Art and forms of art www.canleyvale.hs.education.nsw.gov.au

FORMS OF ART means the type of artwork such as drawing,

painting, sculpture (carving, modelling, assemblage and
construction) architecture, printmaking, electronic media such as
computer and digital graphics, ceramics, Visual Design, Graphic
Design, collage, photography and Post Modern appropriation and

recontextualisation.
There is a LANGUAGE which is used to describe the Arts. This
language is explained by using examples of student work and
brief summaries. Extra information is available in the many texts
and reference books available. This in not comprehensive but a

student research tool for beginners in Art.

VISUAL ARTS is where an artist uses MEDIA (materials, images,

signs and symbols) and the available TECHNOLOGY to
communicate about the self as expression, or the world as
narrative or propaganda, promotion, illusion, imagination,
teaching or prediction.
The Visual Arts are about art for society, art for the self, art for
religion, art for profit and art for art’s sake.
Types of art are as varied as media, subject matter and
technology allow.
Art can be painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, computer
and digital graphics, architecture, ceramics and Visual Design
which covers the more functional works of art.
Subject Matter  
What the art work is about. The title usually gives a clue.  Subject Matter is divided into:
 
 
Objects
OBJECTS – Functional or useful objects, Still life, found objects
and objects used as symbols of ownership, culture or value.
Objects venerated (sacred) as religious symbols or used to

represent strong feelings or fantasy.

REPRESENTATIONAL – looks like something, represents

something even if it is not realistic.

Still Life                          

FORM - Collage   

 
 
People

PEOPLE – Portraits of specific people or the Human Figure used

in stories of heroes or gods, or used for religion or self-discovery
or personality. The Human Figure has been used in art as
expression of feelings, as objects of reverence, as symbols of
fertility or death, strength or weakness, humorous or didactic

(teaching).

FORM - Painting 
 
 
Other living things
OTHER LIVING THINGS – Plants and animals from land, air and
sea, used to decorate, as part of story or as a study in
themselves. Many animals and plants have been use as symbols
or motifs for design or expression of feelings, humour or themes
and issues.
 

 
FORM - Silk Screen Print
 

Places and Spaces

PLACES and SPACES – Landscapes, Seascapes, Cityscapes,

Interiors, maps or keys to location. Places in fantasy or personal

experiences.

Landscape
FORM - Painting 

 
Events

EVENTS –Important Events in Life – birth, death, sickness or

work. Historical, Public or Social Events- wars, coronations, ship-

wrecks, executions, festivals or plagues.
Spiritual or Religious – Events within religious teachings.

FORM - Ink Drawing and washes

 

Issues and Themes

ISSUES and THEMES – where art deals with issues or topics,

which cause debate such as feminism, multiculturalism, pollution
or animal rights. Some are controversial others universal. Art
which deals with themes such as abstraction, colour, love, hate,

technology, cruelty, confrontation etc.

 
 

FORM - Collage
Other Words or concepts used in the Visual Arts ...
 
 
Media  Material or substance used to make an Art work

Pastel

Collage
MEDIA means the materials or substance the artist uses to make
art works.
For example oil paint on canvas, acrylic, tempera or water paints.
Drawing media includes pencil, pens and ink, charcoal and
pastels. Sculptural media includes clay, wax and bronze, wood,
metals, which are welded, junk or found or ready made media
assembled by sculptors, plastics and wires, stone especially
marble and even earth works.
MEDIA can also mean the images, signs and symbols that artists

use in their artworks.

Acrylic Paint
 

Technique  
 How the Artwork is made, the methods used:

 
TECHNIQUE – means the manner of making or method used in
achieving an artwork. The manner of artistic execution or
performance or the skills used in making artworks. For example,
traditional western oil painting on canvas or the Impressionists
“dab” technique. The coiling technique in pottery or the

photographic silk screen print making technique.

