD-BE-ROMEOS*************** Aesthetics or esthetics ( also spelled æsthetics) is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values sometimes called An emotion is a mental and physiological state associated with a wide variety of feelings thoughts and behaviours The purpose may also be seemingly nonexistent.

Painting by Song Dynasty artist Ma Lin, c. The Song Dynasty ( Wade-Giles: Sung Ch'ao was a ruling dynasty in China between 960&ndash1279 CE it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms 1250. 24,8 × 25,2 cm.

The ultimate derivation of fine in fine art comes from the philosophy of Aristotle, who proposed four causes or explanations of a thing. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. The final cause of a thing is the purpose for its existence, and the term fine art is derived from this notion. If the final cause of an artwork is simply the artwork itself, "art for art's sake", and not a means to another end, then that artwork could appropriately be called fine. The closely related concept of beauty is classically defined as "that which when seen, pleases". Pleasure is the final cause of beauty and thus is not a means to another end, but an end in itself.

Art can describe several things: a study of creative skill, a process of using the creative skill, a product of the creative skill, or the audience’s experience with the creative skill. The creative arts (art as discipline) are a collection of disciplines (arts) that produce artworks (art as objects) that are compelled by a personal drive (art as activity) and echo or reflect a message, mood, or symbolism for the viewer to interpret (art as experience). Artworks can be defined by purposeful, creative interpretations of limitless concepts or ideas in order to communicate something to another person. Artworks can be explicitly made for this purpose or interpreted based on images or objects. Art is something that stimulates an individual's thoughts, emotions, beliefs, or ideas through the senses. It is also an expression of an idea and it can take many different forms and serve many different purposes. Although the application of scientific theories to derive a new scientific theory involves skill and results in the "creation" of something new, this represents science only and is not categorized as art.

Theories

Fountain by Marcel Duchamp. Marcel Duchamp (maʀsɛl dyˈʃɑ̃ (28 July 1887 &ndash 2 October 1968 was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist 1917

In the nineteenth century, artists were primarily concerned with ideas of truth and beauty. The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar The meaning of the word truth extends from Honesty, Good faith, and Sincerity in general to agreement with Fact or Reality NOTICE TO WOULD-BE-ROMEOS*************** The aesthetic theorist John Ruskin, who championed the raw naturalism of J. M. W. Turner, saw art's role as the communication by artifice of an essential truth that could only be found in nature. John Ruskin (8 February 1819 &ndash 20 January 1900 is best known for his work as an Art critic, sage writer, and Social critic, but is remembered Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 1775 &ndash 19 December 1851 was an English Romantic landscape painter, Watercolourist and ^[14] The arrival of Modernism in the early twentieth century lead to a radical break in the conception of the function of art,^[15] and then again in the late twentieth century with the advent of postmodernism. Modernism describes an array of Cultural movements rooted in the changes in Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Postmodernism literally means 'after the modernist movement' While " Modern " itself refers to something "related to the present" the movement of modernism Clement Greenberg's 1960 article "Modernist Painting" defines Modern Art as "the use of characteristic methods of a discipline to criticize the discipline itself". Clement Greenberg ( January 16, 1909 - May 7, 1994) was an influential American ^[16] Greenberg originally applied this idea to the Abstract Expressionist movement and used it as a way to understand and justify flat (non-illusionistic) abstract painting:

Realistic, naturalistic art had dissembled the medium, using art to conceal art; modernism used art to call attention to art. The limitations that constitute the medium of painting – the flat surface, the shape of the support, the properties of the pigment — were treated by the Old Masters as negative factors that could be acknowledged only implicitly or indirectly. Under Modernism these same limitations came to be regarded as positive factors, and were acknowledged openly. ^[16]

After Greenberg, several important art theorists emerged, such as Michael Fried, T. J. Clark, Rosalind Krauss, Linda Nochlin and Griselda Pollock among others. Michael Fried (born 1939 New York City) is an influential Modernist art critic and art historian Timothy James Clark (often "TJ Clark" was born in 1943 in Bristol, England. Rosalind Krauss (Born Rosalind Epstein on) is an American art critic professor and theorist who is based at Columbia University. Linda Nochlin (born 1931 in New York) is a Professor and Art historian. Griselda Pollock (born 1949) is a prominent art historian and cultural analyst and a world-renowned scholar of international post-colonial feminist studies in the Though only originally intended as a way of understanding a specific set of artists, Greenberg's definition of Modern Art underlies most of the ideas of art within the various art movements of the 20th century and early 21st century. The art of Marcel Duchamp becomes clear when seen within this context; when submitting a urinal, titled fountain, to the Society of Independent Artists exhibit in 1917 he was critiquing the art exhibition using its own methods. Marcel Duchamp (maʀsɛl dyˈʃɑ̃ (28 July 1887 &ndash 2 October 1968 was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist

Pop artists like Andy Warhol became both noteworthy and influential through critiquing popular culture, as well as the art world, through the language of that popular culture. Pop Art is a visual Art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in parallel in the late 1950s in the United States. For the song by David Bowie, see Andy Warhol (song. Andrew Warhola (August 6 1928 &ndash February 22 1987 known as Andy Warhol The art world is the " world " comprised of all the people involved in the production commission preservation promotion criticism, and sale of Art Certain radical artists of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s took those ideas further by expanding this technique of self-criticism beyond high art to all cultural image-making, including fashion images, comics, billboards and pornography.

