what is the purpose of art essay

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What is Art? Why is Art Important?

What is art? – The dictionary definition of art says that it is “the conscious use of skill and creative imagination , especially in the production of aesthetic objects” (Merriam-Webster). Art is essential to society as it stimulates creativity , reflects culture, fosters empathy, provokes thought, and offers a medium for expression. It enhances society’s intellectual and emotional understanding of the world.

But the thing about art is that it’s so diverse that there are as many ways to understand it as there are people.

That’s why there are scholars who give their special definition of the word, such as the one penned by this famous Russian novelist, which goes:

“Art is the activity by which a person, having experienced an emotion, intentionally transmits it to others” – Leo Tolstoy

During his life, Tolstoy was known to write based on his life experiences, such as his most famous work, “War and Peace,” which used much of his experience during the Crimean War.

Whether or not his definition of art is the best, the point is that people look at art based on how they have experienced it.

What is Art?

There are many common definitions of art as per many books by famous artists and authors . Few to quote:

• any creative work of a human being
• a form of expressing oneself
• resides in the quality of doing; the process is not magic
• an act of making something visually entertaining
• an activity that manifests beauty ( What is Beauty in Art? )
• the mastery, an ideal way of doing things
• not a thing — it is a way (Elbert Hubbard)
• the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known
• discovery and development of elementary principles of nature into beautiful forms suitable for human use (Frank Lloyd Wright)

Why is Art Important?

Probably, the most prominent theory which best explains – Why is art important – is from Van Jones, which subtly provides a great response to What is art?

Van Jones presented a graph that accurately represents the interaction between the four aspects of society and its different members.

Consequently, Vones depicts why art is important to our society.

The graph (below) represents our society.

Society is driven by the powerful elites, the dependent masses, the government, cultural producers, and artists

On the left, you have action, and on the right, ideas; elites are at the top, and the masses are below. There’s an inside act and an outside act.

On the inside, there’s big money: elites are spending millions of dollars to influence politicians and policymakers. The inside act has the power to influence policy creators.

On the outside, we at the grassroots set our expectations and needs so that the elected candidates pass laws that give us power. Masses reflect what society wants (heart)

The left side, “action,” often means quantifiable policy changes. The right side, “ideas,” can be harder to see. We are not necessarily talking about concrete things here, but rather, a “headspace.”

Academic institutions and think tanks, which are not always involved in the immediate policy wins, are significant in creating a culture of thought

While the left side, “action,” continues to produce quantifiable policy changes and new laws, the right side, “ïdeas,” can be hard to quantify its outcome. Although “head” talks about theories and academics, it fails to contribute significantly to policymakers.

Artists come into the play here at this moment

Artists are represented here on the side of ideas, in the “heart space.”

Art is uniquely positioned to move people—inspiring us, inciting new questions, and provoking curiosity, excitement, and outrage.

Artists can strengthen the will and push people to act. They do not think like policymakers or academics people.

Artists think from their heart – big, revolutionary, and visionary ideas.

This is why artists are able to move people to action, thus creates a significant cultural and political contributions.

This is what makes art powerful.

Impact of Art on Politics, Culture, and People

Art is essential in society because it is an essential ingredient in empowering people’s hearts.

When activists show images of children suffering from poverty or oppression in their campaigns, this is the art of pulling the heartstrings of society’s elite and powerful to make changes.

Similarly, when photographers publish photos of war-torn areas, it catches the attention of the masses whose hearts reach out to those who need help.

When an artist creates great music and movies, it entertains people worldwide. This is art, making a difference in society.

A very modern example of art in action is street art. When the famous Italian street artist Blu created the mural in Kreuzberg , it sparked a lot of solid and different reactions rooted deeply in the differences between East and West Berlin.

Who would have thought that a wall painting depicting two masked figures trying to unmask each other could elicit such strong reactions?

Now, the issue behind this mural is a different matter to discuss. But whether or not the effect of the mural was good, it cannot be denied how a well-crafted piece of art can have a significant impact on society.

Art is also a remarkable mode of depicting culture from all over the world

When you see a Zen garden in Sydney or San Francisco, you know that it’s a practice that originated from China.

Likewise, when you see paper swans swarming a beautiful wedding ceremony, you know that this is origami, an art from Japan.

When you see films featuring Bollywood music and dancing, you know that it’s a movie from India. Art can take cultural practices from their origins and transport and integrate them into different parts of the world without losing their identity.

There, these art forms can entertain, create awareness, and even inspire foreigners to accept these cultures, no matter how strange or alien they may seem.

And that’s precisely what John Dewey implies in Art as an Experience:

“Barriers are dissolved; limiting prejudices melt away when we enter into the spirit of Negro or Polynesian Art. This insensible melting is far more efficacious than the change effected by reasoning, because it enters directly into attitude.”

This is especially important in our highly globalized world.

Art has played an essential role in helping fight against intolerance of different cultures, racism, and other forms of unjust societal segregation.

With immigration becoming a trend, the world’s countries are expected to be more tolerant and accepting of those who enter their borders.

Art helps make that happen by making sure that identities and their cultures are given due recognition around the world.

Art stimulates creativity and innovation.

Art inspires creativity and innovation beyond boundaries, encouraging imagination, lateral thinking, and risk-taking. The process of creating art involves experimentation and novel ideas, which can influence progress in various industries.

Art also challenges perceptions and assumptions, encouraging critical thinking and open-mindedness, which are essential for innovation. By presenting alternative realities or questioning the status quo, art inspires individuals to think differently and to approach problems from unique angles.

Furthermore, the aesthetic experience of art can lead to epiphanies and insights.

The beauty or emotional impact of a piece of art can trigger ideas and spark the imagination in ways that logical reasoning alone may not. This can lead to breakthroughs in creative and scientific endeavors, as individuals draw inspiration from the emotions evoked by art.

Art plays a subtle yet significant role in our daily lives.

For instance, when a child takes part in a school art project, they are given a variety of materials to create a collage. As they construct a 3D model of an imaginary winged vehicle with multiple wheels, the textures and shapes inspire them. This hands-on exploration of materials and forms sparks the child’s interest in engineering and design, planting the seeds for future innovation.

The above example illustrates how art can engage young minds, encouraging them to think creatively and envision innovative solutions beyond conventional boundaries.

In essence, art fuels the creative fire, providing the sparks that can ignite the next wave of innovation in society.

Great Art elicits powerful sentiments and tells meaningful stories

Art can take the form of film, music, theatre, and pop culture , all of which aim to entertain and make people happy. But when films, songs, or plays are made for a specific audience or purpose, the art begins to diversify.

Films, for example, can be made to spread awareness or cultural appreciation. Songs can also be composed in a way that brings out certain emotions, give inspiration, or boost the morale of people.

During the Victorian period in England, women started to make a name for themselves with classic artworks such as Elizabeth Sirani’s “ Portia Wounding Her Thigh ”, a painting that signifies the message that a woman is now willing to distance herself from gender biasedness.

The painting’s subject depicts an act of a woman possessing the same strength as that of a man. “Portia” represents surrender because she isn’t the same type of woman known in society as weak and prone to gossip.

One of the revolutionary works in history that ultimately opened the doors of art to women in general showed the power of women in art

There are also works of art that illicit intellectual solid discourse – the kind that can question norms and change the behavior of society.

Sometimes, still, art is there to reach out to a person who shares the same thoughts, feelings, and experiences as the artist.

The truth is that art is more than just a practice – it is a way of life. Art is more than just a skill – it is a passion. Art is more than just an image – each one tells a story.

The fact that art is quite connected to human experience makes it unsurprising that we have always made it part of our ways of living.

This is why ancient and present-day indigenous groups from all over the world have a knack for mixing art and their traditional artifacts or rituals without them knowing, which in fact one of the fundamental reasons why art is essential.

Why is Art so Powerful?  Why is art important to human society?

Perhaps the most straightforward answer to this question is that art touches us emotionally.

Art is influential because it can potentially influence our culture, politics, and even the economy. When we see a powerful work of art, we feel it touching deep within our core, giving us the power to make real-life changes.

In the words of Leo Tolstoy:

“The activity of art is based on the capacity of people to infect others with their own emotions and to be infected by the emotions of others. Strong emotions, weak emotions, important emotions or irrelevant emotions, good emotions or bad emotions – if they contaminate the reader, the spectator, or the listener – it attains the function of art.”

In sum, art can be considered powerful because of the following reasons, among others:

• It has the power to educate people about almost anything. It can create awareness and present information in a way that could be absorbed by many quickly. In a world where some don’t even have access to good education, art makes education an even greater equalizer of society.
• It promotes cultural appreciation among a generation that’s currently preoccupied with their technology. It can be said that if it weren’t for art, our history, culture, and traditions would be in more danger of being forgotten than they already are.
• It breaks cultural, social, and economic barriers . While art can’t solve poverty or promote social justice alone, it can be a leveled playing field for discourse and expression. The reason why everyone can relate to art is that everyone has emotions and personal experiences. Therefore, anyone can learn to appreciate art regardless of social background, economic standing, or political affiliation.
• It accesses higher orders of thinking . Art doesn’t just make you absorb information. Instead, it makes you think about current ideas and inspire you to make your own. This is why creativity is a form of intelligence – it is a unique ability that unlocks the potential of the human mind. Studies have shown that exposure to art can improve you in other fields of knowledge.

The truth is that people have recognized how influential art can be.

Many times in history, I have heard of people being criticized, threatened, censored, and even killed because of their artwork.

Those responsible for these reactions, whether a belligerent government or a dissident group, take these measures against artists, knowing how much their works can affect the politics in a given area.

In the hands of good people, however, art can be used to give back hope or instill courage in a society that’s undergoing a lot of hardships.

Art is a powerful form of therapy .

Some say art is boring . But the fact remains that art has the power to take cultural practices from where they are from and then transport and integrate them into different parts of the world without losing their identity.

Art helps make that happen by making sure that identities and their cultures are given due recognition around the world. Thus, it is essential to reflect upon – Why art is critical – which, in fact, provides you the answer to – What is art?

This is why we at The Artist believe that art is a form of creative human expression, a way of enriching the human experience.

NFTs: The Future of Art

Now, the world of art is shifting towards a digital and alternative world. And NFT is becoming a game-changing variable in the future of art .

What is NFT artwork?

An NFT , which stands for “non-fungible token” can be defined as a digital file that can be simply and easily transferred across a blockchain network.

Many people around the world are seeking out these digital assets to sell and trade in their everyday market trading, since these items are able to be traced, have value and oftentimes also have considerable rarity for collectors.

While artistic works are certainly a part of the NFT market, a variety of different players are getting involved through gaming systems, avatars, and even entire virtual worlds.

Such tokens have a wide variety of usage and while for many these are out of reach, for serious investors NFTs can prove to be a profitable source of income.

Art plays a significant role in society by acting as an educational equalizer, fostering cultural appreciation, bridging cultural and social divides, and stimulating higher orders of thinking and creativity.

Art and its definition will always be controversial.

There will always be debates about what art is and what is not.

But no matter what the definition may be, it has been around us for as long as humans have existed (i.e. cave paintings, hieroglyphics).

Whether or not we are aware of it, we allow art to affect our lives one way or another, and the reasons why we make art are many!

We use the arts for our entertainment, cultural appreciation, aesthetics, personal improvement, and even social change. We use the arts to thrive in this world.

So, share your thoughts – What does art mean to you? Art plays a subtle yet significant role in our daily lives. For instance, when a child takes part in a school art project, they are given a variety of materials to create a collage. As they construct a 3D model of an imaginary winged vehicle with multiple wheels, the textures and shapes inspire them. This hands-on exploration of materials and forms sparks the child’s interest in engineering and design, planting the seeds for future innovation. This example illustrates how art can engage young minds, encouraging them to think creatively and envision innovative solutions beyond conventional boundaries.

