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{{Short description|Creative work to evoke aesthetic response}}
{{About|the general concept|the group of creative disciplines|The arts|the subcategory appealing visually|Visual arts|other uses}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}

[[File:Art-portrait-collage 2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|[[Visual artwork]]s: (clockwise from upper left) an 1887 [[self-portrait]] by [[Vincent van Gogh]]; a female ancestor figure by a [[Chokwe people|Chokwe]] artist; detail from ''[[The Birth of Venus]]'' ({{c.|1484|lk=no}}–1486) by [[Sandro Botticelli]]; and an [[Okinawan people|Okinawan]] [[Shisa]] lion]]
'''Art''' is a diverse range of [[culture|cultural]] activity centered around [[works of art|''works'']] utilizing [[Creativity|creative]] or [[imagination|imaginative]] talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sparshott |first=Francis Edward |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZuX_AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3 |title=The Theory of the Arts |date=1982 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-5701-2 |language=en|page=2}}</ref> generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, technical proficiency, or [[beauty]].<ref name="OD">{{cite web |url=https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/art |title=Art: definition |publisher=Oxford Dictionaries |access-date=25 December 2015 |archive-date=1 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160901233826/https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/art |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="MW">{{cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/art |title=art |publisher=Merriam-Websters Dictionary |access-date=25 December 2015 |archive-date=30 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190830205257/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/art |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Conceptual Art {{!}} Definition of Conceptual Art by Oxford Dictionary on Lexico.com also meaning of Conceptual Art|url=https://www.lexico.com/definition/conceptual_art|access-date=2021-03-18|website=Lexico Dictionaries {{!}} English|language=en|archive-date=14 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414033831/https://www.lexico.com/definition/conceptual_art|url-status=dead}}</ref>

There is no generally agreed definition of what constitutes ''art'',<ref>{{cite book |author=Stephen Davies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6peJnXr4L5gC |title=Definitions of Art |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-8014-9794-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Artworks: Definition, Meaning, Value |author=Robert Stecker |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-271-01596-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/theoriesofarttod0000unse |title=Theories of Art Today |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-299-16354-9 |editor=Noël Carroll |url-access=registration}}</ref> and its interpretation has varied greatly throughout history and across cultures. In the [[Western world|Western tradition]], the three classical branches of [[visual art]] are [[painting]], [[sculpture]], and [[architecture]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q8rvdsxGokwC&q=Vasari+lives+of+painters,+sculptors+and+painters|title=The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects|first=Giorgio|last=Vasari|date=18 December 2007|publisher=Random House Publishing Group|isbn=978-0307432391|access-date=8 November 2020|archive-date=14 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414015308/https://books.google.com/books?id=q8rvdsxGokwC&q=Vasari+lives+of+painters,+sculptors+and+painters|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Theatre]], [[dance]], and other [[performing arts]], as well as [[literature]], [[music]], [[film]] and other media such as [[interactive media]], are included in a broader definition of "[[the arts]]".<ref name="OD" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Art, n. 1 |work=OED Online |date=December 2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://www.oed.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080111125659/https://www.oed.com/ |archive-date=11 January 2008 |access-date=26 February 2012}}</ref> Until the 17th century, ''art'' referred to any skill or mastery and was not differentiated from [[craft]]s or [[sciences]]. In modern usage after the 17th century, where aesthetic considerations are paramount, the [[fine art]]s are separated and distinguished from acquired skills in general, such as the [[decorative arts|decorative]] or [[applied arts]].

The nature of art and related concepts, such as creativity and [[Aesthetic interpretation|interpretation]], are explored in a branch of [[philosophy]] known as [[aesthetics]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kennick |first=W. E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aQFDSQAACAAJ |title=Art and Philosophy: Readings in Aesthetics |pages=xi–xiii|year=1979 |location=New York |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-0-312-05391-8 |oclc=1064878696 |language=en}}</ref> The resulting artworks are studied in the professional fields of [[art criticism]] and the [[art history|history of art]].

==Overview==
In the perspective of the history of art,<ref name="britannica.com">{{cite web |title=Art |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/630806/art |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090401162058/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/630806/art |archive-date=1 April 2009 |access-date=6 July 2012 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref> artistic works have existed for almost as long as humankind: from early [[pre-historic art|prehistoric art]] to [[contemporary art]]; however, some theorists think that the typical concept of "artistic works" does not fit well outside modern Western societies.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Elkins |first=James |date=December 1995|title=Art History and Images That Are Not Art (with previous bibliography)|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3046136 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210818132943/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3046136 |archive-date=18 August 2021|journal=The Art Bulletin |volume=77 |issue=4 |pages=553–571 |quote=Non-Western images are not well described in terms of art, and neither are medieval paintings that were made in the absence of humanist ideas of artistic value |doi=10.2307/3046136 |jstor=3046136 |issn=0004-3079|url-access=subscription }}</ref> One early sense of the definition of ''art'' is closely related to the older Latin meaning, which roughly translates to "skill" or "craft", as associated with words such as "artisan". English words derived from this meaning include ''artifact'', ''artificial'', ''artifice'', ''medical arts'', and ''military arts''. However, there are many other colloquial uses of the word, all with some relation to its [[etymology]].
[[File:Teke bottle.JPG|thumb|upright|20th-century bottle, [[Twa]] peoples, Rwanda. Artistic works may serve practical functions, in addition to their decorative value.]]

Over time, philosophers like [[Plato]], [[Aristotle]], [[Socrates]] and [[Kant|Immanuel Kant]], among others, questioned the meaning of art.<ref>Gilbert, Kuhn pp. 73–96</ref> Several dialogues in Plato tackle questions about art, while Socrates says that poetry is inspired by the [[muses]] and is not rational. He speaks approvingly of this, and other forms of divine madness (drunkenness, eroticism, and dreaming) in the ''[[Phaedrus (Plato)|Phaedrus]] ''(265a–c), and yet in the ''[[Republic (Plato)|''Republic'']]'' wants to outlaw [[Homer]]'s great poetic art, and laughter as well. In ''[[Ion (dialogue)|Ion]]'', Socrates gives no hint of the disapproval of Homer that he expresses in the ''Republic''. The dialogue ''Ion'' suggests that Homer's ''[[Iliad]]'' functioned in the ancient Greek world as the Bible does today in the modern Christian world: as divinely inspired literary art that can provide moral guidance, if only it can be properly interpreted.<ref>Gilbert, Kuhn pp. 40–72</ref>

With regards to the literary art and the musical arts, Aristotle considered [[epic poetry]], tragedy, comedy, [[Dithyramb]]ic poetry and music to be [[Mimesis|mimetic]] or imitative art, each varying in imitation by medium, object, and manner.<ref>Aristotle, ''Poetics'' I 1447a</ref> For example, music imitates with the media of rhythm and harmony, whereas dance imitates with rhythm alone, and poetry with language. The forms also differ in their object of imitation. Comedy, for instance, is a dramatic imitation of men worse than average; whereas tragedy imitates men slightly better than average. Lastly, the forms differ in their manner of imitation—through narrative or character, through change or no change, and through drama or no drama.<ref>Aristotle, ''Poetics'' III</ref> Aristotle believed that imitation is natural to mankind and constitutes one of mankind's advantages over animals.<ref>Aristotle, ''Poetics'' IV</ref>

The more recent and specific sense of the word ''art'' as an abbreviation for ''creative art'' or ''fine art'' emerged in the early 17th century.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Languages |first=Oxford |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/shorter-oxford-english-dictionary-9780199206872?cc=in&lang=en |title=Shorter Oxford English Dictionary |year= 2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-920687-2 |location=Oxford, New York |pages=119–121 |language=en |oclc=170973920 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220303050203/https://global.oup.com/academic/product/shorter-oxford-english-dictionary-9780199206872?cc=in&lang=en |archive-date=3 March 2022|edition=6th }}</ref> Fine art refers to a skill used to express the artist's creativity, or to engage the audience's aesthetic sensibilities, or to draw the audience towards consideration of more refined or ''finer'' works of art.

Within this latter sense, the word ''art'' may refer to several things: (i) a study of a creative skill, (ii) a process of using the creative skill, (iii) a product of the creative skill, or (iv) the audience's experience with the creative skill. The creative arts (''art'' as discipline) are a collection of disciplines which produce ''artworks'' (''art'' as objects) that are compelled by a personal drive (art as activity) and convey a message, mood, or symbolism for the perceiver to interpret (art as experience). Art is something that stimulates an individual's thoughts, emotions, beliefs, or ideas through the senses. Works of art can be explicitly made for this purpose or interpreted on the basis of images or objects. For some scholars, such as Kant, the sciences and the arts could be distinguished by taking science as representing the domain of knowledge and the arts as representing the domain of the freedom of artistic expression.<ref>Gilbert, Kuhn pp. 287–326</ref>
[[File:Oval basin or dish with subject from Amadis of Gaul MET DP320592.jpg|thumb|Back of a Renaissance oval basin or dish, in the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]]]

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 may be considered [[commercial art]] instead of fine art. On the other hand, crafts and design are sometimes considered [[applied art]]. 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.<ref>David Novitz, ''The Boundaries of Art'', 1992</ref> 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 [[emotion]]s. The purpose may also be seemingly nonexistent.

The nature of art has been described by philosopher [[Richard Wollheim]] as "one of the most elusive of the traditional problems of human culture".<ref>Richard Wollheim, ''[[iarchive:artitsobjectswit0000woll|Art and its objects]]'', p. 1, 2nd ed., 1980, Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|0-521-29706-0}}</ref> Art has been defined as a vehicle for the expression or communication of emotions and ideas, a means for exploring and appreciating [[Formalism (art)|formal elements]] for their own sake, and as ''mimesis'' or [[Representation (arts)|representation]]. Art as mimesis has deep roots in the philosophy of Aristotle.<ref name=Levinson5/> [[Leo Tolstoy]] identified art as a use of indirect means to communicate from one person to another.<ref name="Levinson5">Jerrold Levinson, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=-26tL4shIPkC&pg=PA5 The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics]'', Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 5. {{ISBN|0-19-927945-4}}</ref> [[Benedetto Croce]] and [[R. G. Collingwood]] advanced the [[Idealism|idealist]] view that art expresses emotions, and that the work of art therefore essentially exists in the mind of the creator.<ref>Jerrold Levinson, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=-26tL4shIPkC&pg=PA16 The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics]'', Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 16. {{ISBN|0-19-927945-4}}</ref><ref>R.G. Collingwood's view, expressed in ''The Principles of Art'', is considered in Wollheim, op. cit. 1980 pp. 36–43</ref> The theory of art as form has its roots in the philosophy of Kant, and was developed in the early 20th century by [[Roger Fry]] and [[Clive Bell]]. More recently, thinkers influenced by [[Martin Heidegger]] have interpreted art as the means by which a community develops for itself a medium for self-expression and interpretation.<ref>[[Martin Heidegger]], "The Origin of the Work of Art", in ''Poetry, Language, Thought'', (Harper Perennial, 2001). See also [[Maurice Merleau-Ponty]], "Cézanne's Doubt" in ''The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader'', Galen Johnson and Michael Smith (eds), (Northwestern University Press, 1994) and [[John Russon]], ''Bearing Witness to Epiphany'', (State University of New York Press, 2009).</ref> [[George Dickie (philosopher)|George Dickie]] has offered an [[institutional theory of art]] that defines a work of art as any artifact upon which a qualified person or persons acting on behalf of the social institution commonly referred to as "the [[art world]]" has conferred "the status of candidate for appreciation".<ref>W. E. Kennick, ''[[iarchive:artphilosophyrea0000kenn n7x1|Art and Philosophy: Readings in Aesthetics]].'' New York: St. Martin's Press, 1979, p. 89. {{ISBN|0-312-05391-6}}.</ref> Larry Shiner has described fine art as "not an essence or a fate but something we have made. Art as we have generally understood it is a European invention barely two hundred years old."<ref>Shiner 2003. ''[[The Invention of Art: A Cultural History]].'' The University of Chicago Press Books. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_d5ces9NEgkC&pg=PA3 p. 3]. {{ISBN|978-0-226-75342-3}}</ref>

Art may be characterized in terms of mimesis (its representation of reality), narrative (storytelling), expression, communication of emotion, or other qualities. During the [[Romanticism|Romantic period]], art came to be seen as "a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science".<ref>{{cite web |author=Gombrich, Ernst. |url=https://www.gombrich.co.uk/showdoc.php?id=68 |title=Press statement on The Story of Art |year=2005 |website=The Gombrich Archive |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006212330/https://www.gombrich.co.uk/showdoc.php?id=68 |archive-date=6 October 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==History==
{{Main|History of art}}

[[File:Loewenmensch1.jpg|thumb|left|upright=.8|''{{lang|de|[[Löwenmensch]]}} figurine'', Germany, between 35,000 and 41,000 years old. One of the oldest-known examples of an artistic representation and the oldest confirmed statue ever discovered.<ref>"Lion man takes pride of place as oldest statue" by Rex Dalton, ''Nature'' 425, 7 (4 September 2003) doi:10.1038/425007a also [http://www.nature.com/news/2003/030904/full/news030901-6.html Nature News 4 September 2003] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160318075014/http://www.nature.com/news/2003/030904/full/news030901-6.html |date=18 March 2016 }}</ref>]]