Utility

One of the defining characteristics of fine art as opposed to applied art is the absence of any clear usefulness or utilitarian value. Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall Utility, that is its contribution to happiness However, this requirement is sometimes criticized as being class prejudice against labor and utility. Opponents of the view that art cannot be useful, argue that all human activity has some utilitarian function, and the objects claimed to be "non-utilitarian" actually have the function of attempting to mystify and codify flawed social hierarchies. It is also sometimes argued that even seemingly non-useful art is not useless, but rather that its use is the effect it has on the psyche of the creator or viewer.

Art is also used by art therapists, psychotherapists and clinical psychologists as art therapy. Art therapy is a form of Expressive therapy that uses art materials such as paints chalk and markers Art can also be used as a tool of Personality Test. A personality test aims to describe aspects of a person's character that remain stable throughout that person's lifetime the individual's character pattern of behavior thoughts and feelings The end product is not the principal goal in this case, but rather a process of healing, through creative acts, is sought. The resultant piece of artwork may also offer insight into the troubles experienced by the subject and may suggest suitable approaches to be used in more conventional forms of psychiatric therapy.

Spray-paint graffiti on a wall in Rome. Aerosol paint (spray paint – Paint in a sealed pressurized container that is released in a fine spray mist when depressing a Valve button located on the top of Graffiti (singular graffito; the plural is used as a Mass noun) is the name for images or lettering scratched scrawled painted or marked in any manner on property

Graffiti art and other types of street art are graphics and images that are spray-painted or stencilled on publicly viewable walls, buildings, buses, trains, and bridges, usually without permission. Graffiti (singular graffito; the plural is used as a Mass noun) is the name for images or lettering scratched scrawled painted or marked in any manner on property Street art is any Art developed in Public spaces — that is "in the Streets quot — though the term usually refers to art of an illicit nature as Spray painting is a Painting technique where a device sprays a coating (paint ink varnish etc A stencil is a Template used to draw or paint identical letters, Symbols, Shapes or Patterns every This type of art is part of various youth cultures, such as the US hip-hop culture. Hip hop is a cultural movement which developed in New York City in the 1970s primarily among African Americans and Latinos. It is used to express political views and depict creative images.

In a social context, art can serve to boost the public's morale. Art is often utilized as a form of propaganda, and thus can be used to subtly influence popular conceptions or mood. Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people In some cases, artworks are appropriated to be used in this manner, without the creator having initially intended the art to be used as propaganda. From an anthropological perspective, art is often a way of passing ideas and concepts on to later generations in a (somewhat) universal language. The interpretation of this language depends upon the observer’s perspective and context. So conversely the very subjectivity of art demonstrates its importance in facilitating the exchange and discussion of rival ideas, or to provide a social context in which disparate groups of people might congregate and mingle.

Classification disputes

Main article: Classificatory disputes about art

Image of a horse from the Lascaux caves. Art historians and philosophers of art have long had classificatory disputes about art regarding whether a particular cultural form or piece of work should be classified Lascaux is the setting of a complex of Caves in southwestern France famous for its prehistoric Cave paintings The original caves are located near

It is common in the history of art for people to dispute whether a particular form or work, or particular piece of work counts as art or not. The history of art usually refers to the History of the Visual arts, such as Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. In fact for much of the past century the idea of art has been to simply challenge what art is. Philosophers of Art call these disputes “classificatory disputes about art. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language ” For example, Ancient Greek philosophers debated about whether or not ethics should be considered the "art of living well". Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life Classificatory disputes in the 20th century included: cubist and impressionist paintings, Duchamp’s Fountain, the movies, superlative imitations of banknotes, propaganda, and even a crucifix immersed in urine. Cubism was a 20th century Avant-garde Art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European Impressionism was a 19th-century Art movement that began as a loose association of Paris -based Artists exhibiting their art publicly in the 1860s Marcel Duchamp (maʀsɛl dyˈʃɑ̃ (28 July 1887 &ndash 2 October 1968 was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist Fountain is a 1917 work by Marcel Duchamp. It is one of the pieces which he called readymades (also known as Found art A banknote (often known as a bill, paper money or simply a note) is a kind of Negotiable instrument, a Promissory note made by a Conceptual art often intentionally pushes the boundaries of what counts as art. Conceptual art is Art in which the Concept (s or Idea (s involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns New media such as Video games slowly become co-opted by artists and/or recognized as art forms in its own right, though these new classification shifts are not universally adopted and remain the subject of dispute. A video game is a Game that involves interaction with a User interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. ^[17]

Disputes over the nature of art have raged for centuries, and have even resulted in the banning of some forms.

