The Art reference article from the Simple Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Art

"Art is that which is not related to survival or reproduction." -wikipedia:en:Scott McCloud

"Art has also been defined as any material that has undergone manipulation at the hands of man."

It includes drawing, painting, sculpting, dance, music, poetry, prose and theatre including comedy and drama and even satire (which is also part of politics). Usually these things involve some story or fiction that goes beyond or exaggerates accepted truth.

In some societies, people consider that art belongs to the person who made it. They think that the artist put his or her "talent" into the art. In this view, the art is the property of the artist. There is another way you can think about "talent". You can think of it as the individual capital of the artist. People in Jewish, Christian and Muslim cultures often have this view of art.

In other societies, people think that art belongs to everyone. They think that society has put its social capital into the artist and the artist's work. In this view, society is a collective that has produced the art, through the artist.

There are many ways to honour or approve of art, which is one of the ways that a society indicates what morality it prefers.

This is the "Art" reference article from the Simple Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.