Art and the arts. In a broad sense, art is skill in making or doing. We can say that someone knows and practices the art of basket-weaving, of tuning a piano, or even of hitting a home run. In this sense, there are many arts—as many as there are kinds of deliberate, specialized activities for human beings to engage in.
The word art is used in many other ways. Some people speak of the useful arts as the ones that produce beautiful objects for everyday use, and the decorative arts as those that produce beautiful objects for their own sakes. Schools offer liberal arts courses in such topics as history and philosophy, and applied arts courses in such subjects as architecture and mechanical drawing. Teachers use the term language arts to mean the related skills of reading, writing, speaking, and spelling. Many people speak of the graphic arts as those involved in printing and bookmaking.
The word art is often used in a more specialized way to mean fine arts, such as painting pictures, writing novels, or composing music. Things created as the result of such activity are supposed to be different from, and more valuable than, things that require mere craftsmanship or technical skill. Some traditional fine arts are poetry, fiction, opera, painting, sculpture, drama, and ballet. Today architecture, motion pictures, photographs, pottery, weaving, and some forms of modern dancing are also considered art in this special sense.
The reasons for art
Human beings are makers of many things, and they make them for many purposes. Some creations serve obvious practical needs. For example, people have always made tools for cutting, digging, killing, and eating. But in all cultures, people also seem to have two less obvious purposes for some of the objects they make. First, they want to make things in forms that give pleasure when seen or heard. Second, people want to make objects that will remind them, and also teach other people, about their most important discoveries regarding fundamental realities. We call these reasons for making and valuing art formal and cognitive interests.
Formal interest.
People have always had an interest in order. Most of us enjoy experiencing patterns that display balance and contrast. Prehistoric people carved the handles of their hunting knives in regular, pleasing patterns. In the 1800’s, American cowboys liked to have guns and saddles decorated with patterns. We experience the same delight in form or design when we buy clothes or automobiles for their appearance rather than their warmth or efficiency. Perceiving works of art has long been considered a little like understanding mathematics because both involve patterns or forms.
Cognitive interest
refers to meaning. Certain events and ideas take on the highest importance in our religious, social, moral, political, and personal lives. People have always used formal symbols or performances to make such events meaningful or to signify such ideas so they can be transmitted from person to person and from generation to generation. Prehistoric people used dances and paintings to communicate the idea of success in planting, harvesting, and hunting. The ancient Greeks gave their ideas about such ideal human qualities as wisdom and courage visual form in their beautiful statues of gods and goddesses. Today, we still give occasions like graduations or weddings importance through music and song. We also try to understand the meaning of important personal events, such as falling in love, and important public events, such as wars, by composing music, writing novels and poetry, painting pictures, or making films about them.
The work of art
The aesthetic experience.
Works of art result when the formal interest and the cognitive interest come together in the creative process through which artists make art. In general, art presents us with forms we enjoy perceiving and invites us to recall or learn something important. But we do not feel these interests separately when we appreciate art. Art gives us a special kind of experience that unites pleasure in perceiving orderly forms and in learning. Scholars call this the aesthetic experience.
The Greek epic poem the Odyssey appeals to us in a way that joins the two interests. It is a story about basic human problems and a study of the resourcefulness and adaptability of human nature. It is also a well-formed story, with episodes following each other in a way that builds toward the climax. The poem’s words form images in our minds and tell us about the feelings that go with the story. As we read or listen to the Odyssey, our experiencing of the formal features enriches our understanding of the meaning. In the same way, Vincent van Gogh’s painting Sunflowers is more than a formal composition of shapes and colors. It has a bright vividness that stays in our experience as a symbol of how nature bursts with life. For other examples of the way formal and cognitive interests come together, see Painting (What do painters paint?).
Works of art differ widely in how they combine formal features with meaning. Toward one end of the scale, where the cognitive interest is strongest, are such works as the tragedies of Shakespeare. These works explore fundamental human situations and move us profoundly. They reward us with the discovery of more subtle and complex meaning as we read them or see them performed again and again. Similarly, we enjoy experiencing the religious paintings of the Italian Renaissance, the great novels of Charles Dickens, and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B minor. These works of art do more than convey religious and moral beliefs and attitudes. They convey these meanings through delightful design and pleasurable patterns of perception.
Toward the other end of the scale is art that evokes strong formal interest but weak cognitive interest. This is true of the paintings of the modern American painter Frank Stella. It is also true of Bach’s Preludes and Fugues and Joseph Haydn’s chamber music, where the melody and counterpoint emphasize musical form. The formal patterns of classical music, as well as ballet and even the freer forms of modern dance, produce pleasure by satisfying our interest in experiencing orderly shapes and sequences. Most such works are not vehicles for philosophical themes. Yet, even here, some critics give interpretations of highly formal art that show how such works are meaningful. They point out that Stella’s paintings contrast with El Greco’s to show how curved shapes can define a painting’s perceived surface as depicting stillness or motion. The formal patterns of music have qualities like joy, sadness, and vitality, which reflect features found in human life. 
Beauty.
Some people identify the formal interest with our desire to make and enjoy beautiful things. But others prefer to use the word beauty in a fuller sense. They say that the sheer satisfaction we feel when we perceive complex but balanced design, and the profound satisfaction we experience in understanding complex but clear meaning, both contribute to beauty.