Philosopher David Novitz has argued that disagreement about the definition of art are rarely the heart of the problem. Rather, "the passionate concerns and interests that humans vest in their social life" are "so much a part of all classificatory disputes about art" (Novitz, 1996). According to Novitz, classificatory disputes are more often disputes about our values and where we are trying to go with our society than they are about theory proper. For example, when the Daily Mail criticized Hirst's and Emin’s work by arguing "For 1,000 years art has been one of our great civilising forces. The Daily Mail is a British newspaper currently published in a tabloid format Hirst may refer to People with the surname Hirst: Hirst (surname In places: Hirst North Lanarkshire Tracey Emin RA (born 3 July, 1963) is an English Artist of Turkish Cypriot origin one of the group known as Britartists Today, pickled sheep and soiled beds threaten to make barbarians of us all" they are not advancing a definition or theory about art, but questioning the value of Hirst’s and Emin’s work. ^[18] In 1998, Arthur Danto, suggested a thought experiment showing that "the status of an artifact as work of art results from the ideas a culture applies to it, rather than its inherent physical or perceptible qualities. Arthur Coleman Danto (born 1924 is an American Art critic, and Professor of Philosophy. Cultural interpretation (an art theory of some kind) is therefore constitutive of an object’s arthood. "^[19][20]

Controversial art

Theodore Gericault's "Raft of the Medusa" (1820), was a social commentary on a current event, unprecedented at the time. Théodore Géricault ( September 26, 1791 &ndash January 26, 1824) was an important French painter and lithographer known for The Raft of the Medusa (Le Radeau de la Méduse is a work by the French painter Théodore Géricault, and one of the icons of French Romanticism. Edouard Manet's "Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe" (1863), was considered scandalous not because of the nude woman, but because she is seated next to fully-dressed men. Le déjeuner sur l'herbe ( The Lunch on the Grass in French originally titled Le Bain ( The Bath) is an Oil on canvas painting by Nudity is the state of wearing no Clothing. The term' "nudity" can also occasionally be used to refer to wearing significantly less clothing than expected John Singer Sargent's "Madame Pierre Gautreau (Madam X)" (1884), caused a huge uproar over the reddish pink used to color the woman's ear lobe, considered far too suggestive and supposedly ruining the high-society model's reputation. John Singer Sargent (January 12 1856 &ndash April 14 1925 was the most successful portrait painter of his era During his career he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than Madame X or Portrait of Madame X is the informal title of a portrait by John Singer Sargent of a young socialite named Virginie Amélie

Leon Golub's Interrogation III (1981)

In the twentieth century, Pablo Picasso's Guernica (1937) used arresting cubist techniques and stark monochromatic oils, to depict the harrowing consequences of a contemporary bombing of a small, ancient Basque town. Leon Golub ( January 23, 1922 - August 8, 2004) was an American painter. Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso (October 25 1881 &ndash April 8 1973 Guernica is a monumental Painting by Pablo Picasso, depicting the Nazi German Bombing of Guernica, Spain by twenty-eight Cubism was a 20th century Avant-garde Art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European Leon Golub's Interrogation III (1981), depicts a female nude, hooded detainee strapped to a chair, her legs open to reveal her sexual organs, surrounded by two tormentors dressed in everyday clothing. Leon Golub ( January 23, 1922 - August 8, 2004) was an American painter. Andres Serrano's Piss Christ (1989) is a photograph of a crucifix, sacred to the Christian religion and representing Christ's sacrifice and final suffering, submerged in a glass of the artist's own urine. Andres Serrano (born August 15, 1950) is an American photographer who has become most notorious through his photos of corpses as well as Piss Christ is a controversial Photograph by American Photographer Andres Serrano. Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC / BCE —26–36 AD / CE) The resulting uproar led to comments in the United States Senate about public funding of the arts.

In the twenty-first century, Eric Fischl created Tumbling Woman as a memorial to those who jumped or fell to their death in the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Eric Fischl (born New York City, 1948 is an American painter and sculptor. The World Trade Center in New York City, United States (sometimes informally the WTC or Twin Towers) was a complex of seven buildings in Lower Manhattan Initially installed at Rockefeller Center in New York City, within a year the work was removed as too disturbing. Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres between 48th and 51st streets in New York City. ^[21]

Art, class and value

Versailles: Louis Le Vau opened up the interior court to create the expansive entrance cour d'honneur, later copied all over Europe

Art has been perceived by some as belonging to some social classes and often excluding others. Louis Le Vau (1612 – October 11 1670) was a French Classical Architect who worked for Louis XIV of France. Cour d'Honneur, sometimes literally translated as "Court of Honour" is the architectural term for defining a three-sided Courtyard In this context, art is seen as an upper-class activity associated with wealth, the ability to purchase art, and the leisure required to pursue or enjoy it. For example, the palaces of Versailles or the Hermitage in St. Petersburg with their vast collections of art, amassed by the fabulously wealthy royalty of Europe exemplify this view. The Palace of Versailles, or simply Versailles, is a royal Château in Versailles, in France 's Île-de-France region The State Hermitage Museum (Государственный Эрмитаж Gosudarstvennyj Èrmitaž) in Saint Petersburg, Russia is one of the largest Saint Petersburg ( tr: Sankt-Peterburg,) is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River Collecting such art is the preserve of the rich, or of governments and institutions.