Passionate experimenter with a heart for art, design, and tech. A relentless explorer of the culture, creative and innovative realms.

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Art, Its Functions and Purposes Essay (Critical Writing)

The concept of art is defined as a high-level skill in any field of creativity. Previously, it was believed that art is an activity that satisfies a person’s spiritual craving for something beautiful. The evolution of the norms of society and aesthetics and activities aimed at creating aesthetic objects in modern times are also called art (Frank 20). Aesthetics is philosophical teaching about the essence and forms of beauty in artistic creativity, nature, life, and art as a particular form of social consciousness. Any art has its own goals and functions, which carry a specific message to society.

The most common function of art is communication, which is aimed at ensuring that a person receives this or that information. Also, the purpose of art is to manage emotions, so its function is to help with relaxation or fun. Sometimes a protest is expressed through art, but art cannot be used directly as a political goal; it can only criticize any elements of political activity. Works of art are sometimes used for propaganda purposes to gradually change the tastes and moods of the public. Calligraphy is the art of beautiful writing, reflecting the integrity of individual letters and the entire text, harmony, form, and rhythm, which transmit written information (Frank 24). There are still many functions and purposes of art, each of which is significant for the spiritual development of people.

One of the most attractive and widespread types of art is fine art. I was attracted by the picture depicted by Claude Lorrain called Ascanius Shooting the Stage of Silvia . The sky in the picture is covered with thunderclouds, the trees are bent by the wind blowing from the left, and the exquisite temple of the Corinthian order has long been destroyed. The artist depicted the incredible picturesqueness and liveliness of nature. Picturesque is a specific property of the arts expressed in the dynamic interaction of forms, light, shadow, and lines, in which there is a vivid impression of general mobility, variability, and diversity of aspects. Looking at this picture, one can imagine the presence in the depicted place and see firsthand all the beauty of this place. This painting has several functions, for example, aesthetic; that is, it forms an aesthetic taste. In addition, it is cognitive since data about the event is transmitted through it.

Frank, Patrick. Prebles Artforms. Pearson, 2019.

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Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Art, Its Functions and Purposes." May 23, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/art-its-functions-and-purposes/.

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Essay on Art

500 words essay on art.

Each morning we see the sunshine outside and relax while some draw it to feel relaxed. Thus, you see that art is everywhere and anywhere if we look closely. In other words, everything in life is artwork. The essay on art will help us go through the importance of art and its meaning for a better understanding.

What is Art?

For as long as humanity has existed, art has been part of our lives. For many years, people have been creating and enjoying art.  It expresses emotions or expression of life. It is one such creation that enables interpretation of any kind.

It is a skill that applies to music, painting, poetry, dance and more. Moreover, nature is no less than art. For instance, if nature creates something unique, it is also art. Artists use their artwork for passing along their feelings.

Thus, art and artists bring value to society and have been doing so throughout history. Art gives us an innovative way to view the world or society around us. Most important thing is that it lets us interpret it on our own individual experiences and associations.

Art is similar to live which has many definitions and examples. What is constant is that art is not perfect or does not revolve around perfection. It is something that continues growing and developing to express emotions, thoughts and human capacities.

Importance of Art

Art comes in many different forms which include audios, visuals and more. Audios comprise songs, music, poems and more whereas visuals include painting, photography, movies and more.

You will notice that we consume a lot of audio art in the form of music, songs and more. It is because they help us to relax our mind. Moreover, it also has the ability to change our mood and brighten it up.

After that, it also motivates us and strengthens our emotions. Poetries are audio arts that help the author express their feelings in writings. We also have music that requires musical instruments to create a piece of art.

Other than that, visual arts help artists communicate with the viewer. It also allows the viewer to interpret the art in their own way. Thus, it invokes a variety of emotions among us. Thus, you see how essential art is for humankind.

Without art, the world would be a dull place. Take the recent pandemic, for example, it was not the sports or news which kept us entertained but the artists. Their work of arts in the form of shows, songs, music and more added meaning to our boring lives.

Therefore, art adds happiness and colours to our lives and save us from the boring monotony of daily life.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of the Essay on Art

All in all, art is universal and can be found everywhere. It is not only for people who exercise work art but for those who consume it. If there were no art, we wouldn’t have been able to see the beauty in things. In other words, art helps us feel relaxed and forget about our problems.

FAQ of Essay on Art

Question 1: How can art help us?

Answer 1: Art can help us in a lot of ways. It can stimulate the release of dopamine in your bodies. This will in turn lower the feelings of depression and increase the feeling of confidence. Moreover, it makes us feel better about ourselves.

Question 2: What is the importance of art?

Answer 2: Art is essential as it covers all the developmental domains in child development. Moreover, it helps in physical development and enhancing gross and motor skills. For example, playing with dough can fine-tune your muscle control in your fingers.

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1.3: Purposes of Art

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Art has had a great number of different functions throughout its history, making its purpose difficult to quantify to any single concept. This does not imply that the purpose of art is “vague” but that it has had many unique, different reasons for being created. Some of the functions of art are provided in the outline below. This is a partial list of purposes as developed by Claude Lévi-Strauss.

• Expression of the imagination. Art provides a means to express the imagination in nongrammatic ways that are not tied to the formality of spoken or written language. Unlike words, which come in sequences and each of which have a definite meaning, art provides a range of forms, symbols and ideas with meanings that are malleable.
• Ritualistic and symbolic functions. In many cultures, art is used in rituals, performances and dances as a decoration or symbol. While these often have no specific utilitarian (motivated) purpose, anthropologists know that they often serve a purpose at the level of meaning within a particular culture. This meaning is not furnished by any one individual, but is often the result of many generations of change, and of a cosmological relationship within the culture.
• Communication. Art, at its simplest, is a form of communication. As most forms of communication have an intent or goal directed toward another individual, this is a motivated purpose. Illustrative arts, such as scientific illustration, are a form of art as communication. Maps are another example. However, the content need not be scientific. Emotions, moods and feelings are also communicated through art.
• Art as entertainment . Art may seek to bring about a particular emotion or mood, for the purpose of relaxing or entertaining the viewer. This is often the function of the art industries such as Motion Pictures and Video Games. Some art is simply meant to be enjoyable.
• Political change. One of the defining functions of early twentieth-century art has been to use visual images to bring about political change. Art movements that had this goal—Dadaism, Surrealism, Russian constructivism, and Abstract Expressionism, among others—are collectively referred to as the avante-garde arts.
• Art for social causes. Art can be used to raise awareness for a large variety of causes. A number of art activities were aimed at raising awareness of AIDS, autism, cancer, human trafficking, and a variety of other topics, such as ocean conservation, human rights in Darfur, murdered and missing Aboriginal women, elder abuse, marriage equality, and pollution. Trashion, using trash to make fashion, is one example of using art to raise awareness about pollution.
• Art for psychological and healing purposes. Art is also used by art therapists, psychotherapists and clinical psychologists as art therapy. The Diagnostic Drawing Series , for example, is used to determine the personality and emotional functioning of a patient. The end product is not the principal goal in this case, but rather a process of healing, through creative acts, is sought. The resultant piece of artwork may also offer insight into the troubles experienced by the subject and may suggest suitable approaches to be used in more conventional forms of psychiatric therapy.
• Art for propaganda or commercialism. Art is often utilized as a form of propaganda, and thus can be used to subtly influence popular conceptions or mood. In a similar way, art that tries to sell a product also influences mood and emotion. In both cases, the purpose of art here is to subtly manipulate the viewer into a particular emotional or psychological response toward a particular idea or object.

These are just one writer’s categorization of purposes for art; there are many other ways to try to organize the diverse and complex ideas of art into artificial categories. In addition, the functions of art described above are not mutually exclusive, as many of them may overlap. For example, art for the purpose of entertainment may also seek to sell a product (i.e. a movie or video game).

• Purpose of Art. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : https://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Art#Purpose_of_art . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

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Art Essay Writing Guide

Table of Contents

What is the purpose of an art essay?

Generally, an art essay is an essay that talks about art in sculpture, paintings, architecture, music and portraits.

These kinds of essays are used for:

• Painting visual pictures: an art essay is an essay that showcases visual arts and creative ideas that people have come up with.
• Improving creativity: the whole purpose of art essays is to provide a platform for students to tap into their creative side and vividly paint a picture of a certain image using words.

Art essay topic choice

Like every other essay, there are general tips that should be considered when coming up with an art essay writing topic.

• The type of art: this may include a painting, a sculpture or just a simple hand diagram. The type of art is important as it sets out what you are supposed to write about.
• What intrigues you about the art: this is the most important part of the essay. The whole art essay is based on what you want others to know about the piece of art.
• Personal interests: what you, as a writer, love is very important as it narrows down the topic. It is easier to write on topics that are well-known to you.

There are a number of art essay writing topics to choose from.

Below is a list of topics for an art essay

• Differences between Picasso’s concepts and Matisse’s
• The history of art in the Netherlands
• Differences between Bernini and Borromini
• The inspiration behind famous painting
• The Mona Lisa
• Leonardo Da Vinci
• Ancient Roman structures
• The sculptures of nude women
• Impressionism era of art in Netherlands
• The graphics of modern day art
• Insinuations behind ‘The Thinker’
• The Pieta of Michelangelo
• The contribution of Vincent Van Gogh and Piet Mondrian
• Flemish Baroque in the 17th century.

The above are some of the good topics for an art essay.

Structure of an art essay

The art essay topics determine the kind of structure to build on. However, most have a standard art essay structure.

Sample of art essay outline

Introduction.

The Mona Lisa is one of the most known paintings in the world. This is the painting of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco Del Giocondo, believed to have been painted in the 16th century. It is the work of Leonardo da Vinci and it was purchased by King Francis I. The Mona Lisa is currently under the ownership of the French government.

Thesis statement

The Mona Lisa has had a great impact towards the contribution of art in France:

(i)    It is one of the most famous paintings in the world. The Mona Lisa is the painting that everyone wants to see. It is so precious that only a copy of it is actually showcased in the museum.

(ii)    It has led to the growth of art. The Mona Lisa has inspired artists all over France. There has been a rise of many artists including Camille Pissarro, a painter, and Etienne-Jules Marey, a photographer.

It is clear that the Mona Lisa is the soft spot in France. The French take pride in it and have used it to improve their lives. Besides its contribution to art, it has also placed France among the leading countries that celebrate art. This has therefore created a culture of being drawn to art and it is reflected in their way of life.

The above is a sample of outline for an art essay.

Arts essay tips on writing the introduction

An art essay introduction identifies the art and the artist. Art is diverse, as it could be sculptures, architecture, performing arts or paintings in it. This is where you state why you chose that topic.  It also contains a history of the said art and brief details, like who the artist is, the year, the location, etc.

The introduction for an art essay states the thesis. It may be a general statement about the art or a specific aspect of it.

Tips on thesis writing

The thesis statement should be simple and easy to write about. Too complex statements tend to be confusing.

• Pick a statement that is closer to your understanding.
• Ensure it is as simple as possible.
• To avoid irrelevancy, one can have an art essay draft that they can build on.

Tips on the body (transitions, paragraphs, and length)

This is the main part of the essay where you derive analysis based on your point of view.  Describe why the art is so appealing to you. Ensure that your defense covers an angle that has not already been covered for uniqueness. For example, one can focus only on the strokes of a portrait. However, ensure that what you describe is relevant to the thesis of your art essay topics.

The essay should not be too long. The sentence construction should also be well done. For this reason, it is advisable to have your points arranged into paragraphs. Ensure that each paragraph is independent and speaks volumes. This ensures that the art essay hooks the reader.

The transition from one paragraph to the next should also be smooth. Using cliché transitions makes the essay boring; therefore, you need to be creative.