A shell engraved by ''[[Homo erectus]]'' was determined to be between 430,000 and 540,000 years old.<ref name="homoerectus">{{cite web |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22429983.200-shell-art-made-300000-years-before-humans-evolved.html |title=Shell 'Art' Made 300,000 Years Before Humans Evolved |date=3 December 2014 |website=[[New Scientist]] |publisher=[[Reed Business Information]] Ltd |access-date=24 August 2017 |archive-date=6 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150606151439/https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22429983.200-shell-art-made-300000-years-before-humans-evolved.html |url-status=live }}</ref> A set of eight 130,000 years old white-tailed eagle talons bear cut marks and abrasion that indicate manipulation by neanderthals, possibly for using it as jewelry.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/science-neanderthal-eagle-claw-necklace-krapina-croatia-02588.html|title=130,000-Year-Old Neanderthal 'Eagle Claw Necklace' Found in Croatia|work=Sci-News.com|date=11 March 2015|access-date=7 May 2021|archive-date=14 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414034753/https://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/science-neanderthal-eagle-claw-necklace-krapina-croatia-02588.html|url-status=live}}</ref> A series of tiny, drilled snail shells about 75,000 years old—were discovered in a South African cave.<ref>{{cite web| last = Radford| first = Tim |url = https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/apr/16/artsandhumanities.arts| title = "World's Oldest Jewellery Found in Cave"| date = 16 April 2004| access-date = 18 January 2008| archive-date = 8 February 2008| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080208180701/https://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/artsandhumanities/story/0,12241,1193237,00.html| url-status = live |work = Guardian Unlimited}}</ref> Containers that may have been used to hold paints have been found dating as far back as 100,000 years.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/science/14paint.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/science/14paint.html |archive-date=2022-01-01 |url-access=limited |work=The New York Times |title=African Cave Yields Evidence of a Prehistoric Paint Factory |date=13 October 2011}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

The oldest piece of art found in Europe is the [[Riesenhirschknochen der Einhornhöhle]], dating back 51,000 years and made by Neanderthals.

Sculptures, [[cave paintings]], rock paintings and [[petroglyphs]] from the [[Upper Paleolithic]] dating to roughly 40,000 years ago have been found,<ref>{{cite journal |title=World's oldest art found in Indonesian cave |url=https://www.nature.com/news/world-s-oldest-art-found-in-indonesian-cave-1.16100 |journal=Nature |date=8 October 2014 |doi=10.1038/nature.2014.16100 |last1=Cyranoski |first1=David |s2cid=189968118 |access-date=12 October 2014 |archive-date=11 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141011012358/https://www.nature.com/news/world-s-oldest-art-found-in-indonesian-cave-1.16100 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> but the precise meaning of such art is often disputed because so little is known about the cultures that produced them.

The first undisputed sculptures and similar art pieces, like the [[Venus of Hohle Fels]], are the numerous objects found at the [[Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura]] UNESCO [[World Heritage Site]], where the oldest non-stationary works of human art yet discovered were found, in the form of carved animal and humanoid figurines, in addition to the oldest musical instruments unearthed so far, with the artifacts dating between 43,000 and 35,000 BC, so being the first centre of human art.<ref name = "unesco">{{cite web |url = http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/229 |title = Place Stanislas, Place de la Carrière and Place d'Alliance in Nancy |website = UNESCO World Heritage Centre |publisher = United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization |access-date = 17 October 2021 |archive-date = 1 January 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060101181304/http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/229 |url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/oldest-figurative-art-now-world-treasure-180964035/ | title=World's Oldest Figurative Art is Now an Official World Treasure | access-date=24 December 2022 | archive-date=5 December 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205185627/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/oldest-figurative-art-now-world-treasure-180964035/ | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-18196349 | title=Earliest music instruments found | work=BBC News | date=24 May 2012 | archive-date=11 April 2022 | access-date=24 December 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220411122409/https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-18196349 | url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfnm|Hodge|2017|1p=12|Fortenberry|2017|2pp=1 & 2}}

[[File:Lascaux painting.jpg|thumb|right|[[Cave paintings]], Lascaux, France, c. 17,000 BCE]]

Many great traditions in art have a foundation in the art of one of the great ancient civilizations: [[Ancient Egypt]], [[Mesopotamia]], [[History of Iran|Persia]], India, China, Ancient Greece, Rome, as well as [[Inca civilization|Inca]], [[Maya civilization|Maya]], and [[Olmec]]. Each of these centers of early civilization developed a unique and characteristic style in its art. Because of the size and duration of these civilizations, more of their art works have survived and more of their influence has been transmitted to other cultures and later times. Some also have 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.<ref>Gombrich, pp. 83, 75–115, 132–141, 147–155, 163, 627.</ref>

In [[Byzantine art|Byzantine]] and [[Medieval art]] of the Western Middle Ages, much art focused on the expression of subjects about biblical and religious culture, and used styles that showed the higher glory of a heavenly world, such as the use of gold in the background of paintings, or glass in mosaics or windows, which also presented figures in idealized, patterned (flat) forms. Nevertheless, a classical realist tradition persisted in small Byzantine works, and realism steadily grew in the art of [[Catholic Europe]].<ref>Gombrich, pp. 86–89, 135–141, 143, 179, 185.</ref>

[[Renaissance art]] had a greatly increased emphasis on the realistic depiction of the material world, and the place of humans in it, reflected in the corporeality of the human body, and development of a systematic method of [[graphical perspective]] to depict recession in a three-dimensional picture space.<ref name="Nichols2012">{{cite book|author=Tom Nichols|title=Renaissance Art: A Beginner's Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dzMRpHo0QHUC|year= 2012|publisher=Oneworld Publications|isbn=978-1-78074-178-9|access-date=26 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225449/https://books.google.com/books?id=dzMRpHo0QHUC|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:Tugra Mahmuds II.gif|right|thumb|The stylized signature of [[Sultan]] [[Mahmud II]] of the [[Ottoman Empire]] was written in [[Islamic calligraphy]]. It reads "Mahmud Khan son of Abdulhamid is forever victorious".]]
[[File:Great Mosque of Kairouan Panorama - Grande Mosquée de Kairouan Panorama.jpg|thumb|The [[Great Mosque of Kairouan]] in Tunisia, also called the Mosque of Uqba, is one of the most significant and best preserved artistic and architectural examples of early great mosques. Dated in its present state from the 9th century, it is the ancestor and model of all the mosques in the western Islamic lands.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IaM9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA104|title=The Genius of Arab Civilization: Source of Renaissance|year= 1983|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=978-0262081368|access-date=20 June 2015|archive-date=23 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151123155340/https://books.google.com/books?id=IaM9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA104|url-status=live}}</ref>]]

In the east, [[Islamic art]]'s rejection of [[iconography]] led to emphasis on [[Islamic geometric patterns|geometric patterns]], [[Islamic calligraphy|calligraphy]], and [[Islamic architecture|architecture]].<ref>Gombrich, pp. 127–128</ref> Further east, religion dominated artistic styles and forms too. India and Tibet saw emphasis on painted sculptures and dance, while religious painting borrowed many conventions from sculpture and tended to bright contrasting colors with emphasis on outlines. China saw the flourishing of many art forms: jade carving, bronzework, pottery (including the stunning [[Terracotta Army]] of [[Emperor Qin]]<ref>Gombrich, pp. 634–635</ref>), poetry, calligraphy, music, painting, drama, fiction, etc. Chinese styles vary greatly from era to era and each one is 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 and colorful, and focus on telling stories via setting and composition.<ref name="Watson1995">{{cite book|author=William Watson|title=The Arts of China 900–1620|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T-v5jUKaCxYC|year=1995|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-09835-8|access-date=26 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225448/https://books.google.com/books?id=T-v5jUKaCxYC|url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref>Gombrich, p. 155, p. 530.</ref>
[[File:Ma Lin Guests.jpg|thumb|Chinese painting by [[Song dynasty]] artist Ma Lin, {{c.|1250|lk=no}}. 24.8&nbsp;× 25.2&nbsp;cm]]

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 [[William Blake|Blake]]'s portrayal of Newton as a divine geometer,<ref name="Moore2010">{{cite book|author=Colin Moore|title=Propaganda Prints: A History of Art in the Service of Social and Political Change|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l0KAlsQ2Yj4C|year= 2010|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-4081-0591-7|page=76|access-date=26 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225447/https://books.google.com/books?id=l0KAlsQ2Yj4C|url-status=live}}</ref> or [[Jacques-Louis David|David]]'s propagandistic paintings. This led to [[Romanticism|Romantic]] rejections of this in favor of pictures of the emotional side and individuality of humans, exemplified in the novels of [[Goethe]]. The late 19th century then saw a host of [[artistic movements]], such as [[academic art]], [[Symbolism (movement)|Symbolism]], [[impressionism]] and [[fauvism]] among others.<ref>Gombrich, pp. 394–395, 519–527,  573–575.</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The Age of Enlightenment An Anthology Prepared for the Enlightenment Book Club|url=https://www.rosenfels.org/The_Age_Of_Enlightenment_Anthology.pdf|access-date=26 May 2018|pages=1–45|archive-date=27 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180527201357/https://www.rosenfels.org/The_Age_Of_Enlightenment_Anthology.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

The history of 20th-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. Increasing [[globalization|global]] interaction during this time saw an equivalent influence of other cultures into Western art. Thus, Japanese woodblock prints (themselves influenced by Western Renaissance draftsmanship) had an immense influence on impressionism and subsequent development. Later, [[African sculpture]]s were taken up by [[Picasso]] and to some extent by [[Matisse]]. Similarly, in the 19th and 20th centuries the West has had huge impacts on Eastern art with originally western ideas like [[Communism]] and [[Post-Modernism]] exerting a powerful influence.<ref>{{cite book|title=The New York Times Book Review|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vwEjAQAAMAAJ|volume=1, 84|year=1979|publisher=The New York Times Company|page=30|access-date=26 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225447/https://books.google.com/books?id=vwEjAQAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Modernism]], the idealistic search for truth, gave way in the latter half of the 20th century to a realization of its unattainability. [[Theodor W. Adorno]] said in 1970, "It is now taken for granted that nothing which concerns art can be taken for granted any more: neither art itself, nor art in relationship to the whole, nor even the right of art to exist."<ref>Adorno, Theodor W., ''Aesthetic Theory'', (1970 in German)</ref> [[Relativism]] was accepted as an unavoidable truth, which led to the period of [[contemporary art]] and [[List of postmodern critics|postmodern criticism]], where cultures of the world and of history are seen as changing forms, which can be appreciated and drawn from only with [[skepticism]] and irony. 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 of regional ones.<ref name="Sangeeta2017">{{cite book|author=Sangeeta|title=Development of Modern Art Criticism in India after Independence: Post Independence Indian Art Criticism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vqs4DwAAQBAJ|year=2017|publisher=Notion Press|isbn=978-1-947697-31-7|access-date=26 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225447/https://books.google.com/books?id=Vqs4DwAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

In ''[[The Origin of the Work of Art]]'', Martin Heidegger, a German philosopher and seminal thinker, describes the essence of art in terms of the concepts of being and truth. He argues that art is not only a way of expressing the element of truth in a culture, but the means of creating it and providing a springboard from which "that which is" can be revealed. Works of art are not merely representations of the way things are, but actually produce a community's shared understanding. Each time a new artwork is added to any culture, the meaning of what it is to exist is inherently changed.