Fine and expensive goods have been popular markers of status in many cultures, and continue to be so today. There has been a cultural push in the other direction since at least 1793, when the Louvre, which had been a private palace of the Kings of France, was opened to the public as an art museum during the French Revolution. The French Revolution (1789–1799 was a period of political and social upheaval in the History of France, during which the French governmental structure previously an Most modern public museums and art education programs for children in schools can be traced back to this impulse to have art available to everyone. Museums in the United States tend to be gifts from the very rich to the masses (The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, for example, was created by John Taylor Johnston, a railroad executive whose personal art collection seeded the museum. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is an art museum located on the eastern edge of Central Park, along what is known as Museum Mile in New York City, The City of New York John Taylor Johnston was born in 1820 the son of James Boorman Johnston ) But despite all this, at least one of the important functions of art in the 21st century remains as a marker of wealth and social status.

Performance by Joseph Beuys, 1978 : Everyone an artist — On the way to the libertarian form of the social organism. Joseph Beuys (ˈjoːzɛf ˈbɔʏs May 12, 1921 – January 23,

There have been attempts by artists to create art that can not be bought by the wealthy as a status object. One of the prime original motivators of much of the art of the late 1960s and 1970s was to create art that could not be bought and sold. It is "necessary to present something more than mere objects"^[22] said the major post war German artist Joseph Beuys. This time period saw the rise of such things as performance art, video art, and conceptual art. This article is about Performance art For other uses see Performance (disambiguation Video art is a type of Art which relies on Moving pictures and is comprised of Video and/or audio data Conceptual art is Art in which the Concept (s or Idea (s involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns The idea was that if the artwork was a performance that would leave nothing behind, or was simply an idea, it could not be bought and sold. "Democratic precepts revolving around the idea that a work of art is a commodity impelled the aesthetic innovation which germinated in the mid-1960s and was reaped throughout the 1970s. Artists broadly identified under the heading of Conceptual art. . . substituting performance and publishing activities for engagement with both the material and materialistic concerns of painted or sculptural form. . . [have] endeavored to undermine the art object qua object. "^[23]

In the decades since, these ideas have been somewhat lost as the art market has learned to sell limited edition DVDs of video works,^[24] invitations to exclusive performance art pieces, and the objects left over from conceptual pieces. Many of these performances create works that are only understood by the elite who have been educated as to why an idea or video or piece of apparent garbage may be considered art. The marker of status becomes understanding the work instead of necessarily owning it, and the artwork remains an upper-class activity. "With the widespread use of DVD recording technology in the early 2000s, artists, and the gallery system that derives its profits from the sale of artworks, gained an important means of controlling the sale of video and computer artworks in limited editions to collectors. "^[25]

Forms, genres, mediums, and styles

Main article: The arts

The creative arts are often divided into more specific categories, such as decorative arts, plastic arts, performing arts, or literature. The arts is a broad subdivision of Culture, composed of many expressive disciplines. The decorative arts are traditionally defined as ornamental and functional works in Ceramic, Wood, Glass, Metal, or Textile. Plastic arts are those Visual arts that involve the use of Materials that can be moulded or modulated in some way often in three dimensions The performing arts are those forms of Art which differ from the Plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own Body, Face and presence Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter So for example painting is a form of visual art, and poetry is a form of literature. Painting (pān'tīng in Art, is the practice of applying Color to a Surface (support base such as e An art form is a specific form for artistic expression to take; it is a more specific term than art, but less specific than genre. An artistic medium is the substance the artistic work is made out of. A data storage device is a device for recording (storing information (data So for example, stone and bronze are both mediums that sculpture uses sometimes. Multiple forms can share a medium (poetry and music, both use sound), or one form can use multiple media.

A genre is a set of conventions and styles within an art form and media. For instance, well recognized genres in film are western, horror and romantic comedy. The Western is a fiction Genre seen in Film, Television, Radio, Literature, Painting and other Visual arts. Horror fiction is broadly Fiction in any medium intended to scare unsettle or horrify the audience Romantic comedy films, colloquially known as romcom, are movies with light-hearted humorous plotlines centered around romantic ideals such as a True love able to Genres in music include death metal and trip hop. Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs fast tempos heavily distorted guitars deep growling vocals morbid lyrics Trip hop is a music Genre also known as the Bristol sound or Bristol acid rap. Genres in painting include still life, and pastoral landscape. This article is about Still Life (or still lifes as plural the art form For the art of designing external spaces see Landscape architecture. A particular work of art may bend or combine genres but each genre has a recognizable group of conventions, clichés and troupes. (One note: the word genre has a second older meaning within painting; genre painting was a phrase used in the 17th to 19th century to refer specifically to paintings of scenes of everyday life and can still be used in this way. Genre works, also called genre scenes or genre views, are pictorial representations in any of various media that represent scenes or events from everyday life )

Detail of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, showing the painting technique of sfumato. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( April 15 1452 – May 2 1519 was an Italian Polymath, having been a scientist Mathematician, Engineer Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda) is a 16th century portrait painted in oil on a Poplar panel by Sfumato is the Italian term for a Painting technique which overlays translucent layers of colour to create perceptions of depth volume and form