Tips on conclusion writing

In an art essay conclusion, one needs to state their opinion. What you think the artists` feelings were and why they decided to paint it the way they did. At this point, you can state the events that contributed to the artist coming up with that art. The conclusion for an art essay requires a lot of research into the background of both the art and the artist(s). For this reason, the references and sources of the information should be cited.

Advice for writers

In art essay writing it is important to first do your research. Art is so diverse and this can be sometimes confusing. The topic to write on should be related to your interests, for example, as a musician, you would find it easier to write about performing arts and music. Besides this, do not plagiarize any work done. Cite and state all sources, making sure that you observe all rules of patent and copyrights.

For you to be a good writer, these art essay tips will be very helpful.  The best writer is the one who admits to being in a need of help. The art essay writing guide can also be used to find more about art essay writing steps. Different sources could give different art essay outlines so you need to be careful.

Finalizing the essay

After writing the art essay, it is important to have a clean essay. This calls for proofreading and editing. Proofreading ensures that you do not have any grammatical errors, the art essay outlining is as required, your sentence construction is good and the language used is the required one. Some sites offer art essay writing guide for use when one gets stuck.  Proofreading also ensures that the art essay structure is followed. After this is done, ensure that the format used is correct whether APA, MLA or Chicago.

What Is the Purpose of Art? – Find the Purpose and Function of Art

What is the purpose of art? This is a near-impossible question that artists are often asked. What does art do? What is the function of art? What do you intend with your art? People that do not see themselves as creative or do not feel like they resonate with art, often wonder out loud about the fuss. Artists that might feel a bit lost in their practice or just have a moment of disconnection from the “muse” might also scratch their heads about this massive philosophical question. Let us see if there are any answers to the question, “What is the purpose and function of art?”

Table of Contents

• 1 What Does Art Do?
• 2.1.1 Prehistoric Art (30,000 BC – 1,300 BC)
• 2.1.2 Ancient Greek and Roman Art (800 BC – 100 AD)
• 2.1.3 Early Christian and Byzantine Art (4th – 15th Century)
• 2.1.4 The Middle Ages (6th – 11th Century)
• 2.1.5 Romanesque and Gothic Art (10th – 14th Century)
• 2.1.6 The Renaissance (1300 – 1600)
• 2.1.7 Baroque Art (1600 – 1700)
• 2.1.8 Rococo (1700 – 1780)
• 2.1.9 Neoclassicism (1750 – 1820)
• 2.2.1 Romanticism (1780 – 1850)
• 2.2.2 The Pre-Raphaelite Movement (1848 – 1900)
• 2.2.3 Realism (1850 – 1900)
• 2.2.4 Impressionism (1860 – 1900)
• 2.2.5 Post-Impressionism (1885 – 1905)
• 2.2.6 Symbolism (1875 – 1910)
• 2.3.1 Expressionism (1895 – 1995)
• 2.3.2 Cubism (1907 – 1920)
• 2.3.3 Abstract Art (1910 – 1940)
• 2.3.4 Dadaism (1915 – 1950)
• 2.3.5 Surrealism (1915 – 1950)
• 2.3.6 Abstract Expressionism (1940 – 1959)
• 2.3.7 Pop Art (1950 – 1980)
• 3 In Conclusion: What Is the Purpose of Art?
• 4.1 What Does Art Do?
• 4.2 Why Is Art Important?
• 4.3 What Is the Purpose and Function of Art?

What Does Art Do?

So, what is the purpose of art? To answer this philosophical question, we first need to ask the conceptual question, “What is art?” We cannot talk about the importance of art if what we understand about art is abstract and confusing.

Art has been defined in many different ways since the dawn of humankind.

We will look at a general timeline of how art’s definition changed only from the first found art until the contemporary moment today. From the history of art, it might be possible to understand what the concept of “art” means and what purpose it serves our species.

A History of Art

This timeline discussed in the sections below is informed by the Western canon of art history. The majority of what has been documented and written about art history is focused on the European tale of art development. Unfortunately, not a lot of other cultures’ artworks have been documented and spoken about as in-depth as Western art.

But as Western societies colonized the world and actively spread Christianity to many parts of the world, we can deduce that these art movements discussed below definitely affected, if not influenced, other world cultures as well.

Prehistoric and Classical Art Movements

During the prehistoric and classical eras discussed below, the function of art changed relatively slowly. The purpose and function of art were generally used as a tool to document mythical, religious, and political frameworks present at the time.

Prehistoric Art (30,000 BC – 1,300 BC)

The first ever human art found speaks about a beautiful and powerful relationship between humankind’s survival, culture, and art. Art served a supernatural, transcendent purpose. Like Terence McKenna says in his 1990 lecture, Opening the Doors to Creativity , the first artists were called shamans, and their role was to translate and communicate messages from the “transcendental other”.

From the Hunter-Gatherers and Ancient Chinese artists to the Egyptians, the importance of ritual and symbols in the making of art is undeniable. All the ancient cultures aimed to capture their understanding of being alive, the forces that created the world, and how we might transcend consciousness.

In the modern Western world, artists are now the only ones allowed to talk about “their inspiration” or “the vision that came to them”. Like shamans, artists are sometimes still believed to have a connection to that which transcends normal human consciousness. This definition and function of art are, however, not highlighted or often not celebrated as the meaning of art has changed since early humans painted our visions on the cave walls.

Ancient Greek and Roman Art (800 BC – 100 AD)

During this phase in art history, the rise of naturalism and figurative portrayal became popular. Art and functional objects were combined, with the main form of expression being pottery and sculpture. Painting was also a common form of expression but, as most paintings were created on canvas and murals, very few survived.

The function of art during this time was to depict the rise of the two empires (Greek and Roman) and the belief structures that underpinned these two civilizations.

Even the way they depicted scenes from everyday life was strongly influenced by the myths and religious beliefs of the time. The artists were believed to be influenced by spirits, deities, or entities that reside in the artist’s studio. Therefore, the artists were, still, believed to be the only channels or translators of messages about human life that came from “higher conscious” beings.

Early Christian and Byzantine Art (4th – 15th Century)

Depicting and bringing the Christian tradition to life was the next function of art. Naturalism, emotion, and imaginative power were all expressed in art, but always through the lens of Christianity and the spread thereof throughout the world. This stylized and solemn art movement was believed to be a way to communicate directly with God. The art produced during this time was, therefore, believed to hold holy power. Through the contemplation of and meditation or prayer on religious painted icons, religious leaders could experience messages from God.

This art was carefully regulated.

Where Ancient Greek and Roman art was only accessible to patrons and rich families, Early Christine and Byzantine art were only available to those high up in the church at the time. Art was, therefore, still very mysterious and auspicious. Again, the focus was not at all on the artist as the maker, but the artist was simply a vessel through which God could communicate with humans. Originality, creativity, or personal expression was discouraged. Instead, the artists were encouraged to imitate icons as directly as possible which resulted in copies of the same paintings over and over.

The Middle Ages (6th – 11th Century)

The influence of pagan stylized motifs was incorporated into figurative Christian art to form the only art form that survived the fall of the Roman Empire: manuscript illustration. The art created to illustrate and decorate simplified religious texts had a missionary purpose and was made to support the further spread of Christianity. Even though these religious texts had to be copied exactly, there was more freedom for Christian monks to incorporate designs they saw in pagan metalwork, jewelry, and small sculptures in their illustration of the holy stories.

So, besides being translations of messages from God, these biblical illustrations also had the function of converting non-believers.

Romanesque and Gothic Art (10th – 14th Century)

Art during this period was mainly created in the form of architecture. Again, God was at the center of the function of this art as the massive and stunning cathedrals built were meant to convey the magnitude and power of the Christian God. Entire villages worked for years to build extraordinarily detailed churches, with no one’s name attached to it as the “artist”.

These marvels of architecture were created to celebrate God and the people did not create them for their own joy, but with the idea that they would communicate their devotion to God. This function is evident in the obscure places artistic details were sculpted and paintings added so that it is clear that the art was not created for the human eye, but for God alone.

That being said, the impressiveness of these structures also served a political purpose, as the population of entire kingdoms was often required to work on these projects and pay taxes towards the building of these cathedrals, thereby funding the rising power of Christian churches and their political power in Europe.

The Renaissance (1300 – 1600)

A split from ancient cultures and art is marked by the rise of the Renaissance . It centered around new humanity and realism that placed humankind and logic at the center of the world. Instead of drawing on classic antiquity, the creations during the Renaissance were focused on meticulous observation, characterized by clarity, harmony, grace, perspective, and skillful complexity.

Moving away from the stylized otherworldly art that preceded the Renaissance, artists during the Renaissance were interested in depicting a realistic sense of three-dimensional space, emotional drama, and more naturalistic events.

Even though they still painted religious scenes (especially during the early Renaissance ), it became a possibility for these artists to portray ordinary people – something that (along with the use of perspective) was not done before.

The function of Renaissance art was, thus, to depict the new humanist worldview – a shift from focusing on human achievements or entry into the next world to highlighting their achievements in this life. This changed societal values, and Renaissance art played a very important purpose in documenting and spreading this shift. Another essential function of art at this time was to attain and depict perfection. 

Baroque Art (1600 – 1700)

Baroque art, Rococo, and Neoclassicism were known for different things, but overlapped and had one thing in common: they combined the insights and new discoveries of the Renaissance and ancient art to create a new way of expressing themselves.

These art periods came after the hunt for perfection and turned away from the smooth, ideal bodies of the Renaissance to emphasize the drama of human experience and religious scenes even more.

A characteristic of Baroque art is the extreme use of the painting style, chiaroscuro. This dramatic lighting was used to play even more on human emotions when they viewed the art. This marked a shift in art’s function from logical to emotional.

Rococo (1700 – 1780)

Rococo art , on the other hand, left the dark contrasts of Baroque art behind for a lighter depiction and curved lines. Where Baroque art was briefly used to recenter the power of the church after it was slightly de-centered by the Renaissance’s passion for logic and human achievement, Rococo was light-hearted and depicted fun and frivolous activities.

This style originated out of the French royalty’s need to redecorate their old Parisian mansions.

This style was, therefore, a direct indication of the lifestyle and values of the governing powers of France. It spread throughout Europe and became more popular with other rich families and royalty until it was replaced by the more “serious” Neoclassicism.

Neoclassicism (1750 – 1820)

Neoclassic artists attempted to recapture the morals and spiritual values of ancient Greece and Rome. However, as there was so much history between these painters and their idealized ancient predecessors, the mixed influences of how art had changed were evident in their work. The Enlightenment influenced these artists to form a brand-new outlook on the classical world.

Their paintings aimed to convey the values of order, clarity, reason, and scientific study. That being said, after the Revolution in France, it was clear that these works often served a political purpose.  

The 19th Century and Its “-isms”

The 19th century is characterized by the speed by which art movements changed picking up. The invention of the camera , and tube paints, and the shifts in power and money in the world during and after the First World War created a rapid redefining of art. The ‘isms (like Romanticism, Realism, and Impressionism ) started featuring on the scene and marked this quick change that would extend into the 20th century.

Artists were relieved from their role as documenters and could start depicting the world more creatively from their personal point of view.

Romanticism (1780 – 1850)

Romanticism was the dominant art movement at the beginning of the 19th century. It started in Germany as a literary movement, but quickly spread throughout Europe and started influencing visual artists as well. Instead of perpetuating conservative views through their art, Romantic artists believed that art should be a mode that highlights the individual’s experience, and expresses the rebellion of the imagination.

Romantic artists were not that interested in only depicting the realistic socio-political situations of the time. Rather, art became the means to express intense human emotion, individuality, and imagination experienced during these events.