 
 
Ink and brush - Post Modern
 
 
Print Making
 

PRINT MAKING is where the artist uses TECHNOLOGY that

allows more than one work to be produced. This is done using the
traditional method of wood block/ lino printing or etching where
a groove is carved or etched into the surface and ink is applied
then transferred to paper using a press.  In Modern times silk

screen printing and Lithography have been developed. 

Silk screen uses stencils where holes are cut and the ink is
squeezed through using a screen and squeegee. Photographic
silkscreen print making is used now, especially for fabric and "T"

shirts.

Lithography is where a moist ink resistant block is painted with ink

Silk Screen Printmaking 
attractive emulsion and then inked and transferred to paper.

 
Sculpture
 
SCULPTURE is the word used to describe an artwork which has
three dimensions, height, width and depth. most sculpture is free
standing but can be in RELIEF where the form stands out from a
flat background. Relief sculpture decorates the walls of many
buildings. 
Sculpture is traditionally made by  carving wood or stone, or by
modelling clay and then casting the form in bronze. Modern
sculptors have made use of the new technology and materials to
construct artworks in many different media using techniques of

gluing and welding, nailing or wiring.

Architecture The art of building. 

Visual Design
DESIGN - is the deliberate choice and layout of elements in a
work of painting, drawing, photograph, collage, computer graphics
or three dimensional form such as furniture, appliances or
furnishings, which acts as a prototype for production and

commercial release. Visual  Design is a Process 

Style
 STYLE – means the manner of an artwork, the way it looks which
can be recognised as characteristic of a person, school or culture
eg the styles of Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Cubism, the Aztecs or
Egyptians, the style of Dali or Picasso which can be identified by

its characteristic elements.

Punk Rock Assemblage

 

Process
PROCESS – means the sequence of action, the steps taken
when making an art work usually involving developing ideas by
experimentation, exploring different ways of solving problems,
manipulating these ideas and appropriate media by evaluating

success and resolving the work for presentation.

Practice
PRACTICE – the way that an artwork is made and studied that is
the practice of Art Making, Art Criticism and Art History.
Practice of making art works involves ideas, beliefs,
interpretations, intentions, skills, technology and actions.
Art Criticism involves personal judgment, evaluation and
interpretation.
Art History involves looking at how the artwork fits into history,

into a sequence of events and into the surrounding culture.

Function
 FUNCTION- the task, the job, the purpose of an artwork such as
telling stories or narrative, to inspire magic, to celebrate an event,
to decorate, art for religious instruction and worship, to imitate
nature, for personal pleasure or art for art’s sake such as
exploring the emotional effects of the elements or developing

visual effects with media or technology.

Abstract

ABSTRACT ART – means it is non representational, it does not

look like anything, it does not represent anything seen. It may
cause the viewer to think of ideas but it does not copy the seen

world or contain images.

Abstracted
 ABSTRACTED – means to be made less realistic by distortion or
exaggeration of images as the Cubists or German Expressionists

do. An image is changed, made less obvious.

Conceptual

CONCEPTUAL ART – means art where the idea or concept is

more important than the seen image. Conceptual art is usually
abstracted or performance art. Conceptual Art uses elements to
suggest deeper thoughts to trigger thoughts in the viewer rather
than appreciation of skilled imagery. Most artworks have a
conceptual side to it as most art works make the audience think
about a concept. Tribal Art is strongly conceptual so is most

modern and Post Modern art.

Representational
REPRESENTATIONAL – looks like something, represents
something even if it is not realistic.
                     

                        
 

 
 

Realistic

REALISTIC – looks like a seen subject.

  Naturalistic
 NATURALISTIC – Looks as though it is from nature. Natural in

pose, gesture, setting and imagery.

