Artworks are pieces of physical or digital media that have been created to express a range of ideas and emotions. The meaning of an artwork can change over time as societal values and perspectives evolve, reflecting current issues that people care about. Artworks can also be viewed as objects of beauty, appealing to our basic human instinct for harmony, balance and rhythm.
The nature of art is a complex subject that is explored in various philosophical fields, such as aesthetics. Theories of art focus on how artworks are created and interpreted, as well as their social and cultural significance. Artworks are studied by professionals in the fields of art history and art criticism.
Creating artworks can have positive effects on the mind and body, including reduced stress levels, improved self-esteem and increased productivity. In addition, art therapy can help patients with mental illnesses, such as depression and schizophrenia. It is also known that observing artworks can stimulate the brain and cause an altered state of consciousness, similar to meditation.
One of the most debated questions about art is whether it can be defined in terms of its intended functions. Traditional definitions of art connect it with aesthetic properties and judgments, but different aesthetic theories take a broad range of views about what these properties or judgments should be.
A more recent cluster theorist approach defines art in terms of a set of resemblance criteria: something is an artwork if it resembles, in certain ways, paradigm artworks that possess most although not all of the characteristics that make them such, and if it is identifiable as such by an informed and competent observer. This approach avoids commitment to any constitutive view of what constitutes an artwork, but it is not clear that it provides a useful way to distinguish between art and non-art.
Artworks can be created using a variety of techniques and mediums, such as paint, sculpture, video and photography. Many artists use multiple techniques in their work, and some even combine several styles of art into single works. Artworks can be categorized into specific art movements, which are groups of artistic styles that share a common aim or philosophy. For example, Claude Monet’s paintings are associated with Impressionism, a movement that arose in the nineteenth century.
Artworks can be made public (which means everyone can see them on Discover Portfolio) or private (only you can view them). You can also add collections to artworks to organize and filter them. You can also tag artworks to describe them and to identify the medium or technique they were created with. Adding tags to artworks helps others find them and can be helpful when searching for art in the future. You can also edit your artworks’ privacy at any time.