All of these were expressed and communicated by artists painting unique paintings at the time, depicting personal perspectives and emotions. Francisco de Goya is a good example of a Romantic artist. His painting, The Third of May 1808 (1814) is typical of the Romanticism movement, showing the horrors of personal experiences during the Peninsular War.

The rationalism and order of the Neoclassical period were left behind and as a reaction to the political upheavals of the time, Romantics started placing the notion of individual freedom at the center of art’s function. Spirituality, color, and drama are also key to this movement.

Even though they wanted to move away from Neoclassic ideals and conservative views, the Romantic artists were still inspired by the Gothic art movement, Medieval art, and other Classical art styles. The Romanticism style became a mix of art styles, drawing on styles like Orientalism in the search for an authentic and personal voice.

Romanticism also made use of the sublime forces of nature or using poetry and song the tell the stories of powerful interactions with the forces of nature to convey the sense of overwhelming passion and emotion with which they experienced life. A famous Romanticism landscape painting is Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (1818) by Caspar David Friedrich.

The Pre-Raphaelite Movement (1848 – 1900)

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a revolutionary art movement that prompted the depiction of a new kind of female beauty amongst other things. This group of artists was unhappy with the way the Royal Academy in London was teaching and restricting artistic expression. They wanted to find new ways of expression by drawing on the art of Italian painting before Raphael (1483-1520).

This movement started in Britain while the country was going through rapid industrial change. As wealth was growing because of this speedy industrial growth, new patrons interested in art started supporting artists.

The Great Exhibition took place during this period, which shows the keen support of the arts, design, and innovation by Prince Albert himself. However, many people were being exploited to fuel the industrial doom and citizens were threatening revolution, asking whether life had been better before industrialization.

Tensions between the old world and the new world catalyzed the Pre-Raphaelite style of painting religious, natural, and societal phenomena in new ways using old modes. They aspired to capture everything as true to nature as possible, resulting in meticulous attention to detail.

These artists rejected painting on a canvas prepared with earth tones first, which resulted in a brand-new, vibrant style of color use.

The purpose of art for them became a way to – as accurately as possible – depict scenes from history and the Bible. They spent a lot of time researching costumes, accessories, and historical details to get the perfect compositions. A well-known painting from this period is The Awakening Consciousness (1853) by William Holman Hunt.

Realism (1850 – 1900)

The Realist artists of the 19th century reacted to the 1848 Revolution in France and the Romantics of the previous period by making art focus only on the real life the artist lives. Realism was a rebellious movement that rejected the depictions of the mythical, historical, and religious subjects of the past. The purpose of art was to capture (like the camera that was not accessible to everyone yet) exactly what was seen by the artist.

For the first time in art history, the painting of peasants, workers, beggars, prostitutes, and so on were done with no deeper meaning or political motivation, but simply because it was the reality the painters saw every day.

These scenes were often decidedly unpretty and are characterized by bold lines, a somber palette, and intense tonal contrasts – all adding to the energy and robustness of the work. Gustave Courbet led this movement and his well-known painting, The Stonebreakers (1849) is a typical example of this realistic style.

Impressionism (1860 – 1900)

The Impressionists were, yet again, a group that desired to express themselves outside the constraints of academic art and the Paris Salon. This group, however, kickstarted a rapid redefining of art by crossing boundaries never crossed before within the canon of Western art: they painted scenes of contemporary life like their eye would see it, in fleeing moments, with flickering brushstrokes and blobs of unmixed paint.

The core function of art for them was interpreting the world through their own eyes and capturing this interpretation through art. 

Trains made the connection between the countryside and the city easily accessible. New gas lamps lit up the nightlife of the city. The camera released artists from their role as documenters and gave them reference photographs to work from for the first time in history. Tube paint made plein-air painting a new way of capturing their surroundings and allowed artists to leave the studio and be among the subjects they painted. All these elements of modernization and the Industrial Revolution gave artists brand-new subjects and more freedom to express themselves in ways never done before.

The purpose and function of art became centered on capturing the immediate, fleeting moment. These painters, when painting nature, tried to capture the movement and reflection of light. In this way, they created the most alive, moving, and vibrant paintings are done up to that point.

It was absolutely revolutionary and catalyzed the fast-changing definitions of art we are used to today as more and more artists started pushing the limits of what art does.

The Waterlily Pond, Green Harmony (1872) by Claude Monet shows the characteristically short and small brush strokes, vibrant colors, the effects of light, and the sensations of a landscape, for example, produced by the Impressionists.

Post-Impressionism (1885 – 1905)

Post-impressionists reacted against the idea that artists should simply paint the scene they perceived. They wanted to do more. These artists all started as Impressionists but were struggling to make a name for themselves. In a world where Western power was increasingly colonizing the rest of the world, the art of other cultures and new places to live in became accessible to creatives. The Post-Impressionists started drawing inspiration from these new sources, and the influence of Japanese prints, for example, on the artists Gauguin and van Gogh became clear.

The Post-Impressionists were, therefore, interested in using art to depict the rest of the world that had just become open to them.

These artists used art to create images full of emotion, that seemed to speak past its direct interpretation and were a mix of different artistic styles from around the world. Some of these painters pushed the short brushstrokes of the Impressionists even further by meticulously putting dots of color next to each other to influence the emotions evoked by the paintings. 

Symbolism (1875 – 1910)

In reaction to the materialism and rationalism of the modern world, Symbolist artists started creating art that focused on one’s imagination and emotions. They drew inspiration from the occult, psychology, and mystical ideas. Besides psychology developing, there was also a new interest in spirituality in French society.

The Symbolists processed these new ways of thinking through their art.

They wanted to make the invisible visible and this became the purpose and function of their art. They started exploring dreams, sleep, visions, stillness, silence, and female sexuality. The exploration of death and sex through styles influenced by the Art Nouveau movement (which ran parallel to the Symbolism movement) is evident in The Kiss (1907-1908), for example, by Gustav Klimt.

20th Century: The Modern Age

Art changed so much throughout the 20th century that it is sometimes not even possible to pin down a concrete function of art for longer than a decade. In the contemporary moment, art does whatever the artist wants it to do. How we got to this open and fluid purpose and function of art is due to what took place in art history during the Modern art period.

Expressionism (1895 – 1995)

Expressionists were interested in expressing intense emotion through their artwork. Unlike the Impressionists, Expressionist artists were not interested in showing their interpretation of the world. They also did not work with the natural environment to produce art that captures the immediacy of light.

They created brand new scenes with difficult emotions often at the center of the work. In order to do this, they distorted forms and painted vivid colors straight from the tube.

The world was changing quickly, technology developing fast, and tensions rising before the first World War. There was a sense of alienation in the world and artists wanted to capture this. They moved away from realism. Fauvism , a subdivision example of Expressionism, used bright colors connected to specific meanings to convey deep feelings.

Expressionism mainly developed in Germany and the artists Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Franz Marc, Paul Klee , and Marc Chagall were at the center of the movement. The Scream (1893, 1910) series by Edvard Munch shows the utter breakdown of realistic depictions in swirls of color and intense, distorted imagery.

Cubism (1907 – 1920)

At this point in art history, photography was very popular and widespread. Cars, airplanes, and the cinema were part of most European people’s lives in some way or another. Artists really started taking advantage of the freedom the camera gave them and also started using insights brought on by the photograph in their art. For example, Cubist artists became interested in depicting scenes, objects, and people from different angles at the same time.

Art became a means by which artists could explore, redefine, and repurpose the gaze, perspective, and form.

The extension of the world through traveling, technology, science, and communication was processed through this art period by using art as a means to express this connection. Through the geometric lines, and intense distortions of form and perspective, Cubist artists like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque captured the spirit of change present in their world.

Abstract Art (1910 – 1940)

Abstract art , even more than any other art form that preceded it, aimed to move completely away from depicting anything resembling real life. This is the only characteristic of this vast and long-lasting art movement. The color application, medium, subject, and so on can be very different. But as long as what is depicted is abstracted it can be called Abstract art.

The function of abstract art is, therefore, to give expression to that which is not visually literal- to allow artists to explore abstraction while still conveying meaning and evoking emotion.

The power of color, line, texture, tone, and form is at the center of this movement. The first Abstract painters came after the First World War and used this way of abstraction to explore the limitless potential of art to give expression to their feelings and the new worldview. Artists like Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) came out of the Abstract art movement.

Dadaism (1915 – 1950)

The Dada art movement started as a protest against the civilization that had, at the point, erupted the world into war. It was a way for artists to explore the absurd and completely nonsensical. Their idea was that absurd art was the only thing that could reflect the absurdity of society.

The readymade idea came out of Dadaism and changed the course of art forever.

Marcel Duchamp, for example, placed an upside-down urinal with the signature “R. Mutt 1917” on show and called it Fountain (1917). This caused much controversy in the art world and raised the question of “what is and is not art” to the extreme.

Surrealism (1915 – 1950)

Surrealism was also interested in questioning the accepted ideas of society; however, these artists pushed the absurd and the strange in their art in a different way. They used the ideas of the unconscious mind, automatism, and symbolism from Freudian psychology to create compositions that look super real but utterly otherworldly. All of this was done to create a kind of “superior” reality.

Artists such as Man Ray, Salvador Dalí, and René Magritte formed part of the Surrealist movement.

Abstract Expressionism (1940 – 1959)

Abstract Impressionism was interested in improvised, expressive, and movement-based works of art that conveyed intense emotion. This movement was inspired by Surrealism’s ideas connected to intuition and the unconscious mind.

It started in America during World War I and continued throughout the Great Depression.

Artists from Europe were fleeing the Second World War and had a great influence on US artists. Abstract Expressionism became the first, uniquely American art movement, with Jackson Pollock being the most famous painter to come out of it.

Pop Art (1950 – 1980)

Post-war Pop art burnt the final boundaries on the definition of art and initiated the Post-Modern contemporary art we still know today. The function of Pop art was to finally break down the barriers between fine art and popular culture.

These artists used books, films, photographs, advertisements, comics, illustrations, and packaging to create collages and juxtapose art with a variety of mediums and references.

This art movement wanted to make art more accessible to everybody. Andy Warhol’s contentious Campbell’s Soup Can (Tomato) (1962) prints are a famous example of Pop art .

In Conclusion: What Is the Purpose of Art?

What happened after these distinct art movements was essentially a total breakdown of anything that bordered the traditional interpretation of art. Sound art, computer art, performance art and so many other non-tactile art forms started developing. Artists are always pushing the definition of art with it sometimes being absolutely bizarre and nonsensical. Movements like Expressionism and Abstract art are still present and distinctly recognizable.

But in fact, contemporary art draws on all of the art movements of the past to create an eclectic and highly personal art style dependent on the artist.

It also becomes clear from the timeline discussed above that most of what pushed art forward to find new purposes was the reactions against the existing modes of expression. Artists have always drawn inspiration from art history to create diverse and new ways of depicting their worlds.

Furthermore, most of the development of art was catalyzed by violent socio-political circumstances that forced people to search for ways to express the upsetting and often indescribable realities they live in. Art has, therefore, always been a mode through which humans make sense of the world and its function is, therefore, dependent on whichever complex situation humans find themselves baffled by.

So, what does art do? This a difficult question to answer as it depends on the intention of the artist. Our definition of art keeps changing and, therefore, coming to a definitive understanding of the purpose and function of art is nearly impossible. In this discussion of the Western history of art, this fact becomes very apartment. Art has played a role in how our cultures have developed, and how we make sense of spirituality, emotion, the mind, as well as all other aspects of human life.  

Take a look at our purpose of art webstory here!

Frequently Asked Questions

Art does whatever the artist intends plus how it is received by the viewer. In the past, especially during the ancient and classical art periods, art had a very specific function, but in the post-post-modern world, the purpose and function of art are growing increasingly unclear.

Why Is Art Important?