Historically, art and artistic skills and ideas have often been spread through trade. An example of this is the [[Silk Road]], where Hellenistic, Iranian, Indian and Chinese influences could mix. [[Greco-Buddhist art|Greco Buddhist art]] is one of the most vivid examples of this interaction. The meeting of different cultures and worldviews also influenced artistic creation. An example of this is the multicultural port metropolis of [[Trieste]] at the beginning of the 20th century, where James Joyce met writers from Central Europe and the artistic development of New York City as a cultural melting pot.<ref>[[Xinru Liu|Liu, Xinru]] "The Silk Road in World History" (New York 2010), pp. 21.</ref><ref>Veronika Eckl "Vom Leben in Cafés und zwischen Buchdeckeln" In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 17.01.2008; Angelo Ara, Claudio Magris "Triest Eine literarische Hauptstadt Mitteleuropas (Trieste: un'identità di frontiera)" (1987).</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://citymonitor.ai/horizons/how-did-new-york-city-become-centre-western-art-world-2466| title = How did New York City become the centre of the western art world?| date = 26 September 2016| access-date = 15 January 2021| archive-date = 21 January 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210121041530/https://citymonitor.ai/horizons/how-did-new-york-city-become-centre-western-art-world-2466| url-status = live}}</ref>

==Forms, genres, media, and styles==
[[File:Ingres, Napoleon on his Imperial throne.jpg|thumb|''[[Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne]]'' by [[Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres|Ingres]] (French, 1806), oil on canvas]]
[[File:Pinball Machine Art.jpg|thumb|Pinball machine art that is an illustration of a tiger face.]]
{{Main|The arts}}

The creative arts are often divided into more specific categories, typically along perceptually distinguishable categories such as [[Art medium|media]], genre, [[Art style|styles]], and form.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Walton |first1=Kendall L. |author-link=Kendall Walton|title=Categories of Art |journal=The Philosophical Review |date=1 January 1970 |volume=79 |issue=3 |pages=334–67 |doi=10.2307/2183933 |jstor=2183933}}. Walton distinguishes between paintings and sculptures, but he also distinguishes further between sub-categories, such as cubist paintings and paintings in the style of Cezanne, classical sonatas and music in the style of late Beethoven.</ref> ''Art form'' refers to the [[elements of art]] that are independent of its interpretation or significance. It covers the methods adopted by the artist and the physical [[Composition (visual arts)|composition]] of the artwork, primarily non-semantic aspects of the work (i.e., [[figurae]]),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Monelle |first1=Raymond |title=Linguistics and Semiotics in Music |year= 1992 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-3718652099 |page=202 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nMtQAwAAQBAJ&q=figurae&pg=PA202 |access-date=8 November 2020 |archive-date=14 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414015304/https://books.google.com/books?id=nMtQAwAAQBAJ&q=figurae&pg=PA202 |url-status=live }}</ref> such as [[Color theory|color]], [[Contour drawing|contour]], [[Fourth dimension in art|dimension]], [[Art medium|medium]], [[melody]], [[Negative space|space]], [[Texture (visual arts)|texture]], and [[Lightness|value]]. Form may also include [[Design principles]], such as arrangement, [[Formal balance|balance]], [[Contrast (vision)|contrast]], [[Emphasis (typography)|emphasis]], [[harmony]], [[Hierarchical proportion|proportion]], [[Principles of grouping|proximity]], and rhythm.<ref name="Belton">{{cite book |last1=Belton |first1=Robert J. |title=Art History: A Preliminary Handbook |chapter=The Elements of Art |date=1996 |chapter-url=https://fccs.ok.ubc.ca/about/links/resources/arthistory/elements.html |access-date=26 February 2017 |archive-date=27 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170227062345/https://fccs.ok.ubc.ca/about/links/resources/arthistory/elements.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In general there are three schools of philosophy regarding art, focusing respectively on form, content, and context.<ref name="Belton"/> Extreme [[Formalism (art)|Formalism]] is the view that all aesthetic properties of art are formal (that is, part of the art form). Philosophers almost universally reject this view and hold that the properties and aesthetics of art extend beyond materials, techniques, and form.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Xu |first1=Min |last2=Deng |first2=Guifang |title=Against Zangwill's Extreme Formalism About Inorganic Nature |journal=Philosophia |date=2 December 2014 |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=249–57 |doi=10.1007/s11406-014-9575-1 |s2cid=55901464 |url=https://xy.cmsproxy.sysu.edu.cn/pub/hkmacc/docs/2014-12/20141215194213014875.pdf |access-date=26 February 2017 |archive-date=27 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170227063746/https://xy.cmsproxy.sysu.edu.cn/pub/hkmacc/docs/2014-12/20141215194213014875.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Unfortunately, there is little consensus on terminology for these informal properties. Some authors refer to subject matter and content—i.e., [[denotation]]s and [[connotation]]s—while others prefer terms like [[Meaning (semiotics)|meaning]] and significance.<ref name="Belton"/>

Extreme Intentionalism holds that [[authorial intent]] plays a decisive role in the meaning of a work of art, conveying the content or essential main idea, while all other interpretations can be discarded.<ref name="Livingston">{{cite journal |last1=Livingston |first1=Paisley |title=Intentionalism in Aesthetics |journal=New Literary History |date=1998 |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=831–46 |doi=10.1353/nlh.1998.0042 |s2cid=53618673 |url=https://works.bepress.com/paisley_livingston/67 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831041725/https://works.bepress.com/paisley_livingston/67/ |archive-date=31 August 2017 |url-status=dead |url-access=subscription }}</ref> It defines the subject as the persons or idea represented,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Munk |first1=Eduard |last2=Beck |first2=Charles |last3=Felton |first3=Cornelius Conway |title=The Metres of the Greeks and Romans |date=1844 |page=[https://archive.org/details/metresofgreeksro00munk/page/1 1] |url=https://archive.org/details/metresofgreeksro00munk |access-date=26 February 2017}}</ref> and the content as the artist's experience of that subject.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tolstoy |first1=Leo |title=What is Art? |date=1899 |publisher=Crowell |page=[https://archive.org/details/whatisart00maudgoog/page/n40 24] |url=https://archive.org/details/whatisart00maudgoog}}</ref> For example, the composition of ''[[Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne]]'' is partly borrowed from the [[Statue of Zeus at Olympia]]. As evidenced by the title, the subject is [[Napoleon]], and the content is [[Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres|Ingres]]'s representation of Napoleon as "Emperor-God beyond time and space".<ref name="Belton"/> Similarly to extreme formalism, philosophers typically reject extreme intentionalism, because art may have multiple ambiguous meanings and authorial intent may be unknowable and thus irrelevant. Its restrictive interpretation is "socially unhealthy, philosophically unreal, and politically unwise".<ref name="Belton"/>

Finally, the developing theory of [[post-structuralism]] studies art's significance in a cultural context, such as the ideas, emotions, and reactions prompted by a work.<ref>{{cite conference |first1=Melahat Küçükarslan |last1=Emiroğlu |first2=Fitnat Cimşit |last2=Koş |title=Design Semiotics and Post-Structuralism |conference=12th World Congress of Semiotics |date=16–20 September 2014 |location=New Bulgarian University |url=https://semio2014.org/en/design-semiotics-and-post-structuralism |access-date=26 February 2017 |archive-date=17 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170217142120/https://semio2014.org/en/design-semiotics-and-post-structuralism |url-status=live }}</ref> The cultural context often reduces to the artist's techniques and intentions, in which case analysis proceeds along lines similar to formalism and intentionalism. However, in other cases historical and material conditions may predominate, such as religious and philosophical convictions, sociopolitical and economic structures, or even climate and geography. [[Art criticism]] continues to grow and develop alongside art.<ref name="Belton"/>

===Skill and craft===
{{See also|Conceptual art#Conceptual art and artistic skill|l1=Conceptual art and artistic skill}}
[[File:Michelangelo, Creation of Adam 03.jpg|thumb|left|''[[The Creation of Adam]]'', detail from [[Michelangelo]]'s fresco in the [[Sistine Chapel]] (1511)]]

Art can connote a sense of trained ability or mastery of a [[Art medium|medium]]. Art can also refer to the developed and efficient use of a [[language]] to convey meaning with immediacy or depth. Art can be defined as an act of expressing feelings, thoughts, and observations.<ref>{{cite journal| last = Breskin |first = Vladimir |url = https://vip.iva.dk/signs/Articles_Signs_International_Section/2010/Breskin_(2010)_Signs_Triad_eng_final_rev_2010.pdf| title = Triad: Method for studying the core of the semiotic parity of language and art| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110901145415/https://vip.iva.dk/signs/Articles_Signs_International_Section/2010/Breskin_(2010)_Signs_Triad_eng_final_rev_2010.pdf| archive-date = 1 September 2011| journal = Signs – International Journal of Semiotics| volume = 3| pages = 1–28| year = 2010| issn = 1902-8822}} {{pp.|1|2}}.</ref>

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 [[Wikt:epithet|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, an originality in stylistic approach, or a combination of these two. 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.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Illustrated London News|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-oc-AQAAMAAJ|year=1872|publisher=Illustrated London News & Sketch Limited|page=502|access-date=26 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225444/https://books.google.com/books?id=-oc-AQAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Rembrandt]]'s work, now praised for its ephemeral virtues, was most admired by his contemporaries for its virtuosity.<ref name="NewtonNeil1966">{{cite book|author1=Eric Newton|author2=William Neil|title=2000 Years of Christian Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IsSfAAAAMAAJ|year=1966|publisher=Harper & Row|page=184|access-date=26 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225444/https://books.google.com/books?id=IsSfAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> 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,<ref name="RichardsGjertson2002">{{cite book|author1=Kirk Richards|author2=Stephen Gjertson|title=For glory and for beauty: practical perspectives on Christianity and the visual arts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JaBGAQAAIAAJ|year=2002|publisher=American Society of Classical Realism|isbn=978-0-9636180-4-7|access-date=26 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225443/https://books.google.com/books?id=JaBGAQAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Leslie2005">{{cite book|author=Richard Leslie|title=Pablo Picasso: A Modern Master|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iE8Es-9j3e0C|year= 2005|publisher=New Line Books|isbn=978-1-59764-094-7|page=7|access-date=26 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225443/https://books.google.com/books?id=iE8Es-9j3e0C|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="DillenbergerHandley2014">{{cite book|author1=Jane Dillenberger|author2=John Handley|title=The Religious Art of Pablo Picasso|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6uglDQAAQBAJ|year=2014|publisher=Univ of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-27629-1|page=26|access-date=26 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225443/https://books.google.com/books?id=6uglDQAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:MonaLisa sfumato.jpeg|thumb|Detail of [[Leonardo da Vinci]]'s ''[[Mona Lisa]]'', {{c.|1503|lk=no}}–1506, showing the painting technique of ''[[sfumato]]'']]
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. In conceptual art, [[Marcel Duchamp]]'s ''[[Fountain (Duchamp)|Fountain]]'' is among the first examples of pieces wherein the artist used found objects ("ready-made") and exercised no traditionally recognized set of skills.<ref name="Kleiner2009">{{cite book|author=Fred S. Kleiner|title=Gardner's Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UK_jTggtYl8C|year=2009|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-0-495-57364-7|pages=24–27|access-date=26 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225442/https://books.google.com/books?id=UK_jTggtYl8C|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Tracey Emin]]'s ''[[My Bed]]'', or [[Damien Hirst]]'s ''[[The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living]]'' follow this example. 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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=White|first1=Luke|title=Damien Hirst's Shark: Nature, Capitalism and the Sublime|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/luke-white-damien-hirsts-shark-nature-capitalism-and-the-sublime-r1136828|publisher=Tate|access-date=26 May 2018|language=en|year=2013|isbn=978-1849763875|archive-date=17 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417093924/https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/luke-white-damien-hirsts-shark-nature-capitalism-and-the-sublime-r1136828|url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|title=La Belle Assemblée|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pucAAAAAYAAJ|volume=V|year=1808|publisher=J. Bell|page=8|access-date=26 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225442/https://books.google.com/books?id=pucAAAAAYAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Purpose==
[[File:Transition 1880.jpg|thumb|right|A [[Navajo rug]] made {{c.|1880|lk=no}}]]
[[File:B Escorial 93v.jpg|thumb|[[Mozarabic art|Mozarabic]] [[Commentary on the Apocalypse|Beatus]] [[miniature (illuminated manuscript)|miniature]]. Spain, late 10th century]]
Art has had a great number of different functions throughout its history, making its purpose difficult to abstract or quantify to any single concept. This does not imply that the purpose of art is "vague", but that it has had many unique, different reasons for being created. Some of these functions of art are provided in the following outline. The different purposes of art may be grouped according to those that are non-motivated, and those that are motivated ([[Lévi-Strauss]]).<ref name="Schiuma2011">{{cite book|author=Giovanni Schiuma|title=The Value of Arts for Business|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9wyboE8aWDcC|year= 2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-49665-0|page=37|access-date=26 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225442/https://books.google.com/books?id=9wyboE8aWDcC|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Non-motivated functions===
The non-motivated purposes of art are those that are integral to being human, transcend the individual, or do not fulfill a specific external purpose. In this sense, Art, as creativity, is something humans must do by their very nature (i.e.,&nbsp;no other species creates art), and is therefore beyond utility.<ref name="Schiuma2011" />
# '''[[Psychology of art|Basic human instinct for harmony, balance, rhythm]].''' Art at this level is not an action or an object, but an internal appreciation of balance and harmony (beauty), and therefore an aspect of being human beyond utility.<blockquote>Imitation, then, is one instinct of our nature. Next, there is the instinct for 'harmony' and rhythm, meters being manifestly sections of rhythm. Persons, therefore, starting with this natural gift developed by degrees their special aptitudes, till their rude improvisations gave birth to Poetry. – Aristotle<ref>{{cite book |author=Aristotle |title=Republic |chapter=[Book 10:] The Poetics |others=Note: Although speaking mostly of poetry here, the Ancient Greeks often speak of the arts collectively |url=https://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-2.html|access-date=28 June 2008 |archive-date=8 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080508210426/https://www.authorama.com/the-poetics-2.html |url-status=live }}</ref></blockquote>
# '''Experience of the mysterious.''' Art provides a way to experience one's self in relation to the universe. This experience may often come unmotivated, as one appreciates art, music or poetry.<blockquote>The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. – Albert Einstein<ref>{{citation |last=Einstein |first=Albert |title=The World as I See It |url=https://www.aip.org/history/einstein/essay.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080608192924/https://www.aip.org/history/einstein/essay.htm |archive-date=8 June 2008}}</ref></blockquote>
# '''Expression of the imagination.''' Art provides a means to express the imagination in non-grammatic ways that are not tied to the formality of spoken or written language. Unlike words, which come in sequences and each of which have a definite meaning, art provides a range of forms, symbols and ideas with meanings that are malleable.<blockquote>Jupiter's eagle [as an example of art] is not, like logical (aesthetic) attributes of an object, the concept of the sublimity and majesty of creation, but rather something else—something that gives the imagination an incentive to spread its flight over a whole host of kindred representations that provoke more thought than admits of expression in a concept determined by words. They furnish an aesthetic idea, which serves the above rational idea as a substitute for logical presentation, but with the proper function, however, of animating the mind by opening out for it a prospect into a field of kindred representations stretching beyond its ken. – Immanuel Kant<ref>Immanuel Kant, ''Critique of Aesthetic Judgement'' (1790).</ref></blockquote>
# '''Ritualistic and symbolic functions.''' In many cultures, art is used in rituals, performances and dances as a decoration or symbol. While these often have no specific utilitarian (motivated) purpose, anthropologists know that they often serve a purpose at the level of meaning within a particular culture. This meaning is not furnished by any one individual, but is often the result of many generations of change, and of a cosmological relationship within the culture.<blockquote>Most scholars who deal with rock paintings or objects recovered from prehistoric contexts that cannot be explained in utilitarian terms and are thus categorized as decorative, ritual or symbolic, are aware of the trap posed by the term 'art'. – Silva Tomaskova<ref>Silvia Tomaskova, ''Places of Art: Art and Archaeology in Context'': (1997)</ref></blockquote>

