What is art?

  • (noun): The products of human creativity; works of art collectively.
    Example: "An art exhibition"; "a fine collection of art"
    Synonyms: fine art
    See also — Additional definitions below

Art

Art is a diverse range of human activities and the products of those activities; this article focuses primarily on the visual arts, which includes the 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 are usually not for 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. Until the 17th century, art referred to any skill or mastery and was not differentiated from crafts or sciences, but in modern usage the fine arts, where aesthetic considerations are paramount, are distinguished from acquired skills in general, and the decorative or applied arts.

Read more about Art.

Some articles on art:

Post-Breton Surrealism
... Some art historians suggest that World War II effectively disbanded the movement ... However, art historian Sarane Alexandrian (1970) states, "the death of André Breton in 1966 marked the end of Surrealism as an organized movement." There have also been attempts to tie the obituary of ... The former curator of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Michael Bell, has called this style "veristic Surrealism", which depicts with meticulous clarity and great ...
Nicolas Poussin - Works
... apart from the popular tendency toward the decorative in French art of his time ... is coupled with conscious reference to the art of classical antiquity as the standard of excellence ... John on Patmos (1640), (Art Institute of Chicago) and Landscape with a Roman Road (1648), (Dulwich Picture Gallery) ...
Weimar Culture - The Arts
... cultural contributions in the fields of literature, art, architecture, music, dance, drama, and the new medium of the motion picture ... German visual art, music, and literature were all strongly influenced by German Expressionism at the start of the Weimar Republic ... Kirkus Reviews remarked upon how much Weimar art was political fiercely experimental, iconoclastic and left-leaning, spiritually hostile to big business and bourgeois society and at daggers ...
Art, Class, and Value
... Art is sometimes perceived as belonging exclusively to higher social classes ... 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 ... Petersburg illustrate this view such vast collections of art are the preserve of the rich, of governments and wealthy organizations ...

More definitions of "art":

  • (noun): A superior skill that you can learn by study and practice and observation.
    Example: "The art of conversation"; "it's quite an art"
    Synonyms: artistry, prowess
  • (noun): The creation of beautiful or significant things.
    Example: "Art does not need to be innovative to be good"; "I was never any good at art"; "he said that architecture is the art of wasting space beautifully"
    Synonyms: artistic creation, artistic production

Famous quotes containing the word art:

    Great art is never produced for its own sake. It is too difficult to be worth the effort.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    The finest works of art are those in which there is the least matter. The closer expression comes to thought, the more the word clings to the idea and disappears, the more beautiful the work of art.
    Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)

    The poet needs a ground in popular tradition on which he may work, and which, again, may restrain his art within the due temperance. It holds him to the people, supplies a foundation for his edifice; and, in furnishing so much work done to his hand, leaves him at leisure, and in full strength for the audacities of his imagination.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)