An artwork, artist’s, or movement's style is the distinctive method and form that art takes. Any loose brushy, dripped or poured abstract painting is called expressionistic (with a lower case "e" and the "ic" at the end). Often these styles are linked with a particular historical period, set of ideas, and particular artistic movement. So Jackson Pollock is called an Abstract Expressionist. Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28 1912 &ndash August 11 1956 was an influential American painter and a major force in the abstract expressionist movement Abstract expressionism was an American post– World War II Art movement. Because a particular style has very specific cultural meanings it is important to be sensitive to differences in technique. Roy Lichtenstein's paintings are not pointillist, despite his uses of dots, because they are not aligned with the original proponents of Pointillism. Roy Fox Lichtenstein (October 27 1923 &ndash September 29 1997 was a prominent American Pop artist his work heavily influenced by both popular advertising and See also Neo-Impressionism Pointillism is a style of Painting in which small distinct points of Primary colors create the impression of a wide selection Lichtenstein used Ben-Day dots: they are evenly-spaced and create flat areas of color. These types of dots were used to color comic strips and are intended to combine the "high" art of painting with the "low" art of comics - to comment on culture and its unreality. Pointillism employs dots that are spaced in a way to create variation in color and depth - it was an attempt to paint images that were closer to the way we really see color - an attempt to get closer to reality. They both use dots but the meaning is opposite.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, 1760–1849), colored woodcut print. is a famous woodblock print by the Japanese artist Hokusai. A literal translation of the Japanese name would be "Off Kanagawa the back (or underside of a wave was a Japanese Artist, Ukiyo-e painter and Printmaker of the Edo period.

These are all ways of beginning to define a work of art, to narrow it down. "Imagine you are an art critic whose mission is to compare the meanings you find in a wide range of individual artworks. How would you proceed with your task? One way to begin is to examine the materials each artist selected in making an object, image video, or event. The decision to cast a sculpture in bronze, for instance, inevitably effects its meaning; the work becomes something different than if it had been cast in gold or plastic or chocolate, even if everything else about the artwork remained the same. Next, you might examine how the materials in each artwork have become an arrangement of shapes, colors, textures, and lines. These, in turn, are organized into various patterns and compositional structures. In your interpretation, you would comment on how salient features of the form contribute to the overall meaning of the finished artwork. [But in the end] the meaning of most artworks. . . is not exhausted by a discussion of materials, techniques, and form. Most interpretations also include a discussion of the ideas and feelings the artwork engenders. "^[26]

History

Main article: History of Art

Venus of Willendorf. The history of art usually refers to the History of the Visual arts, such as Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. The Venus of Willendorf, also known as the Woman of Willendorf, is an 11

Art predates history; sculptures, cave paintings, rock paintings, and petroglyphs from the Upper Paleolithic starting roughly 40,000 years ago have been found, but the precise meaning of such art is often disputed because so little is known about the cultures that produced them. Cave paintings are Paintings on Cave walls and ceilings and the term is used especially for those dating to Prehistoric times Petroglyphs are Images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising pecking carving and abrading The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe Africa The oldest art objects in the world: a series of tiny, drilled snail shells about 75,000yrs old, were discovered in a South African cave. ^[27]

The great traditions in art have a foundation in the art of one of the great ancient civilizations: Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, China, Ancient Greece, Rome, or Arabia (ancient Yemen and Oman). Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding See Also Persian Empire History of Iran and Greater Iran (also referred to as the " Iranian Cultural Continent The Arabian Peninsula (in Arabic: شبه الجزيرة العربية šibh al-jazīra al-ʻarabīya or جزيرة العرب jazīrat al-ʻarab) Yemen ( Arabic: اليَمَن al-Yaman officially the Republic of Yemen ( Arabic: الجمهورية اليمنية al-Jumhuuriyya Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman ( Arabic: سلطنة عُمان) is an Arab Country in Southwest Asia on the southeast Each of these centers of early civilization developed a unique and characteristic style in their art. Because of the size and duration these civilizations, more of their art works have survived and more of their influence has been transmitted to other cultures and later times. They have also provided the first records of how artists worked. For example, this period of Greek art saw a veneration of the human physical form and the development of equivalent skills to show musculature, poise, beauty and anatomically correct proportions

In Byzantine and Gothic art of the Western Middle Ages, art focused on the expression of Biblical and not material truths, and emphasized methods which would show the higher unseen glory of a heavenly world, such as the use of gold in paintings, or glass in mosaics or windows, which also presented figures in idealized, patterned (flat) forms. Byzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of the Byzantine Empire from about the 4th century until the Fall of Constantinople This article is about Gothic art See also Gothic architecture Gothic art was a Medieval art movement that lasted about 200

The stylized signature of Sultan Mahmud II of the Ottoman Empire was written in Arabic calligraphy. Sultan (سلطان is an Islamic title with several historical meanings Mahmud II ( Ottoman Turkish: محمود ثاني Mahmud-ı sānī) ( July 20, 1785 July 1, 1839 The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish Islamic calligraphy, equally known as Arabic calligraphy, is the art of writing and by extension of bookmaking It reads Mahmud Khan son of Abdulhamid is forever victorious.