===Motivated functions===
Motivated purposes of art refer to intentional, conscious actions on the part of the artists or creator. These may be to bring about political change, to comment on an aspect of society, to convey a specific emotion or mood, to address personal psychology, to illustrate another discipline, to (with commercial arts) sell a product, or used as a form of communication.<ref name="Schiuma2011" /><ref name="Stephanidis2011">{{cite book|author=Constantine Stephanidis|title=HCI International 2011 Posters' Extended Abstracts: International Conference, HCI International 2011, Orlando, FL, July 9–14, 2011, Proceedings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qble3WYcH0cC|year= 2011|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-3-642-22094-4|pages=529–533|access-date=26 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225441/https://books.google.com/books?id=Qble3WYcH0cC|url-status=live}}</ref>
# '''Communication.''' Art, at its simplest, is a form of communication. As most forms of communication have an intent or goal directed toward another individual, this is a motivated purpose. Illustrative arts, such as scientific illustration, are a form of art as communication. Maps are another example. However, the content need not be scientific. Emotions, moods and feelings are also communicated through art.<blockquote>[Art is a set of] artefacts or images with symbolic meanings as a means of communication. – Steve Mithen<ref>Steve Mithen. ''The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science''. 1999</ref></blockquote>
# '''Art as entertainment'''. Art may seek to bring about a particular emotion or mood, for the purpose of relaxing or entertaining the viewer. This is often the function of the art industries of motion pictures and video games.<ref name="Resources2014">{{cite book|author=Information Resources Management Association|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1BaXBQAAQBAJ|title=Digital Arts and Entertainment: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications|year= 2014|publisher=IGI Global|isbn=978-1-4666-6115-8|location=US|page=976|access-date=26 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225441/https://books.google.com/books?id=1BaXBQAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>
# '''The Avant-Garde. Art for political change.''' One of the defining functions of early 20th-century art has been to use visual images to bring about political change. [[Art movement]]s that had this goal—[[Dadaism]], [[Surrealism]], [[Russian constructivism]], and [[Abstract Expressionism]], among others—are collectively referred to as the ''[[avant-garde]]'' arts.<blockquote>By contrast, the realistic attitude, inspired by positivism, from Saint Thomas Aquinas to Anatole France, clearly seems to me to be hostile to any intellectual or moral advancement. I loathe it, for it is made up of mediocrity, hate, and dull conceit. It is this attitude which today gives birth to these ridiculous books, these insulting plays. It constantly feeds on and derives strength from the newspapers and stultifies both science and art by assiduously flattering the lowest of tastes; clarity bordering on stupidity, a dog's life. – André Breton (Surrealism)<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.tcf.ua.edu/Classes/Jbutler/T340/SurManifesto/ManifestoOfSurrealism.htm |title=André Breton, ''Manifesto of Surrealism'' (1924) |access-date=24 May 2020 |archive-date=25 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200525141532/https://www.tcf.ua.edu/Classes/Jbutler/T340/SurManifesto/ManifestoOfSurrealism.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref></blockquote>
# '''Art as a "free zone"''', removed from the action of the social censure. Unlike the avant-garde movements, which wanted to erase cultural differences in order to produce new universal values, [[contemporary art]] has enhanced its tolerance towards cultural differences as well as its critical and liberating functions (social inquiry, activism, subversion, deconstruction, etc.), becoming a more open place for research and experimentation.<ref>According to [[Maurizio Bolognini]] this is not only associated with the [[postmodern art|postmodern]] rejection of all canons but with a process of secularization of art, which is finally considered as "a mere (albeit essential) convention, sustained and reproduced by the art system (artists, galleries, critics, collectors), providing a free zone, that is, a more open place for experimentation, removed from the constraints of the practical sphere.": see {{Cite book |title=Postdigitale |url=https://www.bolognini.org/bolognini_PDIG.htm |year=2008 |author=Maurizio Bolognini |publisher=Carocci |location=Rome |isbn=978-88-430-4739-0 |chapter-url = https://www.bolognini.org/bolognini_PDIG.htm#ch3b| chapter = chap. 3| access-date = 2 August 2013| archive-date = 18 January 2011| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110118081511/https://www.bolognini.org/bolognini_PDIG.htm#ch3b| url-status = live}}</ref>
# '''Art for social inquiry, subversion or anarchy.''' While similar to art for political change, subversive or deconstructivist art may seek to question aspects of society without any specific political goal. In this case, the function of art may be used to criticize some aspect of society. [[Graffiti art]] and other types of [[street art]] are graphics and images that are [[Spray painting|spray-painted]] or [[stencil]]led on publicly viewable walls, buildings, buses, trains, and bridges, usually without permission. Certain art forms, such as graffiti, may also be illegal when they break laws (in this case vandalism).
# '''Art for social causes.''' Art can be used to raise awareness for a large variety of causes. A number of art activities were aimed at raising awareness of [[autism]],<ref>{{cite news |last=Trotter |first=Jeramia |title=RiverKings raising autism awareness with art |url=https://southaven-hornlake.wmctv.com/news/arts-culture/riverkings-raising-autism-awareness-art/52165 |newspaper=WMC tv |date=15 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110222053732/https://southaven-hornlake.wmctv.com/news/arts-culture/riverkings-raising-autism-awareness-art/52165 |archive-date=22 February 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Art exhibit aims to raise awareness of autism |url=https://www.newsminer.com/article_1a9b7e33-6ca0-56a5-89f3-c9c0798815a2.html |newspaper=Daily News-Miner |date=4 April 2012 |access-date=22 January 2015 |archive-date=9 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009114443/https://www.newsminer.com/article_1a9b7e33-6ca0-56a5-89f3-c9c0798815a2.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Anchorage art exhibit to raise awareness about autism |url=https://dhss.alaska.gov/News/Documents/press/2011/Anchorage_art_exhibit_autism_PR033111.pdf |publisher=Alaska Department of Health and Social Services |access-date=22 January 2015 |archive-date=30 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130330084906/https://dhss.alaska.gov/News/Documents/press/2011/Anchorage_art_exhibit_autism_PR033111.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> cancer,<ref>{{cite news |last=Ruhl |first=Ashleigh |title=Photographer Seeks Subjects To Help Raise Cancer Awareness |url=https://www.gazettes.com/lifestyle/arts_and_entertainment/photographer-seeks-subjects-to-help-raise-cancer-awareness/article_10291db8-7614-11e2-be53-0019bb2963f4.html |newspaper=Gazettes |date=18 February 2013 |access-date=22 January 2015 |archive-date=21 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130221020654/https://www.gazettes.com/lifestyle/arts_and_entertainment/photographer-seeks-subjects-to-help-raise-cancer-awareness/article_10291db8-7614-11e2-be53-0019bb2963f4.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Bra art raising awareness for breast cancer |url=https://www.palmbeachpost.com/videos/news/national/bra-art-raising-awareness-for-breast-cancer/vgBSm/ |access-date=22 January 2015 |newspaper=The Palm Beach Post |date=n.d. |archive-date=9 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009114515/https://www.palmbeachpost.com/videos/news/national/bra-art-raising-awareness-for-breast-cancer/vgBSm/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Flynn |first=Marella |title=October art walk aims to raise money, awareness for breast cancer |url=https://gargoyle.flagler.edu/2007/10/october-art-walk-aims-to-raise-money-awareness-for-breast-cancer/ |newspaper=Flagler College Gargoyle |date=10 January 2007 |access-date=22 January 2015 |archive-date=20 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130220001350/https://gargoyle.flagler.edu/2007/10/october-art-walk-aims-to-raise-money-awareness-for-breast-cancer/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[human trafficking]],<ref>{{cite news |title=Students get creative in the fight against human trafficking |url=https://www.wdtn.com/dpp/news/local/montgomery/ud-students-use-art-to-raise-awareness#.USb6vFeIqAg |newspaper=WDTN Channel 2 News |date=26 November 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130630141018/https://www.wdtn.com/dpp/news/local/montgomery/ud-students-use-art-to-raise-awareness%23.UdA8P33LfK5 |archive-date=30 June 2013}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Looking to raise awareness at ArtPrize |url=https://www.wwmt.com/shared/newsroom/top-stories/stories/wwmt_looking-raise-awareness-at-artprize-4625.shtml |newspaper=WWMT, Newschannel 3 |date=10 January 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121006075346/https://www.wwmt.com/shared/newsroom/top-stories/stories/wwmt_looking-raise-awareness-at-artprize-4625.shtml |archive-date=6 October 2012}}</ref> and a variety of other topics, such as ocean conservation,<ref>{{cite web |title=SciCafe – Art/Sci Collision: Raising Ocean Conservation Awareness |url=https://www.amnh.org/calendar/scicafe-art-sci-collision-raising-ocean-conservation-awareness |publisher=American Museum of Natural History |access-date=21 February 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130703164121/https://www.amnh.org/calendar/scicafe-art-sci-collision-raising-ocean-conservation-awareness |archive-date=3 July 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> human rights in [[Darfur]],<ref>{{cite news |title=SMU students raise awareness with 'Art for Darfur' |url=https://smu.edu/newsinfo/releases/07138c.asp |newspaper=SMU News Release |date=4 March 2008 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130403085335/https://smu.edu/newsinfo/releases/07138c.asp |archive-date=3 April 2013 |url-status=dead |access-date=3 March 2022 }}</ref> murdered and missing Aboriginal women,<ref>{{cite news |last=Donnelly |first=Greg |title=Red dress art project to raise awareness of murdered and missing Aboriginal women |url=https://globalnews.ca/news/219101/red-dress-art-project-to-raise-awareness-of-murdered-and-missing-aboriginal-women/ |newspaper=[[Global News]] |date=3 May 2012 |access-date=2 May 2020 |archive-date=18 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200518070145/https://globalnews.ca/news/219101/red-dress-art-project-to-raise-awareness-of-murdered-and-missing-aboriginal-women/ |url-status=live }}</ref> elder abuse,<ref>{{cite web |title=Raising elder abuse awareness through intergenerational art |url=https://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/success_stories/seniors/40/index.shtml |publisher=Human Resources and Skills Development Canada |access-date=21 February 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130122162638/https://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/success_stories/seniors/40/index.shtml |archive-date=22 January 2013 }}</ref> and pollution.<ref>{{cite news |last=Mathema |first=Paavan |title=Trash to treasure: Turning Mt. Everest waste into art |url=https://www.cnn.com/2013/01/15/world/asia/everest-trash-art/ |newspaper=CNN |date=16 January 2013 |access-date=22 February 2013 |archive-date=9 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009114505/https://www.cnn.com/2013/01/15/world/asia/everest-trash-art/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Trashion]], using trash to make fashion, practiced by artists such as [[Marina DeBris]] is one example of using art to raise awareness about pollution.
# '''Art for psychological and healing purposes.''' Art is also used by art therapists, psychotherapists and clinical psychologists as [[art therapy]]. The [[Art therapy#The Diagnostic Drawing Series (DDS)|Diagnostic Drawing Series]], for example, is used to determine the personality and emotional functioning of a patient. 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.<ref name="Hogan2001">{{cite book|author=Susan Hogan|author-link=Susan Hogan (historian)|title=Healing Arts: The History of Art Therapy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vzUuna6LPBIC|year=2001|publisher=Jessica Kingsley Publishers|isbn=978-1-85302-799-4|access-date=26 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225437/https://books.google.com/books?id=vzUuna6LPBIC|url-status=live}}</ref>
# '''Art for propaganda, or commercialism.''' Art is often used as a form of propaganda, and thus can be used to subtly influence popular conceptions or mood. In a similar way, art that tries to sell a product also influences mood and emotion. In both cases, the purpose of art here is to subtly manipulate the viewer into a particular emotional or psychological response toward a particular idea or object.<ref>[[Roland Barthes]], ''Mythologies''</ref>
# '''Art as a fitness indicator.''' It has been argued that the ability of the human brain by far exceeds what was needed for survival in the ancestral environment. One [[evolutionary psychology]] explanation for this is that the human brain and associated traits (such as artistic ability and creativity) are the human equivalent of the [[peacock]]'s tail. The purpose of the male peacock's extravagant tail has been argued to be to attract females (see also [[Fisherian runaway]] and [[handicap principle]]). According to this theory superior execution of art was evolutionarily important because it attracted mates.<ref name="Dutton">[[Denis Dutton|Dutton, Denis]]. 2003. "Aesthetics and Evolutionary Psychology" in ''The Oxford Handbook for Aesthetics''. Oxford University Press.</ref>

The functions of art described above are not mutually exclusive, as many of them may overlap. For example, art for the purpose of entertainment may also seek to sell a product, i.e. the movie or video game.

