Artworks are cultural objects that have aesthetic value and may serve other functions. These can include the expression of ideas or emotions, the communication of history, the preservation of culture, ritualistic purposes and even a sense of mystery. Art can take many forms including paintings, sculptures, dances and theatre.
The function of art may be social, economic or moral. It can also be used as a form of propaganda to influence public perceptions or mood, or it can be utilized for commercialism and advertising. Historically, art has been a source of enjoyment for the general public, and it is still often appreciated by people worldwide.
An important function of art is to stimulate the imagination. It can do this by offering a wide range of shapes, sizes and colours to be considered in the mind’s eye. It can also offer a way to experience the world in a different way. For example, a piece of music can transport the listener to another time and place. Art can give a more holistic view of the human condition, and allow people to feel connected to other cultures and geographical locations.
One of the most popular uses of art is to provide a relaxing and therapeutic experience for the viewer. Indulging in a creative activity such as making art can activate brain networks including relaxed reflective state and enhanced problem-solving skills. This is especially true for children who can use their imaginations to solve the challenges that they face in creating a work of art.
Some philosophers have argued that the definition of an artwork is insufficiently inclusive, and that it should be more broadly defined as “an arrangement intended to afford an experience of marked aesthetic character” or, to use Monroe Beardsley’s term, a “class of arrangements”. This approach, known as the resemblance or family-resemblance view, avoids committing to any constitutive claims about art’s nature.
Other philosophers have developed more conventionalist views. One of these, called institutionalism, or simply institutionalist conventionalism, has a synchronic form that holds that something is an artwork if it is deemed to be an artifact of a certain kind by an artworld audience; and a diachronic version that holds that an artwork must have some art-historical relation with other artifacts of a similar kind.
A third approach, called pragmatic or vernacular, takes a more modest position about what is and is not an artwork. It argues that something is an artwork if it is (1) an object or display that possesses an aesthetic quality and (2) the objective qualities of such objects are judged by non-experts to be aesthetically significant. This approach has been criticized as weak, as it fails to capture the essential features of an artwork and allows the expert to define what is and is not an artwork by decree. For this reason, it has not become the dominant approach among philosophers.