The western Renaissance saw a return to valuation of the material world, and the place of humans in it, and this paradigm shift is reflected in art forms, which show the corporeality of the human body, and the three dimensional reality of landscape. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere

Landscape of pine valley, by Ming Dynasty artist Chen Hongshou. The Ming Dynasty ( or Empire of the Great Ming ( was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol -led This is a Chinese name the family name is 陈 (Chen) Chen Hongshou (Chinese 陈洪绶 Pinyin: Chén Hóngshòu (1598 - 1652 was a Chinese painter

In the east, Islamic art's rejection of iconography led to emphasis on geometric patterns, Islamic calligraphy, and architecture. Islamic art encompasses the arts produced from the 7th century onwards by people (not necessarily Muslim) who lived within the territory that was inhabited by culturally Iconography is the branch of Art history which studies the identification description and the interpretation of the content of images Islamic calligraphy, equally known as Arabic calligraphy, is the art of writing and by extension of bookmaking Islamic architecture has encompassed a wide range of both secular and religious styles from the foundation of Islam to the present day influencing the design and construction Further east, religion dominated artistic styles and forms too. India and Tibet saw emphasis on painted sculptures and dance with religious painting borrowing many conventions from sculpture and tending to bright contrasting colors with emphasis on outlines. China saw many art forms flourish, jade carving, bronzework, pottery (including the stunning terracotta army of Emperor Qin), poetry, calligraphy, music, painting, drama, fiction, etc. The Terracotta Army ( are the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shi Huang the First Emperor of China. Chinese styles vary greatly from era to era and are traditionally named after the ruling dynasty. So, for example, Tang Dynasty paintings are monochromatic and sparse, emphasizing idealized landscapes, but Ming Dynasty paintings are busy, colorful, and focus on telling stories via setting and composition. The Tang Dynasty ( Middle Chinese: dhɑng (June 18 618&ndashJune 4 907 was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by The Ming Dynasty ( or Empire of the Great Ming ( was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol -led Japan names its styles after imperial dynasties too, and also saw much interplay between the styles of calligraphy and painting. Woodblock printing became important in Japan after the 17th century. For the use of the technique in art see Woodcut on the technique and Old master print for the history in Europe and Woodblock printing in Japan.

The western Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century saw artistic depictions of physical and rational certainties of the clockwork universe, as well as politically revolutionary visions of a post-monarchist world, such as Blake’s portrayal of Newton as a divine geometer, or David’s propagandistic paintings. The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century This led to Romantic rejections of this in favor of pictures of the emotional side and individuality of humans, exemplified in the novels of Goethe. Romanticism is a complex artistic literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the ˈjoːhan ˈvɔlfgaŋ fɔn ˈgøːtə (in English generally ˈgɝːtə 28 August 1749 22 March 1832 was a German writer The late 19th century then saw a host of artistic movements, such as academic art, symbolism, impressionism and fauvism among others. Academic art is a style of Painting and Sculpture produced under the influence of European academies or universities "Symbolic" redirects here For other uses see Symbolism (disambiguation and Symbolic (disambiguation. Impressionism was a 19th-century Art movement that began as a loose association of Paris -based Artists exhibiting their art publicly in the 1860s Les Fauves ( French for The Wild Beasts) were a short-lived and loose grouping of early

By the 20th century these pictures were falling apart, shattered not only by new discoveries of relativity by Einstein^[28] and of unseen psychology by Freud,^[29] but also by unprecedented technological development accelerated by the implosion of civilisation in two world wars. Albert Einstein ( German: ˈalbɐt ˈaɪ̯nʃtaɪ̯n; English: ˈælbɝt ˈaɪnstaɪn (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955 was a German -born theoretical Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded The history of twentieth century art is a narrative of endless possibilities and the search for new standards, each being torn down in succession by the next. Thus the parameters of Impressionism, Expressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism, etc cannot be maintained very much beyond the time of their invention. Impressionism was a 19th-century Art movement that began as a loose association of Paris -based Artists exhibiting their art publicly in the 1860s Expressionism is the tendency of an artist to distort reality for an Emotional effect it is a subjective art form Les Fauves ( French for The Wild Beasts) were a short-lived and loose grouping of early Cubism was a 20th century Avant-garde Art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European For other meanings see Dada (disambiguation DaDa is a Concept album by Alice Cooper, released Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early-1920s and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members Increasing global interaction during this time saw an equivalent influence of other cultures into Western art, such as Pablo Picasso being influenced by African sculpture. Globalization (or globalisation) in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth Japanese woodblock prints (which had themselves been influenced by Western Renaissance draftsmanship) had an immense influence on Impressionism and subsequent development. Later, African sculptures were taken up by Picasso and to some extent by Matisse. Henri Matisse (31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954 was a French Artist, known for his use of Colour and his fluid brilliant and original draughtsmanship Similarly, the west has had huge impacts on Eastern art in 19th and 20th century, with originally western ideas like Communism and Post-Modernism exerting powerful influence on artistic styles. Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based Postmodernism literally means 'after the modernist movement' While " Modern " itself refers to something "related to the present" the movement of modernism

Modernism, the idealistic search for truth, gave way in the latter half of the 20th century to a realization of its unattainability. Relativity was accepted as an unavoidable truth, which led to the period of contemporary art and postmodern criticism, where cultures of the world and of history are seen as changing forms, which can be appreciated and drawn from only with irony. Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. This is a list of Postmodern literary critics. A Gloria E Anzaldúa Paul Auster Furthermore the separation of cultures is increasingly blurred and some argue it is now more appropriate to think in terms of a global culture, rather than regional cultures.

