The Role of Art in Society

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The role of art in society. Prominent artists.

Until the 17th century, art referred to any skill or mastery and was not differentiated from crafts or sciences, but in modern usage the fine arts, where aesthetic considerations are paramount, are distinguished from acquired skills in general, and the decorative or applied arts.
Art is a form of social consciousness, a human activity that reflects reality according to certain aesthetic ideals. Art is a diverse range of human activities and the products of those activities.
"Art is created when an artist creates a beautiful object, or produces a stimulating experience that is considered by his audience to have artistic merit." Irish Art Encyclopedia.
Classification
Traditionally, the arts are classified as seven although the list has been expanded to nine. These being Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Music, Poetry, Dance, Theater/Cinema, with the modern additions of Photography and Comics.
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural symbols and as works of art. Historical civilizations are often identified with their surviving architectural achievements.
Coliseum in Rome.
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions, and one of the plastic arts. Durable sculptural processes originally used carving (the removal of material) and modelling (the addition of material, as clay), in stone, metal, ceramics, wood and other materials but, since modernism, shifts in sculptural process led to an almost complete freedom of materials and process. A wide variety of materials may be worked by removal such as carving, assembled by welding or modelling, or molded, or cast.
Laocoon and his sons, also known as Laocoon group.
Painting is the practice of applying

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