Notes:

What Art Is:

The Esthetic Theory of Ayn Rand,

by Louis Torres and Michelle Marder Kamhi

"While Ayn Rand, the famous author, retains the traditional classification of art as well as the idea that the arts are
essentially mimetic in nature she rejects the traditional view that the primary purpose of art is to afford pleasure and
convey value through the creation of beauty, which she does not regard as a defining attribute. In her view, the
primary purpose of art is much broader: it is the meaningful objectification of whatever is metaphysically important
to man. For Rand, every art work whether of painting, sculpture, literature, music, or dance is a 'selective re-creation
of reality' that serves to objectify, in an integrated form, significant aspects of its creator's basic 'sense of life.'

"Further, Rand holds that the distinctive character of each of the major branches of art derives from--is determined
by--a specific mode of human perception and cognition. As a consequence, she argues that, technological
innovations notwithstanding, no truly new categories of art are possible, only recombinations and variants of the
primary forms which have existed since prehistory.

"According to Rand, art serves a vital psychological need that is at once cognitive and emotional. Only through art, in
her view, can man summon his values into full conscious focus, with the clarity and emotional immediacy of direct
perception. For Rand, then, art is a unique means of integrating the physical and psychological aspects of human
existence. Thus she not only identifies what art is, in terms of essential characteristics, she also provides an enriched
appreciation of the importance of art in human life. Moreover, in so doing, she makes clear why much of what the
artworld has promoted as the art of the past hundred years is, by objective standards, a perversion of the very
concept."

"What Is Art?" (excerpts)

by Leo Tolstoy

www.csulb.edu
 CHAPTER FIVE (excerpts). . .

#1. In order correctly to define art, it is necessary, first of all, to cease to consider it as a means to pleasure and to
consider it as one of the conditions of human life. Viewing it in this way we cannot fail to observe that art is one of
the means of intercourse between man and man.

#2. Every work of art causes the receiver to enter into a certain kind of relationship both with him who produced, or
is producing, the art, and with all those who, simultaneously, previously, or subsequently, receive the same artistic
impression.

#3. Speech, transmitting the thoughts and experiences of men, serves as a means of union among them, and art acts
in a similar manner. The peculiarity of this latter means of intercourse, distinguishing it from intercourse by means of
words, consists in this, that whereas by words a man transmits his thoughts to another, by means of art he transmits
his feelings.

#4. The activity of art is based on the fact that a man, receiving through his sense of hearing or sight another man's
expression of feeling, is capable of experiencing the emotion which moved the man who expressed it. To take the
simplest example; one man laughs, and another who hears becomes merry; or a man weeps, and another who hears
feels sorrow. A man is excited or irritated, and another man seeing him comes to a similar state of mind. By his
movements or by the sounds of his voice, a man expresses courage and determination or sadness and calmness, and
this state of mind passes on to others. A man suffers, expressing his sufferings by groans and spasms, and this
suffering transmits itself to other people; a man expresses his feeling of admiration, devotion, fear, respect, or love
to certain objects, persons, or phenomena, and others are infected by the same feelings of admiration, devotion,
fear, respect, or love to the same objects, persons, and phenomena.

#5. And it is upon this capacity of man to receive another man's expression of feeling and experience those feelings
himself, that the activity of art is based.

#6. If a man infects another or others directly, immediately, by his appearance or by the sounds he gives vent to at
the very time he experiences the feeling; if he causes another man to yawn when he himself cannot help yawning, or
to laugh or cry when he himself is obliged to laugh or cry, or to suffer when he himself is suffering - that does not
amount to art.

#7. Art begins when one person, with the object of joining another or others to himself in one and the same feeling,
expresses that feeling by certain external indications. To take the simplest example: a boy, having experienced, let us
say, fear on encountering a wolf, relates that encounter; and, in order to evoke in others the feeling he has
experienced, describes himself, his condition before the encounter, the surroundings, the woods, his own
lightheartedness, and then the wolf's appearance, its movements, the distance between himself and the wolf, etc.
All this, if only the boy, when telling the story, again experiences the feelings he had lived through and infects the
hearers and compels them to feel what the narrator had experienced is art. If even the boy had not seen a wolf but
had frequently been afraid of one, and if, wishing to evoke in others the fear he had felt, he invented an encounter
with a wolf and recounted it so as to make his hearers share the feelings he experienced when he feared the world,
that also would be art. And just in the same way it is art if a man, having experienced either the fear of suffering or
the attraction of enjoyment (whether in reality or in imagination) expresses these feelings on canvas or in marble so
that others are infected by them. And it is also art if a man feels or imagines to himself feelings of delight, gladness,
sorrow, despair, courage, or despondency and the transition from one to another of these feelings, and expresses
these feelings by sounds so that the hearers are infected by them and experience them as they were experienced by
the composer.

