Whether it’s a Van Goh painting, a Monet landscape or Eric Carle’s simple die-cut books, art is the means by which we express our own creativity and share that of others. However, it’s not always easy to pin down exactly what art is. What we do know is that there are many different types of art, and that each form has its own purpose and meaning.
The word “art” comes from the Latin “arte”, which means, literally, to “make” or to “create.” Since prehistoric times, art has been a way of grasping the world around us — not just the physical world of objects and actions, but also the human worlds of culture, social relations and spiritual experience. Art can express the full spectrum of emotions and thoughts, in a way that words are incapable of doing. It can even be a means of conveying the meaning of religion or philosophy to those who are unfamiliar with it.
Art can take on a variety of forms, from the highly crafted paintings and sculptures of the Renaissance to the improvisational dance and performance works of the modern era. Even the simplest forms of artistic expression, like drawing and photography, have their place as an important part of our culture. The most difficult thing to define, though, is the purpose of art. It has been a powerful cultural force for thousands of years, but it’s not clear why, or how, it achieves this impact.
There are multiple definitions of art, but some key elements include the idea that it represents a universal truth or an idealized reality and that it is created with a high level of skill. It can also be a way of communicating ideas or feelings to people, a tool for teaching or inspiring, and a means of spiritual upliftment. Art can also be a symbolic representation of a culture’s beliefs and traditions, or serve ritualistic or ceremonial purposes.
Conventional definitions of art have been challenged by the emergence, throughout the twentieth century, of artworks that seem to differ radically from those created before them. This has made it difficult to compare them, and to understand how they relate to each other.
Some artists have taken this to mean that they are not supposed to produce work that looks a lot like their contemporaries; they should be solitary mavericks, like Salvador Dali with his cultivated eccentricity. Other artists, such as Robert Christgau, have developed an extremely refined and rigorous form of criticism that seeks to create a consistent standard for judging art. And, of course, new forms of art are constantly arising that challenge these standards. They often look nothing like what has come before them, but they still have something to tell us about our culture and ourselves.