==Steps==
Art can be divided into any number of steps one can make an argument for. This section divides the creative process into broad three steps, but there is no consensus on an exact number.<ref name="What Are the Stages of the Creative">{{cite journal | doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02266 | doi-access=free | title=What Are the Stages of the Creative Process? What Visual Art Students Are Saying | year=2018 | last1=Botella | first1=Marion | last2=Zenasni | first2=Franck | last3=Lubart | first3=Todd | journal=Frontiers in Psychology | volume=9 | article-number=2266 | pmid=30519205 | pmc=6259352 }}</ref>

===Preparation===
[[File:Le penseur de la Porte de lEnfer (musée Rodin) (4528252054).jpg|thumb|''The Thinker'' in ''[[The Gates of Hell]]'' at the [[Musée Rodin]] ]]
In the first step, the artist envisions the art in their mind. By imagining what their art would look like, the artist begins the process of bringing the art into existence. Preparation of art may involve approaching and researching the subject matter. [[Artistic inspiration]] is one of the main drivers of art, and may be considered to stem from instinct, impressions, and feelings.<ref name="What Are the Stages of the Creative"/>

===Creation===
[[File:Great Wave off Kanagawa2.jpg|thumb|''[[The Great Wave off Kanagawa]]'', the first in [[Hokusai]]'s c. 1830–1832 series ''[[Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji]]'']]
In the second step, the artist executes the creation of their work. The creation of a piece can be affected by factors such as the artist's [[mood (psychology)|mood]], [[surroundings]], and [[mental state]]. For example, ''[[The Black Paintings]]'' by [[Francisco de Goya]], created in the elder years of his life, are thought to be so bleak because he was in isolation and because of his experience with war. He painted them directly on the walls of his apartment in Spain, and most likely never discussed them with anyone.<ref>* Licht, Fred. ''Goya: The Origins of the Modern Temper in Art''. Universe Books, 1979. {{ISBN|0-87663-294-0}}</ref> [[The Beatles]] stated drugs such as [[LSD]] and [[cannabis]] influenced some of their greatest hits, such as ''[[Revolver (Beatles)|Revolver]].''<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/beatles-acid-test-how-lsd-opened-the-door-to-revolver-251417/ |title=Beatles' Acid Test: How LSD Opened the Door to 'Revolver' |magazine=Rolling Stone |last=Gilmore |first=Mikal |date=25 August 2016 |access-date=27 January 2023 |archive-date=3 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201203211257/https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/beatles-acid-test-how-lsd-opened-the-door-to-revolver-251417/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Trial and error]] are considered an integral part of the creation process.<ref name="What Are the Stages of the Creative"/>

===Appreciation===
The last step is [[art appreciation]], which has the sub-topic of critique. In one study, over half of visual arts students agreed that [[Reflective practice|reflection]] is an essential step of the art process.<ref name="What Are the Stages of the Creative"/> According to education journals, the reflection of art is considered an essential part of the experience.<ref name="Loughran">{{cite journal |last=Loughran |first=J. John |date=January 2002 |title=Effective reflective practice: in search of meaning in learning about teaching |journal=Journal of Teacher Education |volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=33–43 |doi=10.1177/0022487102053001004 |s2cid=6370058 |url=http://oneteacher.global2.vic.edu.au/files/2014/09/Loughlan-242761j.pdf |access-date=15 January 2023 |archive-date=15 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171215163200/http://oneteacher.global2.vic.edu.au/files/2014/09/Loughlan-242761j.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cochran-Smith |first1=Marilyn |last2=Lytle |first2=Susan L. |date=January 1999 |title=Relationships of knowledge and practice: teacher learning in communities |journal=Review of Research in Education |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=249–305 |doi=10.3102/0091732X024001249 |jstor=1167272|s2cid=143929745 }}</ref> However an important aspect of art is that others may view and appreciate it as well. While many focus on whether those viewing/listening/etc. believe the art to be good/successful or not, art has profound value beyond its commercial success as a provider of information and health in society.<ref>{{cite journal | pmc=5581397 | year=2017 | last1=Sherman | first1=A. | last2=Morrissey | first2=C. | title=What is Art Good For? The Socio-Epistemic Value of Art | journal=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience | volume=11 | article-number=411 | doi=10.3389/fnhum.2017.00411 | pmid=28894418 | doi-access=free }}</ref> Art enjoyment can bring about a wide spectrum of emotion due to [[beauty]]. Some art is meant to be practical, with its analysis studious, meant to stimulate discourse.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.educationworld.in/the-importance-of-art-appreciation/#:~:text=Art%20appreciation%2C%20however%2C%20refers%20to,mastery%20displayed%20in%20the%20piece. |title=The Importance of Art Appreciation |website=Educationworld.in |date=29 May 2018 |access-date=27 January 2023}}</ref>

==Public access==
[[File:Metropolitan Museum 1 (4675714481).jpg|thumb|The [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in [[Manhattan]]. Museums are important forums for the display of [[visual art]].]]
Since ancient times, much of the finest art has represented a deliberate display of wealth or power, often achieved by using massive scale and expensive materials. Much art has been commissioned by political rulers or religious establishments, with more modest versions only available to the most wealthy in society.<ref>Gilbert, Kuhn pp. 161–165</ref>

Nevertheless, there have been many periods where art of very high quality was available, in terms of ownership, across large parts of society, above all in cheap media such as pottery, which persists in the ground, and perishable media such as textiles and wood. In many different cultures, the [[ceramics of indigenous peoples of the Americas]] are found in such a wide range of graves that they were clearly not restricted to a [[social elite]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Ceramics of the Indigenous Peoples of South America: Studies of Production and Exchange using INAA|url=https://core.tdar.org/collection/58128/ceramics-of-the-indigenous-peoples-of-south-america-studies-of-production-and-exchange-using-inaa|website=core.tdar.org|access-date=28 May 2018|language=en|archive-date=28 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180528214916/https://core.tdar.org/collection/58128/ceramics-of-the-indigenous-peoples-of-south-america-studies-of-production-and-exchange-using-inaa|url-status=live}}</ref> though other forms of art may have been. Reproductive methods such as [[Molding (process)|moulds]] made mass-production easier, and were used to bring high-quality [[Ancient Roman pottery]] and Greek [[Tanagra figurine]]s to a very wide market. [[Cylinder seal]]s were both artistic and practical, and very widely used by what can be loosely called the middle class in the [[Ancient Near East]].<ref name="Kipfer2000">{{cite book|author=Barbara Ann Kipfer|author-link=Barbara Ann Kipfer|title=Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XneTstDbcC0C|year=2000|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-0-306-46158-3|page=264|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=10 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160510234320/https://books.google.com/books?id=XneTstDbcC0C|url-status=live}}</ref> Once [[coin]]s were widely used, these also became an art form that reached the widest range of society.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ancient Coins as Works of Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=34jbjgEACAAJ|year=1960|publisher=Museum Haaretz|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225435/https://books.google.com/books?id=34jbjgEACAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

Another important innovation came in the 15th century in Europe, when [[printmaking]] began with small [[woodcut]]s, mostly religious, that were often very small and hand-colored, and affordable even by [[peasant]]s who glued them to the walls of their homes. Printed books were initially very expensive, but fell steadily in price until by the 19th century even the poorest could afford some with printed illustrations.<ref name="Tucker2000">{{cite book|author=George Hugo Tucker|title=Forms of the "medieval" in the "Renaissance": A Multidisciplinary Exploration of a Cultural Continuum|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zfbNzcqgYM4C|year=2000|publisher=Rookwood Press|isbn=978-1-886365-20-9|page=148|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225435/https://books.google.com/books?id=zfbNzcqgYM4C|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Popular prints]] of many different sorts have decorated homes and other places for centuries.<ref name="Griffiths1996">{{cite book|author=Antony Griffiths|title=Prints and Printmaking: An Introduction to the History and Techniques|url=https://archive.org/details/printsprintmakin00grif|url-access=registration|year=1996|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-20714-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/printsprintmakin00grif/page/149 149]|author-link=Antony Griffiths}}</ref>

[[File:Basel - 2017 - Kunstmuseum Basel - Altbau.jpg|thumb|[[Kunstmuseum Basel]], the Museum of Art in [[Basel]], Switzerland, is the oldest public museum of art in the world.]]
In 1661, the city of [[Basel]], in [[Switzerland]], opened the first public museum of art in the world, the [[Kunstmuseum Basel]]. Today, its collection is distinguished by an impressively wide historic span, from the early 15th century up to the immediate present. Its various areas of emphasis give it international standing as one of the most significant museums of its kind. These encompass: paintings and drawings by artists active in the Upper Rhine region between 1400 and 1600, and on the art of the 19th to 21st centuries.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://unigeschichte.unibas.ch/lokal-global/das-verhaeltnis-zu-politik-und-gesellschaft/kooperationen-in-der-stadt/museen-startseite.html |title=550 Jahre Universität Basel |access-date=4 July 2020 |archive-date=24 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924045331/https://unigeschichte.unibas.ch/lokal-global/das-verhaeltnis-zu-politik-und-gesellschaft/kooperationen-in-der-stadt/museen-startseite.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[Public art|Public buildings and monuments]], secular and religious, by their nature normally address the whole of society, and visitors as viewers, and display to the general public has long been an important factor in their design. [[Egyptian temple]]s are typical in that the most largest and most lavish decoration was placed on the parts that could be seen by the general public, rather than the areas seen only by the priests.<ref name="Vörös2007">{{cite book|author=Győző Vörös|title=Egyptian Temple Architecture: 100 Years of Hungarian Excavations in Egypt, 1907–2007|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=StEyE9jkMHEC|year=2007|publisher=American Univ in Cairo Press|isbn=978-963-662-084-4|page=140|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225435/https://books.google.com/books?id=StEyE9jkMHEC|url-status=live}}</ref> Many areas of royal palaces, castles and the houses of the social elite were often generally accessible, and large parts of the art collections of such people could often be seen, either by anybody, or by those able to pay a small price, or those wearing the correct clothes, regardless of who they were, as at the [[Palace of Versailles]], where the appropriate extra accessories (silver shoe buckles and a sword) could be hired from shops outside.<ref name="Waldie1839">{{cite book|author=Adam Waldie|title=The Select Circulating Library|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cBs7AQAAIAAJ|year=1839|publisher=A. Waldie.|page=367|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225434/https://books.google.com/books?id=cBs7AQAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

Special arrangements were made to allow the public to see many royal or private collections placed in galleries, as with the [[Orleans Collection#Collection in Paris|Orleans Collection]] mostly housed in a wing of the [[Palais Royal]] in Paris, which could be visited for most of the 18th century.<ref name="MeyerSavoy2014">{{cite book|author1=Andrea Meyer|author2=Benedicte Savoy|title=The Museum Is Open: Towards a Transnational History of Museums 1750–1940|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xhroBQAAQBAJ|year=2014|publisher=De Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-029882-6|page=66|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225434/https://books.google.com/books?id=xhroBQAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> In Italy the art tourism of the [[Grand Tour]] became a major industry from the Renaissance onwards, and governments and cities made efforts to make their key works accessible. The British [[Royal Collection]] remains distinct, but large donations such as the [[Old Royal Library]] were made from it to the [[British Museum]], established in 1753. The [[Uffizi]] in [[Florence]] opened entirely as a gallery in 1765, though this function had been gradually taking the building over from the original civil servants' offices for a long time before.<ref name="Fossi1999">{{cite book|author=Gloria Fossi|title=The Uffizi: The Official Guide : All of the Works|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lYUh_6F-hc8C|year=1999|publisher=Giunti Editore|isbn=978-88-09-01487-9|pages=8–11|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225433/https://books.google.com/books?id=lYUh_6F-hc8C|url-status=live}}</ref> The building now occupied by the [[Prado]] in Madrid was built before the [[French Revolution]] for the public display of parts of the royal art collection, and similar royal galleries open to the public existed in [[Vienna]], Munich and other capitals. The opening of the [[Musée du Louvre]] during the French Revolution (in 1793) as a public museum for much of the former French royal collection certainly marked an important stage in the development of public access to art, transferring ownership to a republican state, but was a continuation of trends already well established.<ref>{{cite book |first=Robert W. |last=Berger |title=Public Access to Art in Paris: A Documentary History from the Middle Ages to 1800 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xpD9NgeQozEC |publisher=Penn State Press |isbn=978-0-271-04434-7 |year=1999 |pages=281–283 |access-date=28 May 2018 |archive-date=5 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225433/https://books.google.com/books?id=xpD9NgeQozEC |url-status=live }}</ref>

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. However, museums do not only provide availability to art, but do also influence the way art is being perceived by the audience, as studies found.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Susanne Grüner|author2=Eva Specker|author3=Helmut Leder|name-list-style=amp|title=Effects of Context and Genuineness in the Experience of Art|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330414719|journal=Empirical Studies of the Arts|volume=37|issue=2|pages=138–152|year=2019|doi=10.1177/0276237418822896|s2cid=150115587|access-date=26 August 2021|archive-date=24 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200124215151/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330414719|url-status=live}}</ref> Thus, the museum itself is not only a blunt stage for the presentation of art, but plays an active and vital role in the overall perception of art in modern society.

