Art is a wide variety of human creations that serve utilitarian, decorative, therapeutic, communicative and intellectual purposes. Some of these functions may overlap with others; for example, many pieces of art are designed to be both beautiful and emotionally moving. Art is an activity that has existed throughout history and can be found in a variety of forms, from drawings to sculptures to paintings to digital media.
The concept of art is a complex one, and its definition is often disputed. Classical definitions, like those of the Royal Academy in the eighteenth century, imply that art is any object whose underlying intention is to appeal to and connect with human emotions and feelings. This category includes such objects as religious artwork, musical compositions and literature. It also encompasses certain functional objects, such as furniture and architecture.
A second way to define art is as any form of visual expression. This approach is often used in discussions of modern and contemporary art, although it can be applied to a much wider range of artistic activities than just painting and drawing. Some examples of art that fall into this category include dance, music, movies and theater.
The third way to define art is as a medium for self-expression. This function is common to most forms of art, and it is especially useful for expressing complex ideas or emotions. It can also be used to convey the historical or cultural significance of an event or individual.
Other purposes of art can be to commemorate significant events or individuals, to create beauty for the eyes, to record observations and discoveries and to communicate ideas. Since the beginning of time, humans have created art for these reasons as well as for more practical ones.
In addition, art has been a tool for religions to illustrate Biblical texts and miracles. It has also been a vehicle for political protest and a means of memorialization.
Some philosophers, particularly those influenced by Martin Heidegger, believe that the essence of art is in its capacity to produce a sense of truth in a culture. This sense of truth is a springboard from which “that which is” can be revealed, and it is inherently changed each time a new work of art enters a culture.
It is worth noting that even the most conventionalist of definitions of art do not provide a complete and stable definition. A number of arguments, including cognitive science, suggest that any attempt to create a definition of art that provides individually necessary and jointly sufficient conditions for a thing to be art is doomed to failure. This is because, according to these arguments, the concepts that people use to categorize art are based on their similarity to prototypes rather than on any property of artworks themselves.