“What Is Art?” Fourteen Short Answers
How do you define art? What is art? Here are some definitions that I’ve collected…
Dictionary definitions
“[Art refers to] works produced by human creative skill and imagination.” — Oxford English Dictionary
“Art is the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects the art of painting landscapes (also: works so produced)” — Merriam-Webster
“Art is a diverse range of (the products of) human activities involving the conscious use of creative imagination to express technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.” — Wikipedia
Philosophical definitions
“Art can only be called beautiful if we are conscious of it as Art while yet it looks like Nature.” — Immanuel Kant, when distinguishing between art and nature
“…aesthetic pleasure in the beautiful consists, to a large extent, in the fact that, when we enter the state of pure contemplation, we are raised for the moment above all willing, above all desires and cares; we are, so to speak, rid of ourselves.” —…