Art is important to humans in the same way that language is important. Besides the fact that it gives us a different way of communicating, it is also something humans have just done for ages. There is not one reason why art is important, but the fact that we have always made it shows that humans are indistinguishable from art.

What Is the Purpose and Function of Art?

The purpose and function of art, as well as the definition of art, keep changing. In general, the purpose and function of art are often dictated by those in power as art is often used to change people’s minds about certain political, societal, cultural, and emotional phenomena. This means that there is not one purpose of art that can be applied universally, but that art’s function changes from period to period and artist to artist.

Nicolene Burger is a South African multi-media artist, working primarily in oil paint and performance art. She received her BA (Visual Arts) from Stellenbosch University in 2017. In 2018, Burger showed in Masan, South Korea as part of the Rhizome Artist Residency. She was selected to take part in the 2019 ICA Live Art Workshop, receiving training from art experts all around the world. In 2019 Burger opened her first solo exhibition of paintings titled, Painted Mantras, at GUS Gallery and facilitated a group collaboration project titled, Take Flight, selected to be part of Infecting the City Live Art Festival. At the moment, Nicolene is completing a practice-based master’s degree in Theatre and Performance at the University of Cape Town.

In 2020, Nicolene created a series of ZOOM performances with Lumkile Mzayiya called, Evoked?. These performances led her to create exclusive performances from her home in 2021 to accommodate the mid-pandemic audience. She also started focusing more on the sustainability of creative practices in the last 3 years and now offers creative coaching sessions to artists of all kinds. By sharing what she has learned from a 10-year practice, Burger hopes to relay more directly the sense of vulnerability with which she makes art and the core belief to her practice: Art is an immensely important and powerful bridge of communication that can offer understanding, healing and connection.

Nicolene writes our blog posts on art history with an emphasis on renowned artists and contemporary art. She also writes in the field of art industry. Her extensive artistic background and her studies in Fine and Studio Arts contribute to her expertise in the field.

Learn more about Nicolene Burger and the Art in Context Team .

Cite this Article

Nicolene, Burger, “What Is the Purpose of Art? – Find the Purpose and Function of Art.” Art in Context. November 9, 2022. URL: https://artincontext.org/what-is-the-purpose-of-art/

Burger, N. (2022, 9 November). What Is the Purpose of Art? – Find the Purpose and Function of Art. Art in Context. https://artincontext.org/what-is-the-purpose-of-art/

Burger, Nicolene. “What Is the Purpose of Art? – Find the Purpose and Function of Art.” Art in Context , November 9, 2022. https://artincontext.org/what-is-the-purpose-of-art/ .

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The Most Famous Artists and Artworks

Discover the most famous artists, paintings, sculptors…in all of history! 

MOST FAMOUS ARTISTS AND ARTWORKS

Discover the most famous artists, paintings, sculptors!

The Purpose of Art: What You Need To Know

Art, as we know it, comes in dozens of different forms.

Essentially, art is everywhere – from the pictures you take on your smartphone or the billboard outside your office to Broadway shows and fine art galleries. But what is the purpose of art?

The purpose of art is to allow people, both individually and in group settings, to express emotions, commemorate history, expose injustices, overcome obstacles, and gain an understanding of the world around them.

At its center, art is a form of self-expression, empowering the artist to capture, show, or otherwise express themselves through their medium of choice.

Art can also teach others history, compassion, and empathy. Ultimately, art exists to preserve humans in their most pure and raw forms.

(This article may contain affiliate links and I may earn a commission if you make a purchase)

Table of Contents

The Definition of Art

To understand the purpose and definition of art overall, you need to understand what art is and what it isn’t.

From a technical viewpoint, there’s no “official” definition of the word. Art often consists of various human activities, requiring creativity , imagination, and technical skill to complete.

Most scholars agree that art is a bi-product of culture, and art forms date back to the existence of the earliest humans.

Additionally, you can classify art into many categories, including performing and fine arts, paintings, sculptures, movies, decorative art, and other topics.

Art History

Due to the almost non-existent definition of art, tracing its historical roots can be a bit tricky. However, archeologists have discovered art artifacts dating back to the prehistoric era (i.e. cave painting).

Early humans used art to communicate and warn others of potential dangers, document events, and even monitor the seasons.

As the human species evolved, so did the artistic skills and mediums we used to create our art.

Technological advancements allowed us to continue developing our artistic skills even further, making way for the creation of many modern art pieces available today.

Who Can Make Art?

Another important topic to consider when determining the purpose of art is the consideration of art’s creation.

For instance, you’ve likely watched a TV show or movie and, at the end of the credits, seen the long list of artists, producers, and designers for the film. But can only experts create art?

In short, no – almost anyone can make art, with or without experience. Because art’s purpose is self-expression and creativity, art comes in many forms and many experience levels.

For most individuals, art is a personal experience, and they may never intend to have their art become available to the public.

Artistic Talent and the Purpose of Art

How often have you or your team been tasked with a creative project, only to hear someone say that they’re not artistic?

An artistic person typically possesses a natural skill in one or more mediums of art .

For instance, you may refer to someone as artistic because they are good at sketching, and another person as artistic for being good at writing.

Artistic individuals have the natural ability to hone their skills to create high-quality art in their preferred medium.

However, art serves most individuals as a creative, emotional, and social outlet. Therefore, artists don’t necessarily have to be naturally artistic, and the outcome doesn’t even need to be great art in order for it to serve its purpose.

Some artists create art at a novice level, while others dedicate hours to learning and perfecting their craft.

The Reason We Create Art

We all spend a lot of time focusing on the minute aspects of our daily lives, such as work, chores, and social obligations.

As a result, we often feel emotionally unsatisfied over time. Because many individuals lead such busy lives, it can be difficult to find a way to express yourself effectively in your daily life.

Art provides us with an outlet for expression, allowing us to turn thoughts, ideas, and feelings into something tangible and real.

Many individuals use art to express their emotions in ways they don’t feel comfortable putting into words or sharing with others.

Ultimately, we create art to communicate our feelings, hopes, wishes, and desires – even if it’s just to ourselves.

Art for Consumption

For some artists, expressing themselves isn’t the goal.

Instead, the artist focuses on utilizing their creativity and imagination to create pieces that inspire others or evoke a strong emotional reaction.

Think about the last time you saw a commercial for the SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). The individual who designed the commercial created the short video specifically to make you want to take action.

Many artists design and produce their art with consumption in mind. They aim to make the consumer experience a range of emotions, take action, or learn something new.

Understanding Artistic Intent

When you see a piece of art, ask yourself: “What is the meaning of art in this context?”

Often, when artists complete a project and release it to the public, they have carefully considered their intentions throughout each phase of the creation process.

Consider a painting, for example. Painters create pieces of art with hundreds of different shades of the same color every day.

While you may not consider why the artist used that exact shade of blue, in many cases, the purpose behind the work is in the details.

Other examples of finite details that help portray the purpose of a piece of artwork include sound design, texture, and messaging.

Artists utilize lighter and darker colors, smiling faces, blurred lines, and a host of other strategies to convey the meaning, message, and purpose of their creations.

Art and Purpose From Start to Finish

Ultimately, there’s no easy way to answer the question, “what is the purpose of art?” To put it simply, each piece of art contains a unique and individual purpose.

The artist often defines the purpose of their work, and they may or may not leave each piece open to interpretation.

Final Thoughts

Overall, human beings created art as a form of personal expression. We use it to convey our deepest emotions and provoke others to feel the same way.

We also use art to document our history. Finally, art serves the purpose of a creative outlet inspired by our imagination.

More From Artistry Found:

• Do Artists Have A Responsibility To Society? (The Truth)
• How Artists See The World (A Different Vision)
• Artists vs Scientists (Similarities & Differences )
• Why Artists Keep Sketchbooks (Explained!)

Bryan is an artist living in Las Vegas, Nevada who loves travel, ebiking, and putting ketchup on his tacos (Who does that?!). More about Bryan here.

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“Without Art Mankind Could Not Exist”: Leo Tolstoy’s Essay What is Art

In his essay “What is Art?” Leo Tolstoy, the author of War and Peace, defines art as a way to communicate emotion with the ultimate goal of uniting humanity.

How can we define art? What is authentic art and what is good art? Leo Tolstoy answered these questions in “What is Art?” (1897), his most comprehensive essay on the theory of art. Tolstoy’s theory has a lot of charming aspects. He believes that art is a means of communicating emotion, with the aim of promoting mutual understanding. By gaining awareness of each other’s feelings we can successfully practice empathy and ultimately unite to further mankind’s collective well-being. 

Furthermore, Tolstoy firmly denies that pleasure is art’s sole purpose. Instead, he supports a moral-based art able to appeal to everyone and not just the privileged few. Although he takes a clear stance in favor of Christianity as a valid foundation for morality, his definition of religious perception is flexible. As a result, it is possible to easily replace it with all sorts of different ideological schemes.

Personally, I do not approach Tolstoy’s theory as a set of laws for understanding art. More than anything, “What is art?” is a piece of art itself. A work about the meaning of art and a fertile foundation on which truly beautiful ideas can flourish.

Most of the paintings used for this article were drawn by realist painter Ilya Repin. The Russian painter created a series of portraits of Tolstoy, which were exhibited together at the 2019 exhibition “Repin: The Myth of Tolstoy” at the State Museum L.N. Tolstoy. More information regarding the relationship between Tolstoy and Repin can be found in this article . 

Who was Tolstoy?

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Leo Tolstoy ( Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy) was born in 1828 in his family estate of Yasnaya Polyana, some 200km from Moscow. His family belonged in the Russian aristocracy and thus Leo inherited the title of count. In 1851 he joined the tsarist army to pay off his accumulated debt but quickly regretted this decision. Eventually, he left the army right after the end of the Crimean War in 1856. 

After traveling Europe and witnessing the suffering and cruelty of the world, Tolstoy was transformed. From a privileged aristocrat, he became a Christian anarchist arguing against the State and propagating non-violence. This was the doctrine that inspired Gandhi and was expressed as non-resistance to evil. This means that evil cannot be fought with evil means and one should neither accept nor resist it.  

Tolstoy’s writing made him famous around the world and he is justly considered among the four giants of Russian Literature next to Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and Turgenev. His most famous novels are War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). However, he also wrote multiple philosophical and theological texts as well as theatrical plays and short stories. Upon completing his masterpiece Anna Karenina , Tolstoy fell into a state of insufferable existential despair.

Charmed by the faith of the common people, he turned to Christianity. Eventually, he dismissed the Russian Church and every other Church as corrupted and looked for his own answers. His theological explorations led to the formulation of his own version of Christianity, which deeply influenced his social vision.  He died in 1910 at the age of 82 after suffering from pneumonia.

Art Based On Beauty And Taste 

Tolstoy wrote “What is art?” in 1897. There, he laid down his opinions on several art-related issues. Throughout this essay , he remains confident that he is the first to provide an exact definition for art:

“…however strange it may seem to say so, in spite of the mountains of books written about art, no exact definition of art has been constructed. And the reason of this is that the conception of art has been based on the conception of beauty.”  

So, what is art for Tolstoy? Before answering the question, the Russian novelist seeks a proper basis for his definition. Examining works of other philosophers and artists, he notices that they usually assume that beauty is art’s foundation. For them beauty is either that which provides a certain kind of pleasure or that which is perfect according to objective, universal laws.

Tolstoy thinks that both cases lead to subjective definitions of beauty and in turn to subjective definitions of art. Those who realize the impossibility of objectively defining beauty, turn to a study of taste asking why a thing pleases. Again, Tolstoy sees no point in this, as taste is also subjective. There is no way of explaining why one thing pleases someone but displeases someone else, he concludes. 