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.) 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.<ref name="Findlay2012">{{cite book|author=Michael Findlay|title=The Value of Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t6jJ5FvdLjcC|year=2012|publisher=Prestel Verlag|isbn=978-3-641-08342-7|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225433/https://books.google.com/books?id=t6jJ5FvdLjcC|url-status=live}}</ref>

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"<ref>{{cite journal |title=An Interview with Joseph Beuys |journal=Artforum |date=December 1969 |first=Willoughby |last=Sharp |volume=8 |issue=4 |page=45 }}</ref> 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]]. The idea was that if the artwork was a performance that would leave nothing behind, or was 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."<ref>Rorimer, Anne: ''New Art in the 60s and 70s Redefining Reality'', p. 35. Thames and Hudson, 2001.</ref>
[[File:Cour de Marbre du Château de Versailles October 5, 2011.jpg|upright=2|thumb|250px|Versailles: [[Louis Le Vau]] opened up the interior court to create the expansive entrance ''[[Court of honor (architecture)|cour d'honneur]]'', later copied all over Europe.]]In the decades since, these ideas have been somewhat lost as the art market has learned to sell limited edition DVDs of video works,<ref>{{cite news |first=Mia |last=Fineman |title=YouTube for Artists The best places to find video art online. |date=21 March 2007 |url=https://www.slate.com/id/2162382/ |work=Slate |access-date=3 August 2007 |archive-date=7 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110907063859/https://www.slate.com/id/2162382 |url-status=live }}</ref> 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."<ref>Robertson, Jean and Craig McDaniel: ''Themes of Contemporary Art, Visual Art after 1980'', p. 16. Oxford University Press, 2005.</ref>

==Controversies==
[[File:JEAN LOUIS THÉODORE GÉRICAULT - La Balsa de la Medusa (Museo del Louvre, 1818-19).jpg|thumb|[[Théodore Géricault]]'s ''[[The Raft of the Medusa|Raft of the Medusa]]'', {{c.|1820|lk=no}}]]

Art has long been controversial, that is to say disliked by some viewers, for a wide variety of reasons, though most pre-modern controversies are dimly recorded, or completely lost to a modern view. [[Iconoclasm]] is the destruction of art that is disliked for a variety of reasons, including religious ones. [[Aniconism]] is a general dislike of either all figurative images, or often just religious ones, and has been a thread in many major religions. It has been a crucial factor in the history of [[Islamic art]], where [[depictions of Muhammad]] remain especially controversial. Much art has been disliked purely because it depicted or otherwise stood for unpopular rulers, parties or other groups. Artistic conventions have often been conservative and taken very seriously by [[art critic]]s, though often much less so by a wider public. The [[iconography|iconographic]] content of art could cause controversy, as with late medieval depictions of the new motif of the [[Swoon of the Virgin]] in scenes of the [[Crucifixion of Jesus]]. [[The Last Judgment (Michelangelo)|The ''Last Judgment'']] by [[Michelangelo]] was controversial for various reasons, including breaches of [[decorum]] through nudity and the [[Apollo]]-like pose of Christ.<ref name="McCue2016">{{cite book|author=Maureen McCue|title=British Romanticism and the Reception of Italian Old Master Art, 1793–1840|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xW43DAAAQBAJ|year=2016|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-317-17148-5|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225433/https://books.google.com/books?id=xW43DAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Nickerson2010">{{cite book|author=Angela K. Nickerson|title=A Journey into Michelangelo's Rome|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5hnJaIh36eoC|year=2010|publisher=ReadHowYouWant.com|isbn=978-1-4587-8547-3|page=182|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225432/https://books.google.com/books?id=5hnJaIh36eoC|url-status=live}}</ref>

The content of much formal art through history was dictated by the patron or commissioner rather than just the artist, but with the advent of [[Romanticism]], and economic changes in the production of art, the artists' vision became the usual determinant of the content of his art, increasing the incidence of controversies, though often reducing their significance. Strong incentives for perceived originality and publicity also encouraged artists to court controversy. [[Théodore Géricault|Théodore Géricault's]] ''[[The Raft of the Medusa|Raft of the Medusa]]'' ({{c.|1820|lk=no}}), was in part a political commentary on a recent event. [[Édouard Manet|Édouard Manet's]] ''[[Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe]]'' (1863), was considered scandalous not because of the nude woman, but because she is seated next to men fully dressed in the clothing of the time, rather than in robes of the antique world.<ref name="RuprechtTaiana1995">{{cite book|author1=Alvina Ruprecht|author2=Cecilia Taiana|title=Reordering of Culture: Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada in the Hood|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=onoI0AI-JJYC|year=1995|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP|isbn=978-0-88629-269-0|page=256|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225432/https://books.google.com/books?id=onoI0AI-JJYC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Stout2018">{{cite book|author=John C. Stout|title=Objects Observed: The Poetry of Things in Twentieth-Century France and America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UxBaDwAAQBAJ|year=2018|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-1-4875-0157-0|page=50|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225432/https://books.google.com/books?id=UxBaDwAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> [[John Singer Sargent|John Singer Sargent's]] ''[[Portrait of Madame X|Madame Pierre Gautreau (Madam&nbsp;X)]]'' (1884), caused a controversy 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.<ref name="Summers2004">{{cite book|author=Claude J. Summers|title=The Queer Encyclopedia of the Visual Arts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sNCJAwAAQBAJ|year=2004|publisher=Cleis Press|isbn=978-1-57344-191-9|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225431/https://books.google.com/books?id=sNCJAwAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Bender2014">{{cite book|author=Narim Bender|title=John Sargent: 121 Drawings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SSEPBAAAQBAJ|year=2014|publisher=Osmora Incorporated|isbn=978-2-7659-0006-1|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225431/https://books.google.com/books?id=SSEPBAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>
The gradual abandonment of naturalism and the depiction of realistic representations of the visual appearance of subjects in the 19th and 20th centuries led to a rolling controversy lasting for over a century.
[[File:BeuysAchberg78.jpg|thumb|Performance by [[Joseph Beuys]], 1978: ''Everyone an artist – On the way to the libertarian form of the social organism'']]
In the 20th century, [[Pablo Picasso|Pablo Picasso's]] ''[[Guernica (painting)|Guernica]]'' (1937) used arresting [[cubism|cubist]] techniques and stark [[Monochrome painting|monochromatic oils]], to depict the harrowing consequences of a contemporary bombing of a small, ancient Basque town. [[Leon Golub|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. [[Andres Serrano|Andres Serrano's]] ''[[Piss Christ]]'' (1989) is a photograph of a crucifix, sacred to the Christian religion and representing [[Jesus Christ|Christ]]'s sacrifice and final suffering, submerged in a glass of the artist's own urine. The resulting uproar led to comments in the United States Senate about public funding of the arts.<ref name="ChapmanCiment2015">{{cite book|author1=Roger Chapman|author2=James Ciment|title=Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints and Voices|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XO9nBwAAQBAJ|year=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-47351-0|page=594|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225431/https://books.google.com/books?id=XO9nBwAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Brown2008">{{cite book|author=Brian Arthur Brown|title=Noah's Other Son: Bridging the Gap Between the Bible and the Qur'an|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JjbUAwAAQBAJ|year=2008|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-8264-2996-4|page=210|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225430/https://books.google.com/books?id=JjbUAwAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Theory==
{{Main|Aesthetics}}
Before Modernism, aesthetics in Western art was greatly concerned with achieving the appropriate balance between different aspects of [[Realism (arts)|realism]] or truth to nature and the [[Idealism|ideal]]; ideas as to what the appropriate balance is have shifted to and fro over the centuries. This concern is largely absent in other traditions of art. The aesthetic theorist [[John Ruskin]], who championed what he saw as the naturalism of [[J. M. W. Turner|J.&nbsp;M.&nbsp;W. Turner]], saw art's role as the communication by artifice of an essential truth that could only be found in nature.<ref>"go to nature in all [[singleness of heart]], rejecting nothing and selecting nothing, and scorning nothing, believing all things are right and good, and rejoicing always in the truth". [[John Ruskin|Ruskin, John]]. ''[[Modern Painters]]'', Volume I, 1843. London: Smith, Elder and Co.</ref>

The definition and evaluation of art has become especially problematic since the 20th century. [[Richard Wollheim]] distinguishes three approaches to assessing the aesthetic value of art: the [[Aesthetic realism|Realist]], whereby aesthetic quality is an absolute value independent of any human view; the [[Objectivity (philosophy)|Objectivist]], whereby it is also an absolute value, but is dependent on general human experience; and the [[Aesthetic relativism|Relativist position]], whereby it is not an absolute value, but depends on, and varies with, the human experience of different humans.<ref>Wollheim 1980, ''Essay VI''. pp. 231–239.</ref>

===Arrival of Modernism===
[[File:Piet Mondriaan, 1930 - Mondrian Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow.jpg|thumb|''[[Composition with Red Blue and Yellow]]'' (1930) by [[Piet Mondrian]] (Dutch, 1872–1944)]]
The arrival of [[Modernism]] in the late 19th century led to a radical break in the conception of the function of art,<ref>[[Griselda Pollock]], ''Differencing the Canon''. Routledge, London & New York, 1999. {{ISBN|0-415-06700-6}}</ref> and then again in the late 20th century with the advent of [[Postmodern art|postmodernism]]. [[Clement Greenberg]]'s 1960 article "Modernist Painting" defines modern art as "the use of characteristic methods of a discipline to criticize the discipline itself".<ref name = "Frascina">''Modern Art and Modernism: A Critical Anthology''. ed. Francis Frascina and Charles Harrison, 1982.</ref> 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:
<blockquote>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.<ref name = "Frascina" /></blockquote> After Greenberg, several important art theorists emerged, such as [[Michael Fried]], [[T. J. Clark (historian)|T.&nbsp;J.&nbsp;Clark]], [[Rosalind Krauss]], [[Linda Nochlin]] and [[Griselda Pollock]] among others. Though only originally intended as a way of understanding a specific set of artists, Greenberg's definition of modern art is important to many of the ideas of art within the various art movements of the 20th century and early 21st century.<ref name="Harris2005">{{cite book|author=Jonathan P. Harris|title=Writing Back to Modern Art: After Greenberg, Fried, and Clark|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_TzAIu3LziIC|year=2005|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-32429-8|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225429/https://books.google.com/books?id=_TzAIu3LziIC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Holt2001">{{cite book|author=David Kenneth Holt|title=The Search for Aesthetic Meaning in the Visual Arts: The Need for the Aesthetic Tradition in Contemporary Art Theory and Education|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VWedB7SA-KMC|year=2001|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-89789-773-0|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225429/https://books.google.com/books?id=VWedB7SA-KMC|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Pop art]]ists like [[Andy Warhol]] became both noteworthy and influential through work including and possibly [[cultural critic|critiquing popular culture]], as well as the [[art world]]. Artists of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s expanded this technique of self-criticism beyond ''high art'' to all cultural image-making, including fashion images, [[comics]], [[billboards]] and [[pornography]].<ref name="Gemünden1998">{{cite book|author=Gerd Gemünden|title=Framed Visions: Popular Culture, Americanization, and the Contemporary German and Austrian Imagination|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Mpfn_pue34C|year=1998|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=978-0-472-08560-6|page=43|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225428/https://books.google.com/books?id=7Mpfn_pue34C|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The New Yorker|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9BcnAQAAIAAJ|year=2004|publisher=F-R Publishing Corporation|page=84|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225428/https://books.google.com/books?id=9BcnAQAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