#8. The feelings with which the artist infects others may be most various - very strong or very weak, very important
or very insignificant, very bad or very good: feelings of love for one's own country, self-devotion and submission to
fate or to God expressed in a drama, raptures of lovers described in a novel, feelings of voluptuousness expressed in
a picture, courage expressed in a triumphal march, merriment evoked by a dance, humor evoked by a funny story,
the feeling of quietness transmitted by an evening landscape or by a lullaby, or the feeling of admiration evoked by a
beautiful arabesque - it is all art.

#9. If only the spectators or auditors are infected by the feelings which the author has felt, it is art.
#10. To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then, by means of
movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that feeling that others may experience
the same feeling - this is the activity of art.

#11. Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on
to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and also experience
them.

#12. Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as
the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression
of man's emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but
it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and
progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity.

#13. As, thanks to man's capacity to express thoughts by words, every man may know all that has been done for him
in the realms of thought by all humanity before his day, and can in the present, thanks to this capacity to understand
the thoughts of others, become a sharer in their activity and can himself hand on to his contemporaries and
descendants the thoughts he has assimilated from others, as well as those which have arisen within himself; so,
thanks to man's capacity to be infected with the feelings of others by means of art, all that is being lived through by
his contemporaries is accessible to him, as well as the feelings experienced by men thousands of years ago, and he
has also the possibility of transmitting his own feelings to others.

#14. If people lacked this capacity to receive the thoughts conceived by the men who preceded them and to pass on
to others their own thoughts, men would be like wild beasts, or like Kaspar Houser.

#15. And if men lacked this other capacity of being infected by art, people might be almost more savage still, and,
above all, more separated from, and more hostile to, one another.

#16. And therefore the activity of art is a most important one, as important as the activity of speech itself and as
generally diffused.

#17. We are accustomed to understand art to be only what we hear and see in theaters, concerts, and exhibitions,
together with buildings, statues, poems, novels. . . . But all this is but the smallest part of the art by which we
communicate with each other in life. All human life is filled with works of art of every kind - from cradlesong, jest,
mimicry, the ornamentation of houses, dress, and utensils, up to church services, buildings, monuments, and
triumphal processions. It is all artistic activity. So that by art, in the limited sense of the word, we do not mean all
human activity transmitting feelings, but only that part which we for some reason select from it and to which we
attach special importance.

#18. This special importance has always been given by all men to that part of this activity which transmits feelings
flowing from their religious perception, and this small part of art they have specifically called art, attaching to it the
full meaning of the word.

#19. That was how man of old -- Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle - looked on art. Thus did the Hebrew prophets and the
ancient Christians regard art; thus it was, and still is, understood by the Mohammedans, and thus it still is
understood by religious folk among our own peasantry.

#20. Some teachers of mankind - as Plato in his Republic and people such as the primitive Christians, the strict
Mohammedans, and the Buddhists -- have gone so far as to repudiate all art.

#21. People viewing art in this way (in contradiction to the prevalent view of today which regards any art as good if
only it affords pleasure) considered, and consider, that art (as contrasted with speech, which need not be listened
to) is so highly dangerous in its power to infect people against their wills that mankind will lose far less by banishing
all art than by tolerating each and every art.