Even in the fuller sense, whether a thing is beautiful does not depend on its being useful. Many paintings, poems, and musical compositions have no use apart from their value as works of art. Of course, we could use van Gogh’s Sunflowers as a sign for a florist’s shop, or we could use a piece of sculpture to hold a door open, but their real function is to be art. Such objects as chairs, dishes, and vases have useful functions. Yet some of these works are considered art and displayed in museums because they illustrate something of aesthetic importance in their design.
Grouping the arts
Generally speaking, works of art have certain things in common. Each presents something to our sense-perception, such as the music we hear, or to our imaginative contemplation, like the story we read. Each one is set off from other things in some way. For example, a statue stands on a pedestal, and a play takes place on a stage. This way of setting the work off helps us grasp it as a whole. The work is always more or less complicated. For instance, the play has several characters, the painting consists of several shapes or colors, and the music contains a variety of sounds. The work is always organized to some degree into a unified whole.
At the same time, works of art differ in important ways. Some, such as operas and novels, can tell a story. Others, like chamber music, do not. Some, such as music and poetry, take time to unfold. Still others, like painting, are presented all at once. But this difference should not be stressed too much, because it takes time to see a painting fully, just as it does to listen to a symphony. Some kinds of art, such as sculpture, come to us just as they left the hands of their creators. Other kinds are performed or interpreted. The orchestra plays music or the actors perform the play.
But perhaps the most fundamental way of classifying works of art is in terms of the kinds of elements that make them up. Arts that use words differ from those that do not, because words introduce a special sort of reference into the arts.
Verbal art
is literature, which can be divided into poetry, fiction, and the essay. Literary critics have suggested a number of ways by which to distinguish literary works from other kinds of writing, such as science or history. See Literature.
Nonverbal arts
include two main types: (1) musical composition and (2) visual design. Works that consist of patterns of sound, pitch, or rhythm are musical compositions. Even a simple melody, or a drum solo with no melody, can be considered music. Works that consist of patterns of line, shape, and color are visual designs.
The arts can be divided even further. For example, we can divide visual designs according to the kinds of materials that are used and the way the designs are produced. In this way, we can distinguish photographs and prints from paintings. In a group of prints, we can separate etchings from lithographs. Pictures may be painted with oils or water colors.
A third group of nonverbal arts, which some experts consider part of the second group, produces three-dimensional objects which we can see from several points of view, and also can touch. There is no general name for them, but they include sculpture, architecture, ceramics, weaving, fine glassware, jewelry, and furniture.
Mixed arts
are combinations of the basic arts. For example, songs and oratorios consist of music and poetry. Dance is a combination of music and action. Drama combines action, words, and stage scenery. Films combine visual design with storytelling. Performance art is a live performance that combines elements from such art forms as literature, music, dance, video, and the theater.
Scholars often wonder whether other senses besides sight and hearing might be used for works of art. Should a dinner that is made of gourmet dishes be considered a work of art? Could a series of different odors be considered a work of art?
Enjoying the arts
People who love music, who can lose themselves in a book, or who can spend hours painting a picture of a barn know the deep satisfaction that can be found in art. It is not easy to express this satisfaction in words. But, in some partly mysterious way, works of art are among the things of highest value in our lives.
A fine piece of music, a masterpiece of painting, or a first-rate play has the power to capture and hold our fullest and most concentrated attention. We are completely wrapped up in it, and everything works out right. The music comes to the right close at the right time and in the right way. The play ends, not necessarily on a happy note, but in a way that seems inevitable and appropriate. As we grow more and more aware of the painting, its parts seem to belong together and to be made for each other. We perceive harmony in the object and feel harmony within ourselves.
When the aesthetic experience has ended, we often feel uplifted and refreshed. Our eyes and ears, our insight into other persons, or our understanding of moral values may be sharpened and refined. We may feel more at home with ourselves. Works of art have value for us in some such ways as these.
It is this value that marks the difference between great art and simple entertainment. A work that is fairly easy to understand and appreciate takes little effort on our part. It may give us pleasure. But it does not involve our emotions or our attention at a deep level. It may take our minds off our troubles for a time, but it does not give us the spiritually enriching experience of vital and orderly design.
Studying the arts
To enjoy the special value of works of art, we must be ready to give a great deal to them. The greatest works of music and poetry often present difficulties. We cannot expect to master them all at once. And we cannot always find what is worthy in them at a glance. It is possible to get some satisfaction out of music while reading a newspaper or peeling potatoes. But we must listen with full attention before we can find the riches in great works of music.
Some of us feel that we cannot find much to enjoy in one art or another. But most of us can find aesthetic satisfaction in some of the arts—if we know how to go about it. In addition, many of us find that music, painting, or poetry provides an inexhaustible source of joy.
At the same time, we may discover that we ourselves have the ability to create art. If we do, we have a source of satisfaction we do not want to miss. Children take music lessons, learn to sing together, and study drawing. Many persons try amateur acting, or write stories and poems. Some have great talent and become professional artists. Even those of us who conclude that we do not have much creative ability find that trying to paint or write sharpens our perceptions and adds to our enjoyment of the arts.
There is also a more theoretical approach to the arts. We may begin to think about some of the more complex matters connected with appreciating artworks. This is the study of aesthetics. It tries to find what makes one work of art better than another, and whether there are objective standards of criticism. It considers how our interest in art is connected with our other great philosophic interests such as science and religion. Philosophers have studied such questions. In asking and trying to answer them, we become philosophers ourselves.
