Usage
The modern use of the word "art", which rose to prominence after
1750, is commonly understood to be skill used to produce an aesthetic result
(Hatcher, 1999). Britannica Online defines it as "the use of skill and
imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences
that can be shared with others"[1]. By any of these definitions of the
word, artistic works have existed for almost as long as humankind, from early
pre-historic art to contemporary art.
Many books and journal articles have been written which discuss what we mean by the term "art" (Davies, 1991 and Carroll, 2000). Walt Weaver claimed in 1998 "It is self-evident that nothing concerning art is self-evident any more." (Danto, 2003). ø
The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night, September 1888.The first, broadest sense of "art" is the one that has stayed closest to the older Latin meaning, which roughly translates to "skill" or "craft", and also from an Indo-European root meaning "arrangement" or "to arrange". In this sense, art is whatever is described as having undergone a deliberate process of arrangement by an agent. A few examples where this meaning proves very broad include artifact, artificial, artifice, artillery, medical arts, and military arts. However, there are many other colloquial uses of the word, all with some relation to its etymology.
The second, more recent, sense of the word “art” is roughly as an abbreviation for creative art or “fine art.” Here we mean that skill is being used to express the artist’s creativity, or to engage the audience’s aesthetic sensibilities, or to draw the audience towards consideration of the “finer” things. Often, if the skill is being used in a lowbrow or practical way, people will consider it a craft instead of art. Likewise, if the skill is being used in a commercial or industrial way, it will be considered Commercial art instead of art. On the other hand, crafts and design are sometimes considered applied art. Some thinkers 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 (Novitz, 1992). However, even fine art often has goals beyond just pure creativity and self-expression. The purpose of works of art may be to communicate ideas, such as in politically-, spiritually-, or philosophically-motivated art, to create a sense of beauty (see “aesthetics”), to explore the nature of perception, for pleasure, or to generate strong emotions. The purpose may also be seemingly nonexistent.
The ultimate derivation of 'fine' in 'fine art' comes from the ancient Greek philosophy of Aristotle, who proposed four causes or explanations of a thing. The Final Cause of a thing is the purpose for its existence, and the term 'fine art' is derived from this notion. If the Final Cause of an artwork is simply the artwork itself, "art for art's sake", and not a means to another end, then that artwork could appropriately be called 'fine'. The closely related concept of beauty is classically defined as "that which when seen, pleases". Pleasure is the Final Cause of beauty, and so is not a means to another end, but is an end in itself.
Art can describe several kinds of things: a study of creative skill, a process of using the creative skill, a product of the creative skill, or the audience’s experiencing of the creative skill. The creative arts (“art”’ as discipline) are a collection of disciplines (“arts”) which produce artworks (“art” as objects) that is compelled by a personal drive (“art” as activity) and echoes or reflects a message, mood, or symbolism for the viewer to interpret (“art” as experience). Artworks can be defined by purposeful, creative interpretations of limitless concepts or ideas in order to communicate something to another person. Artworks can be explicitly made for this purpose or interpreted based on images or objects.
Art is something that visually stimulates an individual's thoughts, emotions, beliefs or ideas. Art is a realized expression of an idea-it can take many different forms and serve many different purposes.
Though the application of scientific theories to derive a new scientific
theory involves skill and results in the "creation" of something
new, this is not categorized as art, but as science only.