#22. Evidently such people were wrong in repudiating all art, for they denied that which cannot be denied - one of
the indispensable means of communication, without which mankind could not exist. But not less wrong are the
people of civilized European society of our class and day in favoring any art if it but serves beauty, i.e., gives people
pleasure.
#23. Formerly people feared lest among the works of art there might chance to be some causing corruption, and
they prohibited art altogether. Now they only fear lest they should be deprived of any enjoyment art can afford, and
patronize any art. And I think the last error is much grosser than the first and that its consequences are far more
harmful.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

#24. Art, in our society, has been so perverted that not only has bad art come to be considered good, but even the
very perception of what art really is has been lost. In order to be able to speak about the art of our society, it is,
therefore, first of all necessary to distinguish art from counterfeit art.

#25. There is one indubitable indication distinguishing real art from its counterfeit, namely, the infectiousness of art.
If a man, without exercising effort and without altering his standpoint on reading, hearing, or seeing another man's
work, experiences a mental condition which unites him with that man and with other people who also partake of
that work of art, then the object evoking that condition is a work of art. And however poetical, realistic, effectful, or
interesting a work may be, it is not a work of art if it does not evoke that feeling (quite distinct from all other
feelings) of joy and of spiritual union with another (the author) and with others (those who are also infected by it).

#26. It is true that this indication is an internal one, and that there are people who have forgotten what the action of
real art is, who expect something else form art (in our society the great majority are in this state), and that therefore
such people may mistake for this aesthetic feeling the feeling of diversion and a certain excitement which they
receive from counterfeits of art. But though it is impossible to undeceive these people, just as it is impossible to
convince a man suffering from "Daltonism" [a type of color blindness] that green is not red, yet, for all that, this
indication remains perfectly definite to those whose feeling for art is neither perverted nor atrophied, and it clearly
distinguishes the feeling produced by art from all other feelings.

#27. The chief peculiarity of this feeling is that the receiver of a true artistic impression is so united to the artist that
he feels as if the work were his own and not someone else's - as if what it expresses were just what he had long been
wishing to express. A real work of art destroys, in the consciousness of the receiver, the separation between himself
and the artist - not that alone, but also between himself and all whose minds receive this work of art. In this freeing
of our personality from its separation and isolation, in this uniting of it with others, lies the chief characteristic and
the great attractive force of art.

#28. If a man is infected by the author's condition of soul, if he feels this emotion and this union with others, then
the object which has effected this is art; but if there be no such infection, if there be not this union with the author
and with others who are moved by the same work - then it is not art. And not only is infection a sure sign of art, but
the degree of infectiousness is also the sole measure of excellence in art.

#29. The stronger the infection, the better is the art as art, speaking now apart from its subject matter, i.e., not
considering the quality of the feelings it transmits.

#30. And the degree of the infectiousness of art depends on three conditions:

1. On the greater or lesser individuality of the feeling transmitted;

2. on the greater or lesser clearness with which the feeling is transmitted;
3. on the sincerity of the artist, i.e., on the greater or lesser force with which the artist himself feels the
emotion he transmits.

#31. The more individual the feeling transmitted the more strongly does it act on the receiver; the more individual
the state of soul into which he is transferred, the more pleasure does the receiver obtain, and therefore the more
readily and strongly does he join in it.

#32. The clearness of expression assists infection because the receiver, who mingles in consciousness with the
author, is the better satisfied the more clearly the feeling is transmitted, which, as it seems to him, he has long
known and felt, and for which he has only now found expression.

#33. But most of all is the degree of infectiousness of art increased by the degree of sincerity in the artist. As soon as
the spectator, hearer, or reader feels that the artist is infected by his own production, and writes, sings, or plays for
himself, and not merely to act on others, this mental condition of the artist infects the receiver; and contrariwise, as
soon as the spectator, reader, or hearer feels that the author is not writing, singing, or playing for his own
satisfaction - does not himself feel what he wishes to express - but is doing it for him, the receiver, a resistance
immediately springs up, and the most individual and the newest feelings and the cleverest technique not only fail to
produce any infection but actually repel.

