An artwork is a kind of object that exhibits certain properties or generates particular experiences and emotions. Artwork can be created using a variety of mediums, including paintings, sculptures, and photographs. Unlike industrial or technical objects, artworks serve as a symbol of social kinds, and thus they have a role in fostering the development and stability of human culture.
What makes an object an artwork, however, is controversial. Some people have proposed a functional definition of art, which involves identifying a kind of object that fulfills some sort of utilitarian purpose. Others have favored a more aesthetic definition, which focuses on describing the aesthetic properties or experiences that an artwork elicits. A more recent proposal is a hybrid, which combines functional and aesthetic properties into one framework.
Despite their differences, all of these definitions attempt to capture some aspect of the nature of an artwork. This article will focus on a functional definition of art, since it has the advantage of being less prone to the intractable problems that plague enumerative definitions. The other types of definitions, which connect artworks to some kind of intended function or functional properties, will be addressed in a subsequent article.
In addition to serving as a form of communication, fine art provides opportunities for psychological exploration and human connection. By challenging existing narratives, leveraging a diverse range of techniques and inviting viewers into complex emotional landscapes, artists utilize their chosen mediums as profoundly powerful communicative tools.
An important aspect of an artwork is its relationship to a cultural context and history. Many artworks are associated with an artistic movement, a set of practices with a common aim or philosophy that is followed by a group of artists for a period of time. For example, Claude Monet’s paintings are often associated with Impressionism, a movement that originated in the nineteenth century. Other works are credited to individual artists or specific periods in time, such as the Renaissance or the Baroque.
The conventionalist definitions of art are a response to this problem. The synchronic institutionalism and the historical conventionalism, which are the two main variants of this approach, both hold that an object is an artwork if it satisfies certain criteria that are typical for a particular art form or if it is part of an artistic tradition.
These definitions have their own issues, including the fact that they fail to distinguish between a genuine art movement and a fad or style. Furthermore, they may overlook the importance of a work’s idiosyncratic qualities, such as its ability to trigger flow state in the brain (which is characterized by increased theta wave activity in frontal regions and moderate alpha wave activity in the central areas). Regardless of their shortcomings, conventionalist definitions have the advantage of providing a useful framework for discussing and categorizing art. Other methods of defining art, such as the resemblance-to-a-paradigm approach and the Deweyan notion of aesthetic experience, have been criticized for failing to provide sufficient characterizations of what it is that makes something an artwork.