Art refers to a diverse range of human activities, creations, and expressions that are appealing or attractive to
the senses or have some significance to the mind of an individual. The word \"art\" may be used to cover all or
any of the arts, including music, literature and other forms. It is most often used to refer specifically to the visual
arts, i l di media such as painting, sculpture, and printmaking. H
t including di h i ti l t d i t ki However it can also b applied t f
l be li d to forms of art
f t
that stimulate the other senses, such as music, an auditory art. Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy which
considers art.
Traditionally the term art was used to refer to any skill or mastery, a concept which altered during the Romantic
p
period, when art came to be seen as \"a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and
, p y g
science\". [1] Generally art is a (product of) human activity, made with the intention of stimulating the human
senses as well as the human mind; by transmitting emotions and/or ideas. Beyond this description, there is no
general agreed‐upon definition of art. Art is also able to illustrate abstract thought and its expressions can elicit
previously hidden emotions in its audience.
The evaluation of art has become especially problematic since the 20th century Richard Wollheim distinguishes
century.
three approaches: the Realist, whereby aesthetic quality is an absolute value independent of any human view;
the Objectivist, whereby it is also an absolute value, but is dependent on general human experience; and the
Relativist position, whereby it is not an absolute value, but depends on, and varies with, the human experience
of different humansAn object may be characterized by the intentions, or lack thereof, of its creator, regardless of
its apparent purpose. A cup, which ostensibly can be used as a container, may be considered art if intended
solely as an ornament, while a painting may be deemed craft if mass‐produced.
Visual art is defined as the arrangement of colors, forms, or other elements \"in a manner that affects the sense
of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium\". The nature of art has been
described by Wollheim as \"one of the most elusive of the traditional problems of human culture\".[It has been
described by Wollheim as one of the most elusive of the traditional problems of human culture It has been
defined as a vehicle for the expression or communication of emotions and ideas, a means for exploring and
appreciating formal elements for their own sake, and as mimesis or representation.Leo Tolstoy identified art as a
use of indirect means to communicate from one person to another.[5] Benedetto Croce and R.G. Collingwood
advanced the idealist view that art expresses emotions, and that the work of art therefore essentially exists in
the mind of the creator.[Art as form has its roots in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and was developed in the
h i d f h f h i i h hil h f l d d l di h
early twentieth century by Roger Fry and Clive Bell. Art as mimesis or representation has deep roots in the
philosophy of Aristotle