Duchamp once proposed that art is any activity of any kind-everything. However, the way that only certain activities are classified today as art is a social construction.<ref name="Duchamp Interview Clip">{{YouTube|haon2DXWvLk|Duchamp Two Statements}}{{Dead link|date=May 2016}}</ref> There is evidence that there may be an element of truth to this. In ''[[The Invention of Art: A Cultural History]]'', Larry Shiner examines the construction of the modern system of the arts, i.e. fine art. He finds evidence that the older system of the arts before our modern system (fine art) held art to be any skilled human activity; for example, Ancient Greek society did not possess the term ''art'', but [[techne]]. Techne can be understood neither as art or craft, the reason being that the distinctions of art and [[craft]] are historical products that came later on in human history. Techne included painting, sculpting and music, but also cooking, medicine, [[horsemanship]], [[geometry]], carpentry, [[prophecy]], and farming, etc.<ref name="BurgueteLam2011">{{cite book|author1=Maria Burguete|author2=Lui Lam|title=Arts: A Science Matter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zKmND2ImrGUC|year=2011|publisher=World Scientific|isbn=978-981-4324-93-9|page=74|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225428/https://books.google.com/books?id=zKmND2ImrGUC|url-status=live}}</ref>

===New Criticism and the "intentional fallacy"===
Following Duchamp during the first half of the 20th century, a significant shift to general aesthetic theory took place which attempted to apply aesthetic theory between various forms of art, including the literary arts and the visual arts, to each other. This resulted in the rise of the [[New Criticism]] school and debate concerning ''the intentional fallacy''. At issue was the question of whether the aesthetic intentions of the artist in creating the work of art, whatever its specific form, should be associated with the criticism and evaluation of the final product of the work of art, or, if the work of art should be evaluated on its own merits independent of the intentions of the artist.<ref name="Waugh2006">{{cite book|author=Patricia Waugh|author-link=Patricia Waugh|title=Literary Theory and Criticism: An Oxford Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7LXMA_7Ko9YC|year=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-929133-5|page=171|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225427/https://books.google.com/books?id=7LXMA_7Ko9YC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Colebrook1997">{{cite book|author=Claire Colebrook|author-link=Claire Colebrook|title=New Literary Histories: New Historicism and Contemporary Criticism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aT-8AAAAIAAJ|year=1997|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-4987-3|page=221|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225427/https://books.google.com/books?id=aT-8AAAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1946, [[William K. Wimsatt]] and [[Monroe Beardsley]] published a classic and controversial New Critical essay entitled "[[Intentional Fallacy|The Intentional Fallacy]]", in which they argued strongly against the relevance of an [[Authorial intentionality|author's intention]], or "intended meaning" in the analysis of a literary work. For Wimsatt and Beardsley, the words on the page were all that mattered; importation of meanings from outside the text was considered irrelevant, and potentially distracting.<ref name="Roholt2013">{{cite book|author=Tiger C. Roholt|title=Key Terms in Philosophy of Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=US6aAAAAQBAJ|year=2013|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4411-3246-8|page=161|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225427/https://books.google.com/books?id=US6aAAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Hick2017">{{cite book|author=Darren Hudson Hick|title=Introducing Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L_S4DgAAQBAJ|year=2017|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-350-00691-1|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225426/https://books.google.com/books?id=L_S4DgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

In another essay, "[[Affective fallacy|The Affective Fallacy]]", which served as a kind of sister essay to "The Intentional Fallacy" Wimsatt and Beardsley also discounted the reader's personal/emotional reaction to a literary work as a valid means of analyzing a text. This fallacy would later be repudiated by theorists from the [[reader-response]] school of literary theory. Ironically, one of the leading theorists from this school, [[Stanley Fish]], was himself trained by New Critics. Fish criticizes Wimsatt and Beardsley in his 1970 essay "Literature in the Reader".<ref>Leitch, Vincent B., et al., eds. ''The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism''. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Fish|first=Stanley|date=Autumn 1970|title=Literature in the Reader: Affective Stylistics|jstor=468593|journal=New Literary History|volume=2|issue=1|pages=123–162|doi=10.2307/468593}}</ref>

As summarized by [[Berys Gaut]] and Paisley Livingston in their essay "The Creation of Art": "Structuralist and post-structuralists theorists and critics were sharply critical of many aspects of New Criticism, beginning with the emphasis on aesthetic appreciation and the so-called autonomy of art, but they reiterated the attack on biographical criticisms' assumption that the artist's activities and experience were a privileged critical topic."<ref>Gaut and Livingston, ''The Creation of Art'', p. 3.</ref> These authors contend that: "Anti-intentionalists, such as formalists, hold that the intentions involved in the making of art are irrelevant or peripheral to correctly interpreting art. So details of the act of creating a work, though possibly of interest in themselves, have no bearing on the correct interpretation of the work."<ref name="Gaut and Livingston, p.6">Gaut and Livingston, p. 6.</ref>

Gaut and Livingston define the intentionalists as distinct from formalists stating that: "Intentionalists, unlike formalists, hold that reference to intentions is essential in fixing the correct interpretation of works." They quote [[Richard Wollheim]] as stating that, "The task of criticism is the reconstruction of the creative process, where the creative process must in turn be thought of as something not stopping short of, but terminating on, the work of art itself."<ref name="Gaut and Livingston, p.6"/>

==="Linguistic turn" and its debate===
The end of the 20th century fostered an extensive debate known as the [[linguistic turn]] controversy, or the "innocent eye debate" in the philosophy of art. This debate discussed the encounter of the work of art as being determined by the relative extent to which the conceptual encounter with the work of art dominates over the perceptual encounter with the work of art.<ref>''Philosophy for Architecture'', Branco Mitrovic, 2012.</ref>

Decisive for the linguistic turn debate in art history and the humanities were the works of yet another tradition, namely the [[structuralism]] of [[Ferdinand de Saussure]] and the ensuing movement of [[poststructuralism]]. In 1981, the artist [[Mark Tansey]] created a work of art titled ''The Innocent Eye'' as a criticism of the prevailing climate of disagreement in the philosophy of art during the closing decades of the 20th century. Influential theorists include [[Judith Butler]], [[Luce Irigaray]], [[Julia Kristeva]], [[Michel Foucault]] and [[Jacques Derrida]]. The power of language, more specifically of certain rhetorical tropes, in art history and historical discourse was explored by [[Hayden White]]. The fact that language is {{em|not}} a transparent medium of thought had been stressed by a very different form of [[philosophy of language]] which originated in the works of [[Johann Georg Hamann]] and [[Wilhelm von Humboldt]].<ref>''Introduction to Structuralism'', Michael Lane, Basic Books University of Michigan, 1970.</ref> [[Ernst Gombrich]] and [[Nelson Goodman]] in his book ''[[Languages of Art|Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols]]'' came to hold that the conceptual encounter with the work of art predominated exclusively over the perceptual and visual encounter with the work of art during the 1960s and 1970s.<ref>''[[Languages of Art|Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols]]''. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1968. 2nd ed. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1976. Based on his 1960–61 [[John Locke lectures]].</ref> He was challenged on the basis of research done by the Nobel prize winning psychologist [[Roger Sperry]] who maintained that the human visual encounter was not limited to concepts represented in language alone (the linguistic turn) and that other forms of psychological representations of the work of art were equally defensible and demonstrable. Sperry's view eventually prevailed by the end of the 20th century with aesthetic philosophers such as [[Nick Zangwill]] strongly defending a return to moderate aesthetic formalism among other alternatives.<ref>Nick Zangwill, "Feasible Aesthetic Formalism", ''Nous'', December 1999, pp. 610–629.</ref>

==Classification disputes==
{{Main|Classificatory disputes about art}}
[[File:Marcel Duchamp, 1917, Fountain, photograph by Alfred Stieglitz.jpg|thumb|The original ''[[Fountain (Duchamp)|Fountain]]'' by [[Marcel Duchamp]], 1917, photographed by [[Alfred Stieglitz]] at the [[291 (art gallery)|291]] after the 1917 [[Society of Independent Artists]] exhibit. Stieglitz used a backdrop of ''The Warriors'' by [[Marsden Hartley]] to photograph the urinal. The exhibition entry tag can be clearly seen.<ref name="Tomkins, p. 186">Tomkins, ''Duchamp: A Biography'', p. 186.</ref>]] Disputes as to whether or not to classify something as a work of art are referred to as classificatory disputes about art. Classificatory disputes in the 20th century have included [[cubist]] and [[impressionist]] paintings, [[Duchamp]]'s ''[[Fountain (Duchamp)|Fountain]]'', the movies, [[J. S. G. Boggs]]' superlative imitations of banknotes, [[conceptual art]], and [[video games]].<ref>{{cite news |author=Deborah Solomon |author-link=Deborah Solomon |title=2003: the 3rd Annual Year in Ideas: Video Game Art |newspaper=The New York Times Magazine |date=14 December 2003 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/14/magazine/2003-the-3rd-annual-year-in-ideas-video-game-art.html |access-date=18 February 2017 |archive-date=1 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170401150120/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/14/magazine/2003-the-3rd-annual-year-in-ideas-video-game-art.html |url-status=live }}</ref> 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."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Novitz|first=David|date=1996|title=Disputes about Art|jstor=431087|journal=The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism|volume=54|issue=2|pages=153–163|doi=10.2307/431087|issn=0021-8529}}</ref> According to Novitz, classificatory disputes are more often disputes about societal values and where society is trying to go than they are about theory proper. For example, when the ''[[Daily Mail]]'' criticized [[Damien Hirst|Hirst]]'s and [[Tracey Emin|Emin]]'s work by arguing "For 1,000 years art has been one of our great civilising forces. 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.<ref>Painter, Colin. ''Contemporary Art and the Home''. Berg Publishers, 2002. p. 12. {{ISBN|1-85973-661-0}}</ref> 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. Cultural interpretation (an art theory of some kind) is therefore constitutive of an object's arthood."<ref>{{cite book| last = Dutton |first = Denis  |chapter-url = https://www.denisdutton.com/tribal_art.htm| chapter = Tribal Art| access-date = 27 January 2008| archive-date = 17 May 2020| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200517160426/https://www.denisdutton.com/tribal_art.htm| url-status = dead| title=Encyclopedia of Aesthetics |title-link=Encyclopedia of Aesthetics| editor = Michael Kelly |location = New York |publisher = Oxford University Press |year = 1998}}</ref><ref>Danto, Arthur. "Artifact and Art" in ''Art/Artifact'', edited by Susan Vogel. New York, 1988.</ref>

''[[Anti-art]]'' is a label for art that intentionally challenges the established parameters and values of art;<ref name=tate/> it is a term associated with [[Dada]]ism and attributed to [[Marcel Duchamp]] just before World War I,<ref name="tate">{{cite web| url = https://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=571| title = Glossary: Anti-art| access-date = 23 January 2010| archive-date = 10 September 2009| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090910173718/https://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=571| url-status = dead |publisher = [[Tate]]}}</ref> when he was making art from [[found object]]s.<ref name=tate/> One of these, ''[[Fountain (Duchamp)|Fountain]]'' (1917), an ordinary urinal, has achieved considerable prominence and influence on art.<ref name=tate/> Anti-art is a feature of work by [[Situationist International]],<ref>{{cite web| last = Schneider |first = Caroline |url = https://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-78637292.html| title = Asger Jorn| access-date = 24 January 2010| archive-date = 13 May 2011| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110513081709/https://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-78637292.html| url-status = dead |work = [[Artforum]] |date = 1 September 2001 |via = encyclopedia.com}}</ref> the lo-fi [[Mail art]] movement, and the [[Young British Artists]],<ref name=tate/> though it is a form still rejected by the [[Stuckism|Stuckists]],<ref name=tate/> who describe themselves as [[anti-anti-art]].<ref>{{cite web| last = Ferguson |first = Euan |url = https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2003/apr/20/thesaatchigallery.art2| title = "In bed with Tracey, Sarah ... and Ron"| website = [[TheGuardian.com]]| date = 20 April 2003| access-date = 11 December 2016| archive-date = 21 December 2016| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161221074757/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2003/apr/20/thesaatchigallery.art2| url-status = live}}, ''[[The Observer]]'', 20 April 2003. Retrieved on 2 May 2009.</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.artnet.com/Magazine/news/artnetnews/artnetnews10-27-00.asp| title = Stuck on the Turner Prize| access-date = 22 January 2010| archive-date = 21 June 2017| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170621214830/https://www.artnet.com/Magazine/news/artnetnews/artnetnews10-27-00.asp| url-status = live | work = [[artnet]] |date = 27 October 2000}}</ref>

Architecture is often included as one of the visual arts; however, like the [[decorative arts]], or advertising, 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.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Glancey |first1=Jonathan |title=Is advertising art? |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/is-advertising-art-1593252.html |work=The Independent |date=26 July 1995 |access-date=18 August 2017 |archive-date=30 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170830112024/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/is-advertising-art-1593252.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Value judgment===
[[File:Aboriginal hollow log tomb.jpg|thumb|upright|Aboriginal hollow log tombs. National Gallery, [[Canberra]], Australia.]]

