Philosophers disagree about whether art can be defined and, if it can, which features distinguish artworks from other objects and performances. Traditional answers have appealed to representation, expression, or form; later answers often appeal to artistic practices, histories, or institutions. This question is about what art is, not what makes something beautiful or aesthetically valuable.
Aesthetics
The Definition of Art
What makes something a work of art?
Positions
- Aesthetic Formalism
Something is a work of art in virtue of its form — the arrangement of lines, colours, and relations that provokes aesthetic emotion — and not in virtue of what it represents.
- Expression Theory of Art
Art is essentially the imaginative expression of the artist's emotion, rather than the imitation of nature or the following of rules.
Held by Romanticism
- Institutional Theory of Art
Something is a work of art when a practice with the authority to do so confers that status on it, not because of any property it displays.
Methods used to investigate this question
- Conceptual Analysis
Conceptual analysis clarifies a concept by proposing an account of its conditions or structure and testing that account against cases and objections.