Aug 18 2008
Fine art - what is fine art?
Many people asked me what fine arts are. So here I am trying to explain it.
Fine art is art that is created on aesthetic rather than decorative grounds, to be understood and responded to on its own, without relation to anything else. Is art created for purely aesthetic expression, communication, or contemplation.
The opposite term of fine art is the abstract art (art which does not represent reality as we see it, though it may be based on an actual individual, emotion or object. Taking its inspiration from the real world abstract art uses lines, patterns, shapes, texture and color for expression.)
This is how wikipedia defines fine art:
Fine art refers to arts that are concerned with a limited number of visual and performing art forms, including painting, sculpture, dance, theater, architecture and printmaking. Schools, institutes, and other organizations still use the term to indicate a traditional perspective on the art forms, often implying an association with classic or academic art.
The word “fine” does not so much denote the quality of the artwork in question, but the purity of the discipline.
“Imitation, then, is one instinct of our nature. Next, there is the instinct for ‘harmony’ and rhythm, meters being manifestly sections of rhythm. Persons, therefore, starting with this natural gift developed by degrees their special aptitudes, till their rude improvisations gave birth to Poetry.” -Aristotle
This definition tends to exclude visual art forms that could be considered craftwork or applied art, such as textiles. The more recent term visual arts is widely considered to be a more inclusive and descriptive phrase for today’s variety of current art practices, and for the multitude of media in which high art is now more widely recognized to occur. Ultimately, the term fine in ‘fine art’ comes from the concept of final cause, or purpose, or end, in the philosophy of Aristotle. The final cause of fine art is the art object itself; it is not a means to another end except perhaps to please those who behold it.
The term is still often used outside of the arts to denote when someone has perfected an activity to a very high level of skill. For example, one might metaphorically say that “Pelé took football to the level of a fine art.”
That fine art is seen as being distinct from applied arts is largely the result of an issue raised in Britain by the conflict between the followers of the Arts and Crafts Movement, including William Morris, and the early modernists, including Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group. The former sought to bring socialist principles to bear on the arts by including the more commonplace crafts of the masses within the realm of the arts, while the modernists sought to keep artistic endeavor as exclusive and esoteric.
Confusion often occurs when people mistakenly refer to the Fine Arts but mean the Performing Arts (Music, Dance, Drama, etc). However, there is some disagreement here, as, for example, at York University, Fine Arts is a faculty that includes the “traditional” fine arts, design, and the “Performing Arts”. Furthermore, creative writing is frequently considered a fine art as well.
An academic course of study in fine art may include a Bachelor of Fine Arts and/or a Master of Fine Arts degree. Doctor of Fine Arts degrees (earned as opposed to honorary degrees) have begun to emerge as well at some academic institutions.
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In the end, as an excuse of what fine art means and the work the I do, I want to quote Rudy De Reyna:
The ability to depict an object literally doesn’t make you an artist. No one ever claimed that the faithful duplication of nature (an impossible rask anyway) produces art. But the ability to draw things as you see them is the first step toward becoming an artist. (”How to draw what u see (Practical Art Books)” Rudy De Reyna)