#34. I have mentioned three conditions of contagiousness in art, but they may be all summed up into one, the last,
sincerity, i.e., that the artist should be impelled by an inner need to express his feeling. That condition includes the
first; for if the artist is sincere he will express the feeling as he experienced it. And as each man is different from
everyone else, his feeling will be individual for everyone else; and the more individual it is - the more the artist has
drawn it from the depths of his nature - the more sympathetic and sincere will it be. And this same sincerity will
impel the artist to find a clear expression of the feeling which he wishes to transmit.

#35. Therefore this third condition - sincerity - is the most important of the three. It is always complied with in
peasant art, and this explains why such art always acts so powerfully; but it is a condition almost entirely absent
from our upper-class art, which is continually produced by artists actuated by personal aims of covetousness or
vanity.

#36. Such are the three conditions which divide art from its counterfeits, and which also decide the quality of every
work of art apart from its subject matter.

#37. The absence of any one of these conditions excludes a work form the category of art and relegates it to that of
art's counterfeits. If the work does not transmit the artist's peculiarity of feeling and is therefore not individual, if it is
unintelligibly expressed, or if it has not proceeded from the author's inner need for expression - it is not a work of
art. If all these conditions are present, even in the smallest degree, then the work, even if a weak one, is yet a work
of art.

#38. The presence in various degrees of these three conditions - individuality, clearness, and sincerity - decides the
merit of a work of art as art, apart from subject matter. All works of art take rank of merit according to the degree in
which they fulfill the first, the second, and the third of these conditions. In one the individuality of the feeling
transmitted may predominate; in another, clearness of expression; in a third, sincerity; while a fourth may have
sincerity and individuality but be deficient in clearness; a fifth, individuality and clearness but less sincerity; and so
forth, in all possible degrees and combinations.

#39. Thus is art divided from that which is not art, and thus is the quality of art as art decided, independently of its
subject matter, i.e., apart from whether the feelings it transmits are good or bad.

#40. But how are we to define good and bad art with reference to its subject matter?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Tolstoy characterizes art in terms of the relationship of the observer/perceiver both to the artist and to
others who perceive the work. What is the nature of that relationship?
2. He believes that art is an important condition of human life, as it is used to communicate human feelings or
emotions. What are examples of this communication? Precisely how does this communication work,
according to Tolstoy? What is needed for successful communication of emotions through art?
3. We communicate our feelings and emotions in ways other than art. What are examples of some of those
other ways? What is unusual about the communication through art?
4. This artistic communication uses "external signs," according to Tolstoy (#11). What might be examples of
these "signs." How are the "signs" used by artists different from, say, traffic signs or directional arrows in a
public building? How is this "communication" with "external signs" different from "expression" with
"external signs"? (#12)
5. Art is not about the production of "pleasure," Tolstoy claims. Use the "find" command on your browser (or
word-processing program) to search for the passages where he refers to "pleasure." What does he seem to
mean by "pleasure"? Is he consistent in these passages in his usage of "pleasure"? What does he seem so
hostile to this as a way of understanding art?
6. Tolstoy lists several other proposals for understanding art that he rejects. (#12) Does his proposal seem
more compelling than those he rejects? Why?
 7. Tolstoy seems to accept a hierarchy in which there is "art" of everyday life and higher art imbued with
religious perception (#17-18). Is this a plausible distinction? Is it consistent with distinctions you make? Does
it explain the cultural importance of art?
8. Tolstoy discusses Plato's views on art (#19-23). What elements of Plato's view does he consider he? Does he
agree with Plato on any of his views on art? With what does he disagree?
9. How does Tolstoy propose that we distinguish "real art" from "counterfeit art" (#24-28)? Is this a workable
test? What problems do you see with it? Can you think of counter-examples that would challenge his view of
how to make this distinction?
10. Tolstoy uses the test of infectiousness, not only as a descriptive measure for what should count as art, but
also as a standard for good art (#28-32). What does he mean by this standard? How does he suggest we
apply this test to evaluate art? Is this a useful proposal for evaluating the quality of art? If you disagree with
this proposal, how would you challenge it?
11. How does "sincerity" function in Tolstoy's theory? Use the "find" command to consider all the passages
where he refers to "sincerity." Is this a useful proposal for understanding and appreciating art? Can we ever
be deceived about an artist's sincerity? How would Tolstoy respond to such a concern about deception?
12. Tolstoy values what he calls "peasant art" because of its sincerity (#35). Compare Tolstoy's discussion of
"peasant art" with the praise by Clive Bell less than twenty years later of "primitive art" (Art, #16). Is their
reasoning similar in any ways? How is it different? Do you think their praise of such art was coincidental?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Question: What Is Art?