Characteristics

Art tends to facilitate intuitive rather than rational understanding, and is usually consciously created with this intention. Fine art intentionally serves no other purpose. Fine art is any Art form developed primarily for Aesthetics rather than Utility. As a result of this impetus, works of art are elusive, refractive to attempts at classification, because they can be appreciated in more than one way, and are often susceptible to many different interpretations. In the case of Gericault's Raft of the Medusa, special knowledge concerning the shipwreck that the painting depicts is not a prerequisite to appreciating it, but allows the appreciation of Gericault's political intentions in the piece. Théodore Géricault ( September 26, 1791 &ndash January 26, 1824) was an important French painter and lithographer known for The Raft of the Medusa (Le Radeau de la Méduse is a work by the French painter Théodore Géricault, and one of the icons of French Romanticism. Even art that superficially depicts a mundane event or object, may invite reflection upon elevated themes.

Traditionally, the highest achievements of art demonstrate a high level of ability or fluency within a medium. This characteristic might be considered a point of contention, since many modern artists (most notably, conceptual artists) do not themselves create the works they conceive, or do not even create the work in a conventional, demonstrative sense. Art has a transformative capacity: confers particularly appealing or aesthetically satisfying structures or forms upon an original set of unrelated, passive constituents.

Skill and craft

Adam. See also Adam and Eve Adam ( Hebrew: אָדָם was according to a literal interpretation of Genesis, the first man created by Detail from Michelangelo's fresco in the Cappella Sistina (1511)

Art can connote a sense of trained ability or mastery of a medium. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Two biographies were published of him during his lifetime One of them by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that he was the pinnacle of all Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina is the best-known Chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. In the Arts media (plural of Medium) are the materials and techniques used by an Artist to produce a work Art can also simply refer to the developed and efficient use of a language to convey meaning with immediacy and or depth. A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them Art is an act of expressing our feelings, thoughts, and observations. There is an understanding that is reached with the material as a result of handling it, which facilitates one's thought processes.

A common view is that the epithet “art”, particular in its elevated sense, requires a certain level of creative expertise by the artist, whether this be a demonstration of technical ability or an originality in stylistic approach such as in the plays of Shakespeare, or a combination of these two. William Shakespeare ( baptised Traditionally skill of execution was viewed as a quality inseparable from art and thus necessary for its success; for Leonardo da Vinci, art, neither more nor less than his other endeavors, was a manifestation of skill. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( April 15 1452 – May 2 1519 was an Italian Polymath, having been a scientist Mathematician, Engineer Rembrandt's work, now praised for its ephemeral virtues, was most admired by his contemporaries for its virtuosity. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15 1606 &ndash October 4 1669 was a Dutch painter and etcher. At the turn of the 20th century, the adroit performances of John Singer Sargent were alternately admired and viewed with skepticism for their manual fluency, yet at nearly the same time the artist who would become the era's most recognized and peripatetic iconoclast, Pablo Picasso, was completing a traditional academic training at which he excelled. John Singer Sargent (January 12 1856 &ndash April 14 1925 was the most successful portrait painter of his era During his career he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso (October 25 1881 &ndash April 8 1973

A common contemporary criticism of some modern art occurs along the lines of objecting to the apparent lack of skill or ability required in the production of the artistic object. History of Modern art Roots in the 19th century Although modern Sculpture and Architecture are reckoned to have emerged at the end of the nineteenth In conceptual art, Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain" is among the first examples of pieces wherein the artist used found objects ("ready-made") and exercised no traditionally recognised set of skills. Marcel Duchamp (maʀsɛl dyˈʃɑ̃ (28 July 1887 &ndash 2 October 1968 was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist Tracey Emin's My Bed, or Damien Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living follow this example and also manipulate the mass media. Tracey Emin RA (born 3 July, 1963) is an English Artist of Turkish Cypriot origin one of the group known as Britartists Damien Hirst (born 7 June 1965 is an English artist and the most prominent of the group that has been dubbed " Young British Artists " (or YBAs "Popular press" redirects here note that the University of Wisconsin Press publishes under the imprint "The Popular Press" Emin slept (and engaged in other activities) in her bed before placing the result in a gallery as work of art. Hirst came up with the conceptual design for the artwork but has left most of the eventual creation of many works to employed artisans. Hirst's celebrity is founded entirely on his ability to produce shocking concepts. The actual production in many conceptual and contemporary works of art is a matter of assembly of found objects. However there are many modernist and contemporary artists who continue to excel in the skills of drawing and painting and in creating hands on works of art.

Value judgment

Aboriginal hollow log tombs. National Gallery, Canberra, Australia. Canberra ( is the capital city of Australia With a population of over 340000 it is Australia's largest inland City. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics.

Somewhat in relation to the above, the word art is also used to apply judgments of value, as in such expressions like "that meal was a work of art" (the cook is an artist), or "the art of deception," (the highly attained level of skill of the deceiver is praised). It is this use of the word as a measure of high quality and high value that gives the term its flavor of subjectivity.

