Art in one word
Art in one word. What really is art? Is it a Craft? What is the meaning of the word? Is craft an art? And what constitutes art? All this has been the subject of a very long debate. To be continued for many generations, for sure.
Craft or Art?
Many definitions exist. Of the two, the word craft is more easily defined. Art, however, is almost impossible to define. Wikipedia defines craft as “…a pastime or a profession that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work…”. Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines it as “…an occupation or trade requiring manual dexterity or artistic skill…”. These two definitions make it fairly clear what is intended. And “…he is a skilled craftsman…” immediately conveys the idea that a person has skills that others do not, to produce something of perceived value.
This article deals with attempts to define art. The following are some of the many words that attempt to describe what art is. Or perhaps what it may or could be. However, after reading much documentation, my final conclusion is that no word can define art.
History
“…Greeks and Romans had no category of fine art…” (Shiner 2001 p. 19-20) Wikipedia
Art expressed in words
All of the following words represent or relate in one way or another to art.
Appearance, Attentiveness, Beauty, Belief, Civilization, Conceptual, Communication, Creation, Culture, Discovery, Dream, Encounter, Eternity, Existence, Exploration, Experience, Experiment, Expression, Emotion, Freedom, Harmony, Hope, Idea, Individualism, Ingenuity, Information, Imitation, Inspiration, Instrument, Intellect, Interpretation, Knowledge, Life, Memory, Message, Meaning, Mimesis, Mood, Narrative, Passion, Philosophy, Process, Purity, Radicalism, Reality, Representation, Self, Sensation, Skill, Spirit, Story, Style, Symphony, Talent, Theory, Therapy, Thought, Truth, Universality, Vision, Work………
Conclusion
As we can see, there are so many words for art. Therefore, art can be perceived as everything or perhaps, nothing? The reality is that Art has no credible definition.
