Art is not merely a form of art but the culmination of artistic production. It includes all the diverse ranges of activities undertaken with the purpose of visualizing a thing or bringing it into existence by any imaginative process. Art includes motion pictures, architectural structures, photographic images, sounds, and even computer generated images. Although art originally refers to visual art, today, it has become more broad.
Art is a vast array or subject of human activity ranging from the mundane to the sublime, beauty, emotion, intelligence, or other aesthetic interests. The word comes from the Greek word ‘aktor’ meaning to make something beautiful or attractive. Artworks in the broad sense can be anything, however, the term has a wider context that includes not only the visual art but also books, movies, installations, sculptures, and literature. Art is considered to be universal when it relates to the beauty of everyday objects. In contrast, art is considered unique or personal when it relates to the beauty of artworks made by a particular artist.
The definition of beauty is an extremely complex concept, especially because aesthetics combines the aspects of many other disciplines. According to some experts, beauty is the result of psychological and bodily responses that appear natural to the human body. Others argue that beauty arises from the psychological capacities of the mind and personality of an object. Still, others say that beauty is the sole physical state. Intrinsic or independent beauty exists and is independent of personal aesthetic judgments. Nevertheless, aesthetic artworks do possess inherent qualities that relate to beauty, such as proportion, coherence, and balance.
The discipline of aesthetics has been the subject of intense discussion over the last few decades, particularly with the advent of new media such as the internet. The debate concerns the definitions of beauty, the relationships between art and aesthetics, and the value different people give to different aesthetically pleasing works. The key points of discussion are also used to explain the relationship between art and other disciplines such as science, technology, and medicine. Here are a few examples to give you a sense of how the definitions of beauty can overlap and become intertwined with other areas of study.
Just as there are many different types of art, so there are many different perspectives on what constitutes an aesthetic object. Some suggest that art form is merely a communication tool, helping us to express ideas that cannot be expressed through words or gestures. Others believe that art is merely a form of physical activity, where an artistic reaction occurs in the physical world before the viewing of the art. An extreme version of this view is the idea that art is meaningless, because the end results are only on the canvas or in the eyes of the beholder. In order for an aesthetic judgment to be meaningful, the object must satisfy some pre-referential, meta-referential, and grounding requirements.
There are many different key points of debate concerning the nature of art. Some experts compare art to music, pointing out that each has an internal, creative structure, while other experts believe that art has a purely objective, external structure. These arguments can often become very heated, but it is important to remember that art is subjective, and that the definition of beauty may vary from person to person. If you have an interest in art, a good way to approach the subject is to learn about the key points of discussion and then to build on those key points, ultimately developing your own unique personal definition of beauty.