Art is an inclusive range of human artistic activities involving physical creation, visual sense, artistic ability, or creative beauty, emotion, or other emotional capabilities. The word “art” literally means “the work of art.” The history of the artistic form can be traced back to the Pre-Christian era in Western civilization. From pre-Christian times to modern times, the arts have been developed as a medium to communicate religious, political, and social messages. Today, the arts are often used for aesthetic purposes such as enjoyment, healing, and art promotion.
Branches of Arts and Graphic Arts:
In Western society, the major branches of arts are graphic arts such as printmaking, sculpture, and ceramics; visual arts such as painting, drawing, photography, and sculpture; performing arts such as acting, dance, music, and music therapy; and technical arts such as computer aided design (CAD) and engineering. Film is also a part of the visual arts. Photography, television, and video games are part of the audio-visual arts. And the arts can be categorized according to the intensity or quality of the output. For example, the fine arts are characterized by intricately carved woodwork and highly technical costumes.
The fine arts include paintings, sculptures, photographic art, fine architecture, and decorative arts. On the other hand, the visual arts include film, television, video games, and movies. Performance arts include dancing, music, theater, and gymnastics. All the arts have limitations to their applications and possibilities of application in daily life, but in general the arts contribute to our awareness of the world.
Artistic Tradition;
In Western artistic tradition, the main distinction between the visual and the audible is that the former creates a more immediate and subjective experience than the latter. Visual artworks rely on the senses such as sight, touch, and hearing in order to be appreciated. For instance, a painting may be appreciated not only because of its visual richness and its richness of feeling, but also because of the aesthetic sense it leaves one’s mind after looking at the work of art. By contrast, conceptual arts develop a conceptual understanding of the world around us and are therefore more subjective and more personal than the visual arts.
Besides being highly aesthetic in nature, the aesthetics of the arts have philosophical underpinnings as well. The works of classical Chinese calligraphy for example, demonstrate the progression of aesthetic values over time. Likewise, the works of ancient Greek and Romans, such as the statues of the Caipanelli, demonstrate a certain affinity between aesthetic appreciation and religious sentiments.
Major branches of arts:
This article is only a basic overview of the major branches of arts. In my next article, you will learn about the three most important philosophical schools of art – Romanticism, Expressionism, and Constructivism. In this article, we discussed the three branches most relevant to an inquiry about the nature of the arts. Now that you have finished reading this article, you should know how to classify art in the wider sense of the term.