Theories that Justify the Canon

Theories of art based on beauty or taste inescapably include only that type of art that appeals to certain people:

“First acknowledging a certain set of productions to be art (because they please us) and then framing such a theory of art that all those productions which please a certain circle of people should fit into it.”

These theories are made to justify the existing art canon which covers anything from Greek art to Shakespeare and Beethoven. In reality, the canon is nothing more than the artworks appreciated by the upper classes. To justify new productions that please the elites, new theories that expand and reaffirm the canon are constantly created: 

“No matter what insanities appear in art, when once they find acceptance among the upper classes of our society, a theory is quickly invented to explain and sanction them; just as if there had never been periods in history when certain special circles of people recognized and approved false, deformed, and insensate art which subsequently left no trace and has been utterly forgotten.”  

The true definition of art, according to Tolstoy, should be based on moral principles. Before anything, we need to question if a work of art is moral. If it is moral, then it is good art. If it is not moral, it is bad. This rationale leads Tolstoy to a very bizarre idea. At one point in his essay, he states that Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliette, Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister, and his own War and Peace are immoral and therefore bad art. But what does Tolstoy exactly mean when he says that something is good or bad art? And what is the nature of the morality he uses for his artistic judgments?

What is Art?

Art is a means of communicating feelings the same way words transmit thoughts. In art, someone transmits a feeling and “infects” others with what he/she feels. Tolstoy encapsulates his definition of art in the following passages:

“To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then, by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that feeling that others may experience the same feeling – this is the activity of art. Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hand on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and also experience them.”

In its essence, art is a means of union among men brought together by commonly experienced feelings. It facilitates access to the psychology of others fostering empathy and understanding by tearing down the walls of the Subject. This function of art is not only useful but also necessary for the progress and wellbeing of humanity.

The innumerable feelings experienced by humans both in past and present are available to us only through art. The loss of such a unique ability would be a catastrophe. “Men would be like beasts”, says Tolstoy, and even goes as far as to claim that without art, mankind could not exist. This is a bold declaration, which recalls the Nietzschean aphorism that human existence is justified only as an aesthetic phenomenon.

Art in the Extended and Limited Sense of the Word

Tolstoy’s definition expands to almost every aspect of human activity way beyond the fine arts. Even a boy telling the story of how he met a wolf can be art. That is, however, only if the boy succeeds in making the listeners feel the fear and anguish of the encounter. Works of art are everywhere, according to this view. Cradlesong, jest, mimicry, house ornamentation, dress and utensils, even triumphal processions are all works of art. 

This is, in my view, the strongest point of Tolstoy’s theory. Namely, that it considers almost the totality of human activity as art. However, there is a distinction between this expanded art, and art in the limited sense of the word. The latter corresponds to the fine arts and is the area that Tolstoy investigates further in his essay.  A weak point of the theory is that it never examines the act of creation and art that is not shared with others. 

Real and Counterfeit Art

The distinction between real and counterfeit, good and bad art is Tolstoy’s contribution to the field of art criticism. Despite its many weaknesses, this system offers an interesting alternative to judging and appreciating art.

Tolstoy names real art (i.e. authentic, true to itself) the one resulting from an honest, internal need for expression. The product of this internal urge becomes a real work of art, if it successfully evokes feelings to other people. In this process, the receiver of the artistic impression becomes so united with the artist’s experience, that he/she feels like the artwork is his/her own. Therefore, real art removes the barrier between Subject and Object, and between receiver and sender of an artistic impression. In addition, it removes the barrier between the receivers who experience unity through a common feeling.

“In this freeing of our personality from its separation and isolation, in this uniting of it with others, lies the chief characteristic and the great attractive force of art.” Furthermore, a work that does not evoke feelings and spiritual union with others is counterfeit art. No matter how poetical, realistic, effectful, or interesting it is, it must meet these conditions to succeed. Otherwise it is just a counterfeit posing as real art.  

Emotional Infectiousness

Emotional infectiousness is a necessary quality of a work of art. The degree of infectiousness is not always the same but varies according to three conditions:

• The individuality of the feeling transmitted: the more specific to a person the feeling, the more successful the artwork.
• The clearness of the feeling transmitted: the clearness of expression assists the transition of feelings and increases the pleasure derived from art.
• The sincerity of the artist: the force with which the artist feels the emotion he/she transmits through his/her art. 

Out of all three, sincerity is the most important. Without it, the other two conditions cannot exist. Worth noting is that Tolstoy finds sincerity almost always present in “peasant art” but almost always absent in “upper-class art”. If a work lacks even one of the three qualities, it is counterfeit art. In contrast, it is real if it possesses all three. In that case, it only remains to judge whether this real artwork is good or bad, more or less successful. The success of an artwork is based firstly on the degree of its infectiousness. The more infectious the artwork, the better.  

The Religious Perception of Art

Tolstoy believes that art is a means of progress towards perfection. With time, art evolves rendering accessible the experience of humanity for humanity’s sake. This is a process of moral realization and results in society becoming kinder and more compassionate. A genuinely good artwork ought to make accessible these good feelings that move humanity closer to its moral completion. Within this framework, a good work of art must also be moral. 

But how can we judge what feelings are morally good? Tolstoy’s answer lies in what he calls “the religious perception of the age”. This is defined as the understanding of the meaning of life as conceived by a group of people. This understanding is the moral compass of a society and always points towards certain values. For Tolstoy, the religious perception of his time is found in Christianity. As a result, all good art must carry the foundational message of this religion understood as brotherhood among all people. This union of man aiming at his collective well-being, argues Tolstoy, must be revered as the highest value of all. 

Although it relates to religion, religious perception is not the same with religious cult. In fact, the definition of religious perception is so wide, that it describes ideology in general. To this interpretation leads Tolstoy’s view that, even if a society recognizes no religion, it always has a religious morality. This can be compared with the direction of a flowing river:

If the river flows at all, it must have a direction. If a society lives, there must be a religious perception indicating the direction in which, more or less consciously, all its members tend.

It is safe to say that more than a century after Tolstoy’s death, “What is Art?” retains its appeal. We should not easily dismiss the idea that (good) art communicates feelings and promotes unity through universal understanding. This is especially the case in our time where many question art’s importance and see it as a source of confusion and division. 

• Tolstoy, L.N. 1902. What is Art? In the Novels and Other Works of Lyof N. Tolstoy . translated by Aline Delano. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. pp. 328-527. Available at: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43409
• Jahn, G.R. 1975. ‘The Aesthetic Theory of Leo Tolstoy’s What Is Art?’. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism , Vol. 34, No. 1. pp. 59-65. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/428645
• Morson, G.S. 2019. ‘Leo Tolstoy’. Encyclopædia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leo-Tolstoy

Theodor Adorno on the Essay: An Antidote to Modernity

By Antonis Chaliakopoulos MSc Museum Studies, BA History & Archaeology Antonis is an archaeologist with a passion for museums and heritage and a keen interest in aesthetics and the reception of classical art. He holds an MSc in Museum Studies from the University of Glasgow and a BA in History and Archaeology from the University of Athens (NKUA) where he is currently working on his PhD.

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Question of the Month

What is art and/or what is beauty, the following answers to this artful question each win a random book..

Art is something we do, a verb. Art is an expression of our thoughts, emotions, intuitions, and desires, but it is even more personal than that: it’s about sharing the way we experience the world, which for many is an extension of personality. It is the communication of intimate concepts that cannot be faithfully portrayed by words alone. And because words alone are not enough, we must find some other vehicle to carry our intent. But the content that we instill on or in our chosen media is not in itself the art. Art is to be found in how the media is used, the way in which the content is expressed.

What then is beauty? Beauty is much more than cosmetic: it is not about prettiness. There are plenty of pretty pictures available at the neighborhood home furnishing store; but these we might not refer to as beautiful; and it is not difficult to find works of artistic expression that we might agree are beautiful that are not necessarily pretty. Beauty is rather a measure of affect, a measure of emotion. In the context of art, beauty is the gauge of successful communication between participants – the conveyance of a concept between the artist and the perceiver. Beautiful art is successful in portraying the artist’s most profound intended emotions, the desired concepts, whether they be pretty and bright, or dark and sinister. But neither the artist nor the observer can be certain of successful communication in the end. So beauty in art is eternally subjective.

Wm. Joseph Nieters, Lake Ozark, Missouri

Works of art may elicit a sense of wonder or cynicism, hope or despair, adoration or spite; the work of art may be direct or complex, subtle or explicit, intelligible or obscure; and the subjects and approaches to the creation of art are bounded only by the imagination of the artist. Consequently, I believe that defining art based upon its content is a doomed enterprise.

Now a theme in aesthetics, the study of art, is the claim that there is a detachment or distance between works of art and the flow of everyday life. Thus, works of art rise like islands from a current of more pragmatic concerns. When you step out of a river and onto an island, you’ve reached your destination. Similarly, the aesthetic attitude requires you to treat artistic experience as an end-in-itself : art asks us to arrive empty of preconceptions and attend to the way in which we experience the work of art. And although a person can have an ‘aesthetic experience’ of a natural scene, flavor or texture, art is different in that it is produced . Therefore, art is the intentional communication of an experience as an end-in-itself . The content of that experience in its cultural context may determine whether the artwork is popular or ridiculed, significant or trivial, but it is art either way.

One of the initial reactions to this approach may be that it seems overly broad. An older brother who sneaks up behind his younger sibling and shouts “Booo!” can be said to be creating art. But isn’t the difference between this and a Freddy Krueger movie just one of degree? On the other hand, my definition would exclude graphics used in advertising or political propaganda, as they are created as a means to an end and not for their own sakes. Furthermore, ‘communication’ is not the best word for what I have in mind because it implies an unwarranted intention about the content represented. Aesthetic responses are often underdetermined by the artist’s intentions.

Mike Mallory, Everett, WA

The fundamental difference between art and beauty is that art is about who has produced it, whereas beauty depends on who’s looking.

Of course there are standards of beauty – that which is seen as ‘traditionally’ beautiful. The game changers – the square pegs, so to speak – are those who saw traditional standards of beauty and decided specifically to go against them, perhaps just to prove a point. Take Picasso, Munch, Schoenberg, to name just three. They have made a stand against these norms in their art. Otherwise their art is like all other art: its only function is to be experienced, appraised, and understood (or not).

Art is a means to state an opinion or a feeling, or else to create a different view of the world, whether it be inspired by the work of other people or something invented that’s entirely new. Beauty is whatever aspect of that or anything else that makes an individual feel positive or grateful. Beauty alone is not art, but art can be made of, about or for beautiful things. Beauty can be found in a snowy mountain scene: art is the photograph of it shown to family, the oil interpretation of it hung in a gallery, or the music score recreating the scene in crotchets and quavers.

However, art is not necessarily positive: it can be deliberately hurtful or displeasing: it can make you think about or consider things that you would rather not. But if it evokes an emotion in you, then it is art.

Chiara Leonardi, Reading, Berks

Art is a way of grasping the world. Not merely the physical world, which is what science attempts to do; but the whole world, and specifically, the human world, the world of society and spiritual experience.

Art emerged around 50,000 years ago, long before cities and civilisation, yet in forms to which we can still directly relate. The wall paintings in the Lascaux caves, which so startled Picasso, have been carbon-dated at around 17,000 years old. Now, following the invention of photography and the devastating attack made by Duchamp on the self-appointed Art Establishment [see Brief Lives this issue], art cannot be simply defined on the basis of concrete tests like ‘fidelity of representation’ or vague abstract concepts like ‘beauty’. So how can we define art in terms applying to both cave-dwellers and modern city sophisticates? To do this we need to ask: What does art do ? And the answer is surely that it provokes an emotional, rather than a simply cognitive response. One way of approaching the problem of defining art, then, could be to say: Art consists of shareable ideas that have a shareable emotional impact. Art need not produce beautiful objects or events, since a great piece of art could validly arouse emotions other than those aroused by beauty, such as terror, anxiety, or laughter. Yet to derive an acceptable philosophical theory of art from this understanding means tackling the concept of ‘emotion’ head on, and philosophers have been notoriously reluctant to do this. But not all of them: Robert Solomon’s book The Passions (1993) has made an excellent start, and this seems to me to be the way to go.

