What IS Art, Exactly?

BEFORE You Read This ...

You might like to play the game I played ...

Think of your own best definition of "art" - not easy, I know.  Then, compare the various definitions I've gathered below, and see what works.  Chances are, it'll be your own definition you like best.  The good news is, there really couldn't be a wrong definition - art is what you feel it is, nay?

If you want to see what Stanford University thinks - check this (it's long!).

First, my own quick definition:

Art by Martin

Art is anything created with the intent of conveying a message or a feeling, and eliciting a response in the beholder.  It is a universal language that nobody quite knows how to speak - because, it nearly always involves the subconscious.  We tend not to value art greatly, yet somehow we cannot be without it.  If someone asks you "What does this piece of art mean to you", a valid response might be "Its personal".  Because surely no two people's response is going to be the same.  And therefore, we needn't generally be concerned with what the artist meant - they may not even know themselves. There!

Now, the Googled definitions:

• the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

• the various branches of creative activity, such as painting, music, literature, and dance.

• The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power. -‘the art of the Renaissance’ - ‘great art is concerned with moral imperfections’ -‘she studied art in Paris’

• Works produced by human creative skill and imagination.

• Creative activity resulting in the production of paintings, drawings, or sculpture.

• A skill at doing a specified thing, typically one acquired through practice. -‘the art of conversation’

• Art is a diverse range of human activities in creating visual, auditory or performing artifacts (artworks), expressing the author's imaginative or technical skill, intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power.

• the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects

• There is no one universal definition of art but there is a general consensus that art is the conscious creation of something beautiful or meaningful using skill and imagination.

• Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist

• Art is a discovery and development of elementary principles of nature into beautiful forms suitable for human use.

• Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.

• The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.

• All art is but imitation of nature.

• Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.

• Art is the signature of civilizations.

• Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that others are infected by these feelings and also experience them.

• Art consists of paintings, sculpture, and other pictures or objects which are created for people to look at and admire or think deeply about

• We work in the dark—we do what we can—we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.

• Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man's emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity.

(there's many, many more definitions out there!)