http://arthistory.about.com

Note: This is a question that pops up around once a month, typically from a student who is stumped and pressed for
time. My answer, a compilation of replies, is as follows.

Answer:

There are several ways you could go on this, but my suspicion is that one will get you better results than the others.

I could tell you that art plays a large part in making our lives infinitely rich. Imagine, just for a minute, a world
without art! (You may think "So what?" but please consider the impact that lack of graphics would have on your
favorite video game.) Art stimulates different parts of our brains to make us laugh or incite us to riot, with a whole
gamut of emotions in between. Art gives us a way to be creative and express ourselves. For some people, art is the
entire reason they get out of bed in the morning. You could say "Art is something that makes us more thoughtful and
well-rounded humans."

On the other hand, art is such a large part of our everyday lives that we may hardly even stop to think about it. Look
at the desk or table where you are, right this minute. Someone designed that. It is art. Your shoes are art. Your
coffee cup is art. All functional design, well done, is art. So, you could say "Art is something that is both functional
and (hopefully) aesthetically pleasing to our eyes."

You might say "Art is in a constant state of change, so nobody can really pin down what it is." The constant change
part is true, but the not pinning it down part is going to get you a bad grade. It may even raise a comment or two
about your being some sort of wisenheimer. Don't go this route.

You might even say "Art is subjective, and means something different to every single person on earth." This, too, is
the truth. I would caution against this approach, however, as it would require a stack of paper from here to the
moon to cite all of your 6.8 billion references.

Now, everything just stated has elements of truth, but is largely based on opinion. My opinion is, frankly, useless in
your paper-writing endeavor. Form your own opinions (that should be the reason you are receiving an education,
after all), and be sure to sprinkle them in your answer ... which needs a factual basis, so here are the cold hard facts:

Art is form and content.

"Art is form and content" means: All art consists of these two things.

Form means:

 The elements of art,

 the principles of design and
 the actual, physical materials that the artist has used.</LI.< ul>

Form, in this context, is concrete and fairly easily described--no matter which piece of art is under scrutiny.

Suppose you've written: "One half of all art is form. Here is how Goya's The Shootings of May Third, 1808 fits in."
You would then go on to provide details about how Goya used color, value, space and line (elements of art). He
used balance, contrast, emphasis and proportion (principles of design). He composed the aforementioned
elements and principles on canvas, using brushes and oil paints (the physical materials).

The example just given employed a work of Western art, and was written in English. It doesn't take much of a leap
in imagination, though, to understand that the concepts behind "form" could be applied to any piece of art,
created anywhere on earth, at any time, using any language. With that, we have successfully covered "form."

Content, now, gets a little more tricky. Content is idea-based and means:

 What the artist meant to portray,

 what the artist actually did portray and
 how we react, as individuals, to both the intended and actual messages.

Additionally, content includes ways in which a work was influenced--by religion, or politics, or society in general,
or even the artist's use of hallucinogenic substances--at the time it was created. All of these factors, together,
make up the content side of art.

