What Is Art?

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What is art? When we talk about art, the first thing that comes to our mind is something beautiful. Since art is defined as a beauty, while we know that a beauty cannot be assessed with certainty, or it can be said as subjective thing. Then, we also cannot define arts’ precisely. Art is also a medium to reveal a feeling, which is usually expressed through a work of art. According to Tolstoy’s in What is Art?, “If only the spectators or auditors are infected by the feelings which the author has felt, it is art.” The quote explains that art contains the artist’ feeling and it usually brings that feeling to the auditors and spectators of their works, so that they can also feel that feeling, and give them appreciation according to what they feel.
According to an anthropologist, William A Haviland, “Art is a process involving the whole system using human imagination creatively within a community with a particular culture”. This quotation explains that art is also a cultural product of a society, means that art reflects a culture of a society which is made in a period of time, for example; history said that art of architecture thrived in Europe in the 16th century as the reflection of Renaissance. Also in Britain, when Shakespeare started to inspire people with his romantic works, in that time Britain was on the Renaissance Period.
Then, it can be concluded that art is a something beautiful, contains feeling which is perceived by human soul and expressed through a works with a variety of media and it usually reflects a particular culture of particular
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