Making judgments of value requires a basis for criticism. At the simplest level, a way to determine whether the impact of the object on the senses meets the criteria to be considered art, is whether it is perceived to be attractive or repulsive. Though perception is always colored by experience, and is necessarily subjective, it is commonly taken that - that which is not aesthetically satisfying in some fashion cannot be art. However, "good" art is not always or even regularly aesthetically appealing to a majority of viewers. In other words, an artist's prime motivation need not be the pursuit of the aesthetic. Also, art often depicts terrible images made for social, moral, or thought-provoking reasons. For example, Francisco Goya's painting depicting the Spanish shootings of 3rd of May 1808, is a graphic depiction of a firing squad executing several pleading civilians. Events 1491 - Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptised by Portuguese missionaries adopting the baptismal name of João Year 1808 ( MDCCCVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Yet at the same time, the horrific imagery demonstrates Goya's keen artistic ability in composition and execution and produces fitting social and political outrage. Thus, the debate continues as to what mode of aesthetic satisfaction, if any, is required to define 'art'.

The assumption of new values or the rebellion against accepted notions of what is aesthetically superior need not occur concurrently with a complete abandonment of the pursuit of that which is aesthetically appealing. Indeed, the reverse is often true, that in the revision of what is popularly conceived of as being aesthetically appealing, allows for a re-invigoration of aesthetic sensibility, and a new appreciation for the standards of art itself. Countless schools have proposed their own ways to define quality, yet they all seem to agree in at least one point: once their aesthetic choices are accepted, the value of the work of art is determined by its capacity to transcend the limits of its chosen medium in order to strike some universal chord by the rarity of the skill of the artist or in its accurate reflection in what is termed the zeitgeist. Zeitgeist ( pronounced) is a German language expression literally translated Zeit time; Geist spirit, meaning "the

Communication

Art is often intended to appeal and connect with human emotion. It can arouse aesthetic or moral feelings, and can be understood as a way of communicating these feelings. Aesthetics or esthetics ( also spelled æsthetics) is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values sometimes called Morality (from the Latin la moralitas "manner character proper behavior" has three principal meanings Artists express something so that their audience is aroused to some extent, but they do not have to do so consciously. The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of Activities to do with creating Art, practicing the Arts and/or demonstrating Art explores what is commonly termed as the human condition that is essentially what it is to be human. The human condition encompasses all of the Experience of being Human. Effective art often brings about some new insight concerning the human condition either singly or en-mass, which is not necessarily always positive, or necessarily widens the boundaries of collective human ability. The degree of skill that the artist has, will affect their ability to trigger an emotional response and thereby provide new insights, the ability to manipulate them at will shows exemplary skill and determination.

See also

• List of basic art topics
• Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects

Notes

Bibliography

• Arthur Danto, The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art. Arthur Coleman Danto (born 1924 is an American Art critic, and Professor of Philosophy. 2003
• Dana Arnold and Margaret Iverson (eds. ) Art and Thought. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 2003.
• Michael Ann Holly and Keith Moxey (eds. ) Art History and Visual Studies. Yale University Press, 2002.
• John Whitehead. Grasping for the Wind. 2001
• Noel Carroll, Theories of Art Today. 2000
• Evelyn Hatcher, ed. Art as Culture: An Introduction to the Anthropology of Art. 1999
• Catherine de Zegher (ed. ). Inside the Visible. MIT Press, 1996.
• Nina, Felshin, ed. But is it Art? 1995
• Stephen Davies, Definitions of Art. 1991
• Oscar Wilde, "Intentions".
• Jean Robertson and Craig McDaniel, "Themes of Contemporary Art, Visual Art after 1980. " 2005

Further reading

• Augros, Robert M. , Stanciu, George N. , The New Story of Science: mind and the universe, Lake Bluff, Ill. : Regnery Gateway, c1984. ISBN 0895268337 (this book has significant material on Art and Science)
• Richard Wollheim, Art and its Objects
• Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols
• Benedetto Croce, Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic, 1902
• Władysław Tatarkiewicz, A History of Six Ideas: an Essay in Aesthetics, translated from the Polish by Christopher Kasparek, The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1980. Richard Arthur Wollheim ( 5 May, 1923 &ndash 4 November, 2003) was a British Philosopher noted for original work on Benedetto Croce ( February 25, 1866 – November 20, 1952) was an Italian critic idealist Philosopher, and Władysław Tatarkiewicz tatarˈkʲevitʂ}} Warsaw, April 3, 1886 &ndash April 4, 1980, Warsaw) was a Polish Christopher Kasparek (born 1945 is a Physician, Writer and Polish -to- English translator.
• Leo Tolstoy, What Is Art?, 1897
• Kleiner, Gardner, Mamiya and Tansey (2004). Leo Tolstoy, or Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy ( –) (Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й, was a Russian Writer widely regarded What Is Art? (Что такое искусство? takoye iskusstvo?'' 1897) is a book by Leo Tolstoy in which he argues against numerous aesthetic Art Through the Ages, Twelfth Edition (2 volumes). Wadsworth. ISBN 0-534-64095-8 (vol 1) and ISBN 0-534-64091-5 (vol 2).  

External links

• Art and Play from the Dictionary of the History of ideas
• In-depth directory of art
• Art and Artist Files in the Smithsonian Libraries Collection (2005) Smithsonian Digital Libraries
• Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) - online collections from UK museums, galleries, universities
• Artforum magazine - online art reviews - also previews of upcoming exhibitions
• Article on the meaning of Art in Ancient India on the website of Frontline
• The Definition of Art entry at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy by Thomas Adajian