Returning to the Goya example, you might comment on the fact that the shootings were an actual event.
Napoleon had invaded Spain, at the time, and subjected it to six years of war and revolution (political and social
influences). There had been a revolt by citizens of Madrid, and they were summarily executed (historical context).
Goya, obviously, didn't think this was good and recorded the stark horror for all posterity. (He was successful at
conveying that which he meant to convey.) We react to the painting in our different ways - usually with mixed
feeling of revulsion, anger and sorrow.

Again, we are discussing content using one picture as an example, but the same parameters apply to any piece of
art.

That's my best reply, then. The first four paragraphs are applicable - with infinite variations, up to, and including,
"The way my girlfriend puts on her eyeshadow is art." Just be sure that your main argument includes "Art is form
and content." You can certainly think of some great examples using works of art that you know and/or enjoy.
Now. Go get cracking on that paper and, next time, don't wait until the last minute.

What is Art ? What is an Artist ?

An exhibition exploring the perception of ART     
and the identity of the ARTIST     
through HISTORY     
and in CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY     

www.arthistory.sbc.edu

INTRODUCTION
               ART has not always been what we think it is today. An object regarded as Art today may not have been
perceived as such when it was first made, nor was the person who made it necessarily regarded as an artist. Both the
notion of "art" and the idea of the "artist" are relatively modern terms.

           Many of the objects we identify as art today -- Greek painted pottery, medieval manuscript illuminations, and
so on -- were made in times and places when people had no concept of "art" as we understand the term. These
objects may have been appreciated in various ways and often admired, but not as "art" in the current sense.

           ART lacks a satisfactory definition. It is easier to describe it as the way something is done -- "the use of skill and
imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others"
(Britannica Online) -- rather than what it is.

           The idea of an object being a "work of art" emerges, together with the concept of the Artist, in the 15th and
16th centuries in Italy.

           During the Renaissance, the word Art emerges as a collective term encompassing Painting, Sculpture, and
Architecture, a grouping given currency by the Italian artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari in the 16th century.
Subsequently, this grouping was expanded to include Music and Poetry which became known in the 18th century as
the 'Fine Arts'. These five Arts have formed an irreducible nucleus from which have been generally excluded the
'decorative arts' and 'crafts', such as as pottery, weaving, metalworking, and furniture making, all of which have
utility as an end.

           But how did Art become distinguished from the decorative arts and crafts? How and why is an artist different
from a craftsperson?

           In the Ancient World and Middle Ages the word we would translate as 'art' today was applied to any activity
governed by rules. Painting and sculpture were included among a number of human activities, such as shoemaking
and weaving, which today we would call crafts.
           During the Renaissance, there emerged a more exalted perception of art, and a concomitant rise in the social
status of the artist. The painter and the sculptor were now seen to be subject to inspiration and their activities
equated with those of the poet and the musician.
           In the latter half of the 16th century the first academies of art were founded, first in Italy, then in France, and
later elsewhere. Academies took on the task of educating the artist through a course of instruction that included
such subjects as geometry and anatomy. Out of the academies emerged the term "Fine Arts" which held to a very
narrow definition of what constituted art.
           The institutionalizing of art in the academies eventually provoked a reaction to its strictures and definitions in
the 19th century at which time new claims were made about the nature of painting and sculpture. By the middle of
the century, "modernist" approaches were introduced which adopted new subject matter and new painterly values.
In large measure, the modern artists rejected, or contradicted, the standards and principles of the academies and
the Renaissance tradition. By the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, artists began to formulate
the notion of truth to one's materials, recognizing that paint is pigment and the canvas a two-dimensional surface. At
this time the call also went up for "Art for Art's Sake."
           In the early 20th century all traditional notions of the identity of the artist and of art were thrown into disarray
by Marcel Duchamp and his Dada associates. In ironic mockery of the Renaissance tradition which had placed the
artist in an exalted authoritative position, Duchamp, as an artist, declared that anything the artist produces is art. For
the duration of the 20th century, this position has complicated and undermined how art is perceived but at the same
time it has fostered a broader, more inclusive assessment of art.