It won’t be easy. Poor old Richard Rorty was jumped on from a very great height when all he said was that literature, poetry, patriotism, love and stuff like that were philosophically important. Art is vitally important to maintaining broad standards in civilisation. Its pedigree long predates philosophy, which is only 3,000 years old, and science, which is a mere 500 years old. Art deserves much more attention from philosophers.

Alistair MacFarlane, Gwynedd

Some years ago I went looking for art. To begin my journey I went to an art gallery. At that stage art to me was whatever I found in an art gallery. I found paintings, mostly, and because they were in the gallery I recognised them as art. A particular Rothko painting was one colour and large. I observed a further piece that did not have an obvious label. It was also of one colour – white – and gigantically large, occupying one complete wall of the very high and spacious room and standing on small roller wheels. On closer inspection I saw that it was a moveable wall, not a piece of art. Why could one piece of work be considered ‘art’ and the other not?

The answer to the question could, perhaps, be found in the criteria of Berys Gaut to decide if some artefact is, indeed, art – that art pieces function only as pieces of art, just as their creators intended.

But were they beautiful? Did they evoke an emotional response in me? Beauty is frequently associated with art. There is sometimes an expectation of encountering a ‘beautiful’ object when going to see a work of art, be it painting, sculpture, book or performance. Of course, that expectation quickly changes as one widens the range of installations encountered. The classic example is Duchamp’s Fountain (1917), a rather un-beautiful urinal.

Can we define beauty? Let me try by suggesting that beauty is the capacity of an artefact to evoke a pleasurable emotional response. This might be categorised as the ‘like’ response.

I definitely did not like Fountain at the initial level of appreciation. There was skill, of course, in its construction. But what was the skill in its presentation as art?

So I began to reach a definition of art. A work of art is that which asks a question which a non-art object such as a wall does not: What am I? What am I communicating? The responses, both of the creator artist and of the recipient audience, vary, but they invariably involve a judgement, a response to the invitation to answer. The answer, too, goes towards deciphering that deeper question – the ‘Who am I?’ which goes towards defining humanity.

Neil Hallinan, Maynooth, Co. Kildare

‘Art’ is where we make meaning beyond language. Art consists in the making of meaning through intelligent agency, eliciting an aesthetic response. It’s a means of communication where language is not sufficient to explain or describe its content. Art can render visible and known what was previously unspoken. Because what art expresses and evokes is in part ineffable, we find it difficult to define and delineate it. It is known through the experience of the audience as well as the intention and expression of the artist. The meaning is made by all the participants, and so can never be fully known. It is multifarious and on-going. Even a disagreement is a tension which is itself an expression of something.

Art drives the development of a civilisation, both supporting the establishment and also preventing subversive messages from being silenced – art leads, mirrors and reveals change in politics and morality. Art plays a central part in the creation of culture, and is an outpouring of thought and ideas from it, and so it cannot be fully understood in isolation from its context. Paradoxically, however, art can communicate beyond language and time, appealing to our common humanity and linking disparate communities. Perhaps if wider audiences engaged with a greater variety of the world’s artistic traditions it could engender increased tolerance and mutual respect.

Another inescapable facet of art is that it is a commodity. This fact feeds the creative process, whether motivating the artist to form an item of monetary value, or to avoid creating one, or to artistically commodify the aesthetic experience. The commodification of art also affects who is considered qualified to create art, comment on it, and even define it, as those who benefit most strive to keep the value of ‘art objects’ high. These influences must feed into a culture’s understanding of what art is at any time, making thoughts about art culturally dependent. However, this commodification and the consequent closely-guarded role of the art critic also gives rise to a counter culture within art culture, often expressed through the creation of art that cannot be sold. The stratification of art by value and the resultant tension also adds to its meaning, and the meaning of art to society.

Catherine Bosley, Monk Soham, Suffolk

First of all we must recognize the obvious. ‘Art’ is a word, and words and concepts are organic and change their meaning through time. So in the olden days, art meant craft. It was something you could excel at through practise and hard work. You learnt how to paint or sculpt, and you learnt the special symbolism of your era. Through Romanticism and the birth of individualism, art came to mean originality. To do something new and never-heard-of defined the artist. His or her personality became essentially as important as the artwork itself. During the era of Modernism, the search for originality led artists to reevaluate art. What could art do? What could it represent? Could you paint movement (Cubism, Futurism)? Could you paint the non-material (Abstract Expressionism)? Fundamentally: could anything be regarded as art? A way of trying to solve this problem was to look beyond the work itself, and focus on the art world: art was that which the institution of art – artists, critics, art historians, etc – was prepared to regard as art, and which was made public through the institution, e.g. galleries. That’s Institutionalism – made famous through Marcel Duchamp’s ready-mades.

Institutionalism has been the prevailing notion through the later part of the twentieth century, at least in academia, and I would say it still holds a firm grip on our conceptions. One example is the Swedish artist Anna Odell. Her film sequence Unknown woman 2009-349701 , for which she faked psychosis to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital, was widely debated, and by many was not regarded as art. But because it was debated by the art world, it succeeded in breaking into the art world, and is today regarded as art, and Odell is regarded an artist.

Of course there are those who try and break out of this hegemony, for example by refusing to play by the art world’s unwritten rules. Andy Warhol with his Factory was one, even though he is today totally embraced by the art world. Another example is Damien Hirst, who, much like Warhol, pays people to create the physical manifestations of his ideas. He doesn’t use galleries and other art world-approved arenas to advertise, and instead sells his objects directly to private individuals. This liberal approach to capitalism is one way of attacking the hegemony of the art world.

What does all this teach us about art? Probably that art is a fleeting and chimeric concept. We will always have art, but for the most part we will only really learn in retrospect what the art of our era was.

Tommy Törnsten, Linköping, Sweden

Art periods such as Classical, Byzantine, neo-Classical, Romantic, Modern and post-Modern reflect the changing nature of art in social and cultural contexts; and shifting values are evident in varying content, forms and styles. These changes are encompassed, more or less in sequence, by Imitationalist, Emotionalist, Expressivist, Formalist and Institutionalist theories of art. In The Transfiguration of the Commonplace (1981), Arthur Danto claims a distinctiveness for art that inextricably links its instances with acts of observation, without which all that could exist are ‘material counterparts’ or ‘mere real things’ rather than artworks. Notwithstanding the competing theories, works of art can be seen to possess ‘family resemblances’ or ‘strands of resemblance’ linking very different instances as art. Identifying instances of art is relatively straightforward, but a definition of art that includes all possible cases is elusive. Consequently, art has been claimed to be an ‘open’ concept.

According to Raymond Williams’ Keywords (1976), capitalised ‘Art’ appears in general use in the nineteenth century, with ‘Fine Art’; whereas ‘art’ has a history of previous applications, such as in music, poetry, comedy, tragedy and dance; and we should also mention literature, media arts, even gardening, which for David Cooper in A Philosophy of Gardens (2006) can provide “epiphanies of co-dependence”. Art, then, is perhaps “anything presented for our aesthetic contemplation” – a phrase coined by John Davies, former tutor at the School of Art Education, Birmingham, in 1971 – although ‘anything’ may seem too inclusive. Gaining our aesthetic interest is at least a necessary requirement of art. Sufficiency for something to be art requires significance to art appreciators which endures as long as tokens or types of the artwork persist. Paradoxically, such significance is sometimes attributed to objects neither intended as art, nor especially intended to be perceived aesthetically – for instance, votive, devotional, commemorative or utilitarian artefacts. Furthermore, aesthetic interests can be eclipsed by dubious investment practices and social kudos. When combined with celebrity and harmful forms of narcissism, they can egregiously affect artistic authenticity. These interests can be overriding, and spawn products masquerading as art. Then it’s up to discerning observers to spot any Fads, Fakes and Fantasies (Sjoerd Hannema, 1970).

Colin Brookes, Loughborough, Leicestershire

For me art is nothing more and nothing less than the creative ability of individuals to express their understanding of some aspect of private or public life, like love, conflict, fear, or pain. As I read a war poem by Edward Thomas, enjoy a Mozart piano concerto, or contemplate a M.C. Escher drawing, I am often emotionally inspired by the moment and intellectually stimulated by the thought-process that follows. At this moment of discovery I humbly realize my views may be those shared by thousands, even millions across the globe. This is due in large part to the mass media’s ability to control and exploit our emotions. The commercial success of a performance or production becomes the metric by which art is now almost exclusively gauged: quality in art has been sadly reduced to equating great art with sale of books, number of views, or the downloading of recordings. Too bad if personal sensibilities about a particular piece of art are lost in the greater rush for immediate acceptance.

So where does that leave the subjective notion that beauty can still be found in art? If beauty is the outcome of a process by which art gives pleasure to our senses, then it should remain a matter of personal discernment, even if outside forces clamour to take control of it. In other words, nobody, including the art critic, should be able to tell the individual what is beautiful and what is not. The world of art is one of a constant tension between preserving individual tastes and promoting popular acceptance.

Ian Malcomson, Victoria, British Columbia

What we perceive as beautiful does not offend us on any level. It is a personal judgement, a subjective opinion. A memory from once we gazed upon something beautiful, a sight ever so pleasing to the senses or to the eye, oft time stays with us forever. I shall never forget walking into Balzac’s house in France: the scent of lilies was so overwhelming that I had a numinous moment. The intensity of the emotion evoked may not be possible to explain. I don’t feel it’s important to debate why I think a flower, painting, sunset or how the light streaming through a stained-glass window is beautiful. The power of the sights create an emotional reaction in me. I don’t expect or concern myself that others will agree with me or not. Can all agree that an act of kindness is beautiful?

A thing of beauty is a whole; elements coming together making it so. A single brush stroke of a painting does not alone create the impact of beauty, but all together, it becomes beautiful. A perfect flower is beautiful, when all of the petals together form its perfection; a pleasant, intoxicating scent is also part of the beauty.

In thinking about the question, ‘What is beauty?’, I’ve simply come away with the idea that I am the beholder whose eye it is in. Suffice it to say, my private assessment of what strikes me as beautiful is all I need to know.

Cheryl Anderson, Kenilworth, Illinois

Stendhal said, “Beauty is the promise of happiness”, but this didn’t get to the heart of the matter. Whose beauty are we talking about? Whose happiness?

Consider if a snake made art. What would it believe to be beautiful? What would it deign to make? Snakes have poor eyesight and detect the world largely through a chemosensory organ, the Jacobson’s organ, or through heat-sensing pits. Would a movie in its human form even make sense to a snake? So their art, their beauty, would be entirely alien to ours: it would not be visual, and even if they had songs they would be foreign; after all, snakes do not have ears, they sense vibrations. So fine art would be sensed, and songs would be felt, if it is even possible to conceive that idea.

From this perspective – a view low to the ground – we can see that beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. It may cross our lips to speak of the nature of beauty in billowy language, but we do so entirely with a forked tongue if we do so seriously. The aesthetics of representing beauty ought not to fool us into thinking beauty, as some abstract concept, truly exists. It requires a viewer and a context, and the value we place on certain combinations of colors or sounds over others speaks of nothing more than preference. Our desire for pictures, moving or otherwise, is because our organs developed in such a way. A snake would have no use for the visual world.

I am thankful to have human art over snake art, but I would no doubt be amazed at serpentine art. It would require an intellectual sloughing of many conceptions we take for granted. For that, considering the possibility of this extreme thought is worthwhile: if snakes could write poetry, what would it be?