Somewhat in relation to the above, the word ''art'' is also used to apply judgments of value, as in such expressions as "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 understood that what is not somehow aesthetically satisfying 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 3 May 1808 is a graphic depiction of a firing squad executing several pleading civilians. 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'.<ref name="AddisonBurgess2012">{{cite book|author1=Nicholas Addison|author2=Lesley Burgess|title=Debates in Art and Design Education|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qOY10gcBeP8C|year=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-61887-8|page=97|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225423/https://books.google.com/books?id=qOY10gcBeP8C|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="FergusonMansbach2008">{{cite book|author1=Yale H. Ferguson|author-link2=Richard W. Mansbach|author2=Richard W. Mansbach|title=A World of Polities: Essays on Global Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=adOTAgAAQBAJ|year=2008|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-98149-5|pages=38–39|access-date=28 May 2018|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805225422/https://books.google.com/books?id=adOTAgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

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 what is aesthetically appealing. Indeed, the reverse is often true, that 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 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]]''. Art is often intended to appeal to and connect with human emotion. It can arouse [[aesthetic]] or [[morality|moral]] feelings, and can be understood as a way of communicating these feelings. Artists express something so that their audience is aroused to some extent, but they do not have to do so consciously. Art may be considered an exploration of the [[human condition]]; that is, what it is to be human.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Graham |first1=Gordon |title=Philosophy of the arts: an introduction to aesthetics |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2005}}</ref>

By extension, it has been argued by Emily L. Spratt that the development of [[generative artificial intelligence]], especially in regard to [[artificial intelligence art]], necessitates a re-evaluation of aesthetic theory in art history today and a reconsideration of the limits of human creativity.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Spratt|first=Emily L.|date=3 April 2018|title=Computers and art in the age of machine learning|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324232798|journal=XRDS: Crossroads|language=en|publisher=ACM: Association for Computing Machinery|volume=24|issue=3|pages=8–20|doi=10.1145/3186697|s2cid=4714734|access-date=12 November 2019|archive-date=25 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220225074041/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324232798_Computers_and_art_in_the_age_of_machine_learning|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite arXiv|last1=Spratt|first1=Emily L.|last2=Elgammal|first2=Ahmed|date=29 September 2014|title=Computational Beauty: Aesthetic Judgment at the Intersection of Art and Science|eprint=1410.2488|class=cs.CV}}</ref> [[Music and artificial intelligence]] has taken a similar path. So too has the use of [[Large language model|large language models]] in generating creative texts.

==Art and law==
An essential legal issue are art [[forgeries]], [[plagiarism]], [[replica]]s and works that are strongly based on other works of art.

Intellectual property law plays a significant role in the art world. Copyright protection is granted to artists for their original works, providing them with exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, and display their creations. This safeguard empowers artists to govern the usage of their work and safeguard against unauthorized copying or infringement.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Aragon |first=Lorraine V. |date=2022-01-02 |title=Pluralities of Power in Indonesia's Intellectual Property Law, Regional Arts and Religious Freedom Debates |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00664677.2022.2042793 |journal=Anthropological Forum |language=en |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=20–40 |doi=10.1080/00664677.2022.2042793 |s2cid=248300879 |issn=0066-4677 |archive-date=21 July 2023 |access-date=21 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230721224503/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00664677.2022.2042793 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The trade in works of art or the export from a country may be subject to legal regulations. Internationally there are also extensive efforts to protect the works of art created. The [[UN]], [[UNESCO]] and [[Blue Shield International]] try to ensure effective protection at the national level and to intervene directly in the event of armed conflicts or disasters. This can particularly affect museums, archives, art collections and excavation sites. This should also secure the economic basis of a country, especially because works of art are often of tourist importance. The founding president of Blue Shield International, [[Karl von Habsburg]], explained an additional connection between the destruction of cultural property and the cause of flight during a mission in Lebanon in April 2019: "Cultural goods are part of the identity of the people who live in a certain place. If you destroy their culture, you also destroy their identity. Many people are uprooted, often no longer have any prospects and as a result flee from their homeland."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=15207&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html|title=UNESCO Legal Instruments: Second Protocol to the Hague Convention of 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict 1999|access-date=25 February 2022|archive-date=25 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210825150547/https://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID%3D15207%26URL_DO%3DDO_TOPIC%26URL_SECTION%3D201.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Roger O'Keefe, Camille Péron, Tofig Musayev, Gianluca Ferrari: Protection of Cultural Property. Military Manual. UNESCO, 2016.</ref><ref name="unifil.unmissions.org">{{cite web| url = https://unifil.unmissions.org/action-plan-preserve-heritage-sites-during-conflict| title = UNIFIL – Action plan to preserve heritage sites during conflict, 12 Apr 2019.| date = 12 April 2019| access-date = 19 December 2020| archive-date = 26 July 2020| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200726081110/https://unifil.unmissions.org/action-plan-preserve-heritage-sites-during-conflict| url-status = live}}</ref><ref>Friedrich Schipper: "Bildersturm: Die globalen Normen zum Schutz von Kulturgut greifen nicht" (German – The global norms for the protection of cultural property do not apply), In: Der Standard, 6 March 2015.</ref><ref>Corine Wegener, Marjan Otter: Cultural Property at War: Protecting Heritage during Armed Conflict. In: The Getty Conservation Institute, Newsletter 23.1, Spring 2008.</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Christoph |last=Matzl |title=Austrian Armed Forces Mission in Lebanon |date=28 April 2019 |url=https://www.krone.at/1911689 |language=de |access-date=19 December 2020 |archive-date=26 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200526200932/https://www.krone.at/1911689 |url-status=live }}</ref>  In order to preserve the [[Cultural diversity|diversity]] of [[cultural identity]], [[UNESCO]] protects the [[Living Human Treasure|living human treasure]] through the [[Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage]].

==See also==
{{Portal|The arts|Visual arts}}
<!-- Please keep entries in alphabetical order and add a short description [[WP:SEEALSO]] -->
{{Div col|colwidth=20em|small=no}}
* [[Artist-in-residence]]
* [[Artistic freedom]]
* [[Cultural tourism]]
* [[Craftivism]]
* [[Akpanta, Nigeria|Idoma Artifact]]
* [[List of art media]]
* [[List of art techniques]]
* [[Mathematics and art]]
* [[Outline of the visual arts]], a guide to the subject of art presented as a tree structured list of its subtopics.
* [[Visual impairment in art]]{{div col end}}
<!-- please keep entries in alphabetical order -->

===Works cited===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last=Fortenberry |first=Diane |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YsxDswEACAAJ |title=The Art Museum |date=2017 |publisher=Phaidon Press |isbn=978-0-7148-7502-6 |edition=Revised |location=London |access-date=2021-04-23 |archive-date=2021-04-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423220204/https://books.google.com/books?id=YsxDswEACAAJ |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last1=Hodge |first1=Susie |title=The Short Story of Art |date=2017 |publisher=Laurence King Publishing |isbn=978-1-78067-968-6}}
{{refend}}

=== Bibliography ===
* [https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/887 Intentions by Oscar Wilde]<ref>
{{Citation |title=Intentions |last=Wilde |first=Oscar |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Intentions |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220702055635/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Intentions |archive-date=July 2, 2022 |place=ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON |publisher=METHUEN & CO. LTD. |year=1921 |type=full text free online |access-date=2025-07-28 |edition=14th |language=en-US |id=Q108143261 |via=[[Wikisource]]}}</ref>
* [[Katharine Gilbert|Katharine Everett Gilbert]] and Helmut Kuhn, ''A History of Esthetics''. Edition 2, revised. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1953.
* Stephen Davies, ''Definitions of Art'', 1991<ref>{{Citation |title=Definitions of art |last=Davies |first=Stephen |pages=243 |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/681699632?oclcNum=681699632 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250729085304/https://search.worldcat.org/title/681699632?oclcNum=681699632 |archive-date=July 29, 2025|place=Ithaca, N.Y |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=1991 |language=en-US |isbn=9781501721182}}</ref>
* [[Nina Felshin]], ed. ''But is it Art?'', 1995<ref>{{Citation |title=But is it art? |last=Felshin |first=Nina |pages=412 |place=Seattle, Washington, United States of America |publisher=Bay Press |year=1995 |ol=1111056M |type=full text free online |language=en-US |lccn=94036846 |oclc=31243239 |id=OL18271419W }}</ref>
* [[Catherine de Zegher]] (ed.). ''Inside the Visible''. MIT Press, 1996 <ref>{{Citation |title=Inside the Visible |last=Zegher |first=Catherine |date=1996-03-06 |pages=495 |place=Cambridge |publisher=[[The MIT Press]] |type= |language=en-US |isbn=9780262540810 |ol=10238038M |oclc=35136509 |id=OL8889217W }}</ref>
* Evelyn Hatcher, ed. ''Art as Culture: An Introduction to the Anthropology of Art'', 1999
* Noel Carroll, ''Theories of Art Today'', 2000
* John Whitehead. ''Grasping for the Wind'', 2001
* [[Michael Ann Holly]] and Keith Moxey (eds.) ''Art History Aesthetics Visual Studies''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. {{ISBN|0300097891}}
* Shiner, Larry. ''[[The Invention of Art: A Cultural History]]''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. {{ISBN|978-0-226-75342-3}}
* [[Arthur Danto]], ''The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art.'' 2003
* [[Dana Arnold]] and Margaret Iversen, eds. ''Art and Thought''. London: Blackwell, 2003. {{ISBN|0631227156}}
* Jean Robertson and Craig McDaniel, ''Themes of Contemporary Art, Visual Art after 1980'', 2005

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* Cole, Ina, ''From the Sculptor’s Studio: Conversations with Twenty Seminal Artists'' (London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd, 2021) {{ISBN|9781913947590}} {{OCLC|1420954826}}.
* Antony Briant and [[Griselda Pollock]], eds. ''Digital and Other Virtualities: Renegotiating the image''. London and NY: I.B. Tauris, 2010. {{ISBN|978-1441676313}}
* Augros, Robert M., Stanciu, George N. ''The New Story of Science: mind and the universe'', Lake Bluff, Ill.: Regnery Gateway, 1984. {{ISBN|0-89526-833-7}} (this book has significant material on art and science)
* [[Benedetto Croce]]. ''Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic'', 2002
* Botar, Oliver A.I. Technical Detours: ''The Early Moholy-Nagy Reconsidered''. Art Gallery of The Graduate Center, The City University of New York and The Salgo Trust for Education, 2006. {{ISBN|978-1599713571}}
* Burguete, Maria, and Lam, Lui, eds. (2011). ''Arts: A Science Matter''. World Scientific: Singapore. {{ISBN|978-981-4324-93-9}}
* [[Carol Armstrong]] and [[Catherine de Zegher]], eds. ''Women Artists at the Millennium''. Massachusetts: October Books/The MIT Press, 2006. {{ISBN|026201226X}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Art | volume= 2|author-link=Sidney Colvin |last=Colvin |first=Sidney | pages = 657–660}}
* [[Carl Jung]], ''Man and His Symbols''. London: Pan Books, 1978. {{ISBN|0330253212}}
* [[E.H. Gombrich]], ''The Story of Art''. London: Phaidon Press, 1995. {{ISBN|978-0714832470}}
* Florian Dombois, [[Ute Meta Bauer]], Claudia Mareis and Michael Schwab, eds. ''Intellectual Birdhouse. Artistic Practice as Research''. London: Koening Books, 2012. {{ISBN|978-3863351182}}
* [[Kristine Stiles]] and [[Peter Selz]], eds. ''Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986
* Kleiner, Gardner, Mamiya and Tansey. ''Art Through the Ages, Twelfth Edition (2 volumes)'' Wadsworth, 2004. {{ISBN|0-534-64095-8}} (vol 1) and {{ISBN|0-534-64091-5}} (vol 2)
* [[Richard Wollheim]], ''Art and its Objects: An introduction to aesthetics''. New York: Harper & Row, 1968. {{OCLC|1077405}}
* [[Will Gompertz]]. ''What Are You Looking At?: 150 Years of Modern Art in the Blink of an Eye''. New York: Viking, 2012. {{ISBN|978-0670920495}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links|art}}
{{Library resources box
|by=no
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|others=no
|about=yes
|label=Art }}
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* [https://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=DicHist/uvaBook/tei/DicHist1.xml;chunk.id=dv1-17;toc.depth=1;toc.id=dv1-17;brand=default;query=Dictionary%20of%20the%20History%20of%20Ideas#1 ''Art and Play'' from the Dictionary of the History of ideas]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160306190600/https://witcombe.sbc.edu/arthlinks.html In-depth directory of art]
* ''[https://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/art-design/artandartistfiles/ Art and Artist Files in the Smithsonian Libraries Collection]'' (2005) Smithsonian Digital Libraries
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120716205617/https://www.ahds.ac.uk/ Visual Arts Data Service (VADS)] – online collections from UK museums, galleries, universities
* [https://www.RevolutionArtMagazine.com/ RevolutionArt – Art magazines with worldwide exhibitions, callings and competitions]
* {{cite SEP |url-id=art-definition |title=The Definition of Art |last=Adajian |first=Thomas}}
* {{iep|url-id=definition-of-art|title=Definition of Art}}
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{{aesthetics}}
{{Art world}}
{{Branches of the visual arts}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Art| ]]
[[Category:Concepts in aesthetics]]
[[Category:The arts]]
[[Category:Visual arts]]