What is the Definition of Art?

CEBU, Philippines - There are several ways we could go about defining art. I could tell you that art plays a large part in making our lives infinitely rich. Imagine, just for a minute, a world without art! You may think "So what?" but please consider the impact that lack of graphics would have on your favorite video game.

Art stimulates different parts of our brains to make us laugh or incite us to riot, with a whole gamut of emotions in between. Art gives us a way to be creative and express ourselves. For some people, art is the entire reason they get out of bed in the morning. You could say "Art is something that makes us more thoughtful and well-rounded humans."

On the other hand, art is such a large part of our everyday lives that we may hardly even stop to think about it. Look at the desk or table where you are, right this minute. Someone designed that. It is art. Your shoes are art. Your coffee cup is art. All functional design, well done, is art. So, you could say "Art is something that is both functional and, hopefully, aesthetically pleasing to our eyes."

You might say "Art is in a constant state of change, so nobody can really pin down what it is." The constant change part is true, but think again about the not pinning it down part. It may raise a comment or two about your being some sort of wisenheimer.

Or you might even say "Art is subjective, and means something different to every single person on earth." This, too, is the truth. I would caution against this, however, as it would require a stack of paper from here to the moon in order to cite all 6.8 billion references.

Now, everything just stated has elements of truth, but is largely based on opinion. My opinion is, frankly, my opinion. Try to form your own opinions; it's a good way to get yourself educated on the subject. To help get you started, you need the fundamental facts about art.

Art is form and content. Which means all art consists of these two things. "Form," in this context, is concrete and fairly easily described, no matter which piece of art is under scrutiny.

Let's suppose, for instance, that one half of all art is form. Let's consider Goya's "The Shootings of May Third, 1808." We would then study how Goya used color, value, space and line - the elements of art. He used balance, contrast, emphasis and proportion - the principles of design. He composed the aforementioned elements and principles on canvas, using brushes and oil paints - the physical materials.

The example just given employed a work of Western art, and was written in English. It doesn't take much of a leap in imagination, though, to understand that the concepts behind "form" could be applied to any piece of art, created anywhere on earth, at any time, using any language. With that, we have successfully covered "form."

"Content," now, gets a little more tricky. Content is idea-based and means three things: what the artist meant to portray, what the artist actually did portray, and how we react, as individuals, to both the intended and actual messages. Additionally, content includes ways in which a work of art was influenced - by religion, or politics, or society in general, or even the artist's use of hallucinogenic substances - at the time it was created. All of these factors, together, make up the content side of art.

Returning to the Goya example, you might comment on the fact that the shootings were an actual event. Napoleon had invaded Spain, at the time, and subjected the country to six years of war and revolution (political and social influences). There had been a revolt by citizens of Madrid, and they were summarily executed (historical context). Goya, obviously, didn't think this was good and recorded the stark horror for all posterity. And he was successful at conveying that which he meant to convey. We react to the painting in our different ways - usually with mixed feeling of revulsion, anger and sorrow.

Again, we are discussing content using one picture as an example, but the same parameters apply to any piece of art.

(Source: http://arthistory.about.com/cs/reference/f/what_is_art.htm) (FREEMAN)