Derek Halm, Portland, Oregon

[A: Sssibilance and sussssuration – Ed.]

The questions, ‘What is art?’ and ‘What is beauty?’ are different types and shouldn’t be conflated.

With boring predictability, almost all contemporary discussers of art lapse into a ‘relative-off’, whereby they go to annoying lengths to demonstrate how open-minded they are and how ineluctably loose the concept of art is. If art is just whatever you want it to be, can we not just end the conversation there? It’s a done deal. I’ll throw playdough on to a canvas, and we can pretend to display our modern credentials of acceptance and insight. This just doesn’t work, and we all know it. If art is to mean anything , there has to be some working definition of what it is. If art can be anything to anybody at anytime, then there ends the discussion. What makes art special – and worth discussing – is that it stands above or outside everyday things, such as everyday food, paintwork, or sounds. Art comprises special or exceptional dishes, paintings, and music.

So what, then, is my definition of art? Briefly, I believe there must be at least two considerations to label something as ‘art’. The first is that there must be something recognizable in the way of ‘author-to-audience reception’. I mean to say, there must be the recognition that something was made for an audience of some kind to receive, discuss or enjoy. Implicit in this point is the evident recognizability of what the art actually is – in other words, the author doesn’t have to tell you it’s art when you otherwise wouldn’t have any idea. The second point is simply the recognition of skill: some obvious skill has to be involved in making art. This, in my view, would be the minimum requirements – or definition – of art. Even if you disagree with the particulars, some definition is required to make anything at all art. Otherwise, what are we even discussing? I’m breaking the mold and ask for brass tacks.

Brannon McConkey, Tennessee Author of Student of Life: Why Becoming Engaged in Life, Art, and Philosophy Can Lead to a Happier Existence

Human beings appear to have a compulsion to categorize, to organize and define. We seek to impose order on a welter of sense-impressions and memories, seeing regularities and patterns in repetitions and associations, always on the lookout for correlations, eager to determine cause and effect, so that we might give sense to what might otherwise seem random and inconsequential. However, particularly in the last century, we have also learned to take pleasure in the reflection of unstructured perceptions; our artistic ways of seeing and listening have expanded to encompass disharmony and irregularity. This has meant that culturally, an ever-widening gap has grown between the attitudes and opinions of the majority, who continue to define art in traditional ways, having to do with order, harmony, representation; and the minority, who look for originality, who try to see the world anew, and strive for difference, and whose critical practice is rooted in abstraction. In between there are many who abjure both extremes, and who both find and give pleasure both in defining a personal vision and in practising craftsmanship.

There will always be a challenge to traditional concepts of art from the shock of the new, and tensions around the appropriateness of our understanding. That is how things should be, as innovators push at the boundaries. At the same time, we will continue to take pleasure in the beauty of a mathematical equation, a finely-tuned machine, a successful scientific experiment, the technology of landing a probe on a comet, an accomplished poem, a striking portrait, the sound-world of a symphony. We apportion significance and meaning to what we find of value and wish to share with our fellows. Our art and our definitions of beauty reflect our human nature and the multiplicity of our creative efforts.

In the end, because of our individuality and our varied histories and traditions, our debates will always be inconclusive. If we are wise, we will look and listen with an open spirit, and sometimes with a wry smile, always celebrating the diversity of human imaginings and achievements.

David Howard, Church Stretton, Shropshire

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Introduction to Art 30,000 years of human creativity

The history of art is a vast story of human creativity, a record of our passions and struggles from before written history through today. Obelisk is a free, online art history textbook, sharing the wild, tragic and inspiring stories of artists and their work from 30,000 BCE through Modern Art. Obelisk is designed for discovery, a cross-linked web of artworks, biographies and writings, a choose-your-own-adventure where every path leads you to something new and interesting.

Meet the artists , discover artwork , or explore the timeline . But if you'd like to learn more about how to look at and understand art, the next few pages describe the visual language of art, the ways we can understand it, and why art is important. So dig in!

Art History Methodologies

Eight ways to understand art

Categorizing Art

Can we make sense of it all?

The Principles of Design

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• May 16, 2024

What Is Argumentative Writing? Master The Art of Persuasion

Julia mccoy.

Creator and Co-founder

You’ve got an opinion, and you’re not afraid to share it. But how do you convince others to see things your way? That’s where argumentative writing comes in.

Argumentative writing is more than just spouting off your thoughts – you need facts, evidence, and a logical argument to back up your claims. That’s what separates a persuasive piece from a mere rant.

So, whether you’re writing an essay for school, trying to convince your boss to give you a raise, or pitching a new product to a potential client, mastering the art of argumentative writing is key.

Table Of Contents:

What is argumentative writing, structure of an argumentative essay, argumentative essay writing tips, common mistakes to avoid in argumentative writing, argumentative essay examples, challenge the status quo and make your reader think.

If you’ve ever tried to convince someone to see things your way, you already know the basics of argumentative writing. It’s all about building a case, brick by brick, until the reader has no choice but to agree with you.

But there’s an art to it. You can’t just throw out random facts and expect to win people over.

Nope, argumentative writing is a delicate dance of logic, persuasion, and cold, hard evidence.

So what is argumentative writing?

At its core, argumentative writing is about taking a stance on an issue and backing it up with well-researched facts. It’s not about emotions or personal opinions. It’s about building an airtight argument that leaves no room for doubt.

Think of it like a court case. You’re the lawyer, and your readers are the jury. It’s your job to present the evidence in a way that convinces them to agree with you. And just like in a real court, you can’t rely on flimsy evidence or logical fallacies. You need cold, hard facts.

What is The Purpose of Argumentative Essay Writing?

Ultimately, the goal of writing an argumentative paper is to persuade the reader to agree with your perspective on a controversial topic. You’re not just sharing information – you’re trying to change minds.

But it’s not about strong-arming your readers into submission. The best argumentative essays use logic and evidence to gently guide the reader to a certain conclusion. It’s like a mental map, leading them step by step until they arrive at your point of view.

Key Elements of Argumentative Writing

To create a truly persuasive argumentative essay , you need a few key ingredients:

• A debatable topic with multiple sides
• A good thesis statement that’s clear and specific
• Logical reasoning and transitions
• Credible, relevant evidence to support your argument
• Acknowledgment of opposing views
• A compelling, convincing conclusion

Skip any of these, and your argument will be about as sturdy as a house of cards. But nail them all, and you’ll have a bulletproof essay.

Alright, so you’ve got your topic and your evidence. Now it’s time to put it all together into a cohesive argumentative essay structure.

Here’s the typical writing process of a persuasive essay:

Introduction and Thesis Statement

First, write your introduction. Think of it as your opening argument in a courtroom drama. It’s your chance to captivate the jury, provide context for the case, and lay out your main point in a compelling thesis statement. This is the bedrock upon which your entire essay rests, so craft it with care.

Body Paragraphs and Supporting Evidence

Then lay out your case, point by point. Each body paragraph should focus on one main idea, supported by specific facts and examples. And don’t just state the evidence – explain how it logically backs up your argument.

Think of it like building a brick wall. Each piece of evidence is a brick, and your explanation is the mortar holding it all together. Without that mortar, your argument will crumble.

Conclusion and Reiterating Main Points

Finally, nail your closing argument. This is your last chance to drive your point home. Restate your thesis, sum up your main evidence, and leave the reader with a strong impression.

But don’t just rehash what you’ve already said. Use the conclusion to take your argument to the next level – perhaps by posing a new question or calling the reader to action. End on a high note and make it impossible for the reader to disagree with you.

So, you’re gearing up to write an argument essay that packs a punch. Want to make sure it’s ironclad? Here’s how to do it.

Choose a Debatable Topic

The best argumentative essays are about controversial, debatable topics. If everyone already agrees with your thesis, there’s no point in arguing it. Pick something that has multiple sides and tons of evidence to explore.

Here are some of the most controversial topics that have spawned great debates:

• Banning mobile phones in schools
• Animal testing
• Social media addiction
• Artificial intelligence
• School uniforms should be required
• Capital punishment
• Free college
• Homework should be banned
• Violent video games should be banned
• All police officers should carry guns
• Student loans
• Tobacco and alcohol bans
• Climate change
• Universal healthcare
• Homeschooling vs. traditional schooling
• Mandatory vaccination
• Humans colonizing other planets
• Legalization of drugs
• Legalization of prostitution
• Alternative energy

Conduct Thorough Research

After you have chosen a topic, it’s time to gather evidence.

You can’t argue effectively without the facts to back you up. Dive deep into credible sources – academic journals, reputable news outlets, expert interviews. The more evidence you have, the stronger your argument will be.

Outline Your Essay

Before you start writing, sketch out the structure of your essay.

Start with a topic sentence. What main points will each body paragraph cover, and what evidence will you use to support them?

Having a blueprint will keep you focused and make the actual writing much easier.

Use Strong Evidence and Examples

The heart of any argumentative essay is its evidence. Make sure each claim you make in your writing is backed up by facts, statistics, studies, or other logical proof. And use vivid examples to illustrate your points and make them more concrete for the reader.

Address Opposing Views

A strong argumentative essay doesn’t present just one side – it also addresses and refutes the opposing view.

Acknowledge the other perspectives on the topic and use evidence to explain why they’re incorrect or incomplete. This shows you’ve really done your research.

Edit and Revise Your Work

Once you’ve got a draft, the real work begins.

Go through your essay with a fine-toothed comb, checking for logical flow, persuasive language, grammar mistakes, and more.

Don’t be afraid to cut, rearrange, or rewrite sections to make your argument as strong as possible.

Writing essays can be tricky, even for the pros. Watch out for these common mistakes that could trip you up along the way.

Failing to Address Counterarguments

If you ignore the other side of the argument, you’re essentially sticking your head in the sand. A good argumentative essay acknowledges and refutes the opposing viewpoints. Otherwise, your piece is just a written speech.

Relying on Emotional Appeals

You might be inclined to sprinkle emotional language and personal stories throughout your argumentative essay, hoping to tug at your readers’ heartstrings.

Resist that urge.

In argumentative writing, logic and evidence are your most powerful tools.

Overusing emotional appeals can make your argument appear weak and unconvincing, causing your readers to question your credibility. Stick to the facts and let them speak for themselves.

Lacking Credible Evidence

An argument is only as good as the evidence that backs it up. If you’re using outdated, unreliable, or incomplete sources, your whole essay will suffer. Make sure each claim is supported by current, credible facts from authoritative sources.

Straying from the Main Argument

It’s easy to get sidetracked, especially when you’re passionate about a topic. But if you stray too far from your main thesis, you’ll confuse and lose your readers.

Stay laser-focused on proving your central argument, and cut any irrelevant info.

Sometimes the best way to learn is by example. Reading argumentative essays can show you what works in terms of choosing a topic, crafting a thesis, structuring your argument, and more.

Here are some of the most influential argumentative essays throughout history:

• “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr.
• “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
• “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift
• “Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell
• “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau
• “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell
• John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address

Each of these texts presents a compelling argument using the tools of logic, evidence, and persuasive language. Study how they hook the reader, lay out their reasoning, and drive their point home. Then try to emulate those techniques in your own writing.

With these tips and examples in mind, you’re well on your way to writing an argumentative essay that would hold up in any court of public opinion.

Remember – it’s all about building a logical, evidence-based case that leaves your readers no choice but to agree with you.

Argumentative writing is all about taking a stand, backing it up with evidence, and convincing your reader to join your side.

Want to write a powerful argumentative essay? Be clear, logical, and persuasive. Take on those counterarguments directly and paint a vivid picture with concrete examples.

With these tips in mind, you’re ready to tackle any argumentative writing challenge that comes your way.

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