Fine art refers to arts that are concerned with a limited number of
visual and
performing art forms, including
painting,
sculpture,
dance,
theatre,
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. 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 mediums 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.
An alternative, if flippant, reference to "fine art," is
capital "A" art, or,
art with a capital "A."
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 endeavour exclusive, 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".
An academic course of study in fine art may include a
Master of Fine Arts degree.
Types of fine art
See also
References
visual arts are art forms that focus on the creation of works which are primarily visual in nature, such as painting, photography, printmaking, and filmmaking. Those that involve three-dimensional objects, such as sculpture and architecture, are called plastic arts.
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The performing arts are those forms of art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some art object.
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Painting, meant literally, is the practice of applying color to a surface (support) such as paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer or concrete. However, when used in an artistic sense, the term "painting" means the use of this activity in combination with drawing, composition and
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sculpture is a man-made three-dimensional object intended for special recognition as art. A person that creates sculptures is called a sculptor.
Materials of sculpture through history
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Dance (from French
danser, perhaps from Frankish) generally refers to movement used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a
..... Click the link for more information. Theatre (or theater, see spelling differences) (from French "théâtre", from Greek "theatron", θέατρον, meaning "place of seeing") is the branch of the performing arts defined as simply as what "occurs when one or more
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Architecture is the art and science of designing buildings and structures. A wider definition often includes the design of the total built environment: from the macrolevel of town planning, urban design, and landscape architecture to the microlevel of construction details and,
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Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable of producing multiples of the same piece, which is called a print.
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Academic art is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies or universities.
Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie des beaux-arts, which practiced under the movements of
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Handicraft, also known as craftwork or simply craft, is a type of work where useful and decorative devices are made completely by hand or using only simple tools. Usually the term is applied to traditional means of making goods.
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Applied arts refers to the application of design and aesthetics to objects of function and everyday use. Whereas fine arts serve as intellectual stimulation to the viewer or academic
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textile is a flexible material comprised of a network of natural or artificial fibers often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw wool fibers, linen, cotton, or other material on a spinning wheel to produce long strands known as yarn.
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visual arts are art forms that focus on the creation of works which are primarily visual in nature, such as painting, photography, printmaking, and filmmaking. Those that involve three-dimensional objects, such as sculpture and architecture, are called plastic arts.
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Final cause is one of Aristotle's four forms of causation (the others being material, formal, and efficient). It is defined as the purpose of something. For example, the final cause of a pen is writing.
See also
..... Click the link for more information. Philosophy is the discipline concerned with questions of how one should live (ethics); what sorts of things exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics); what counts as genuine knowledge (epistemology); and what are the correct principles of reasoning (logic).
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Aristotle (Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great.
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Full name Edson Arantes do Nascimento
Date of birth September 23 1940 (1940--) (age 67)
Place of birth
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Association football, commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players. It is the most popular sport in the world.
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Arts and Crafts movement was a British and American aesthetic movement occurring in the last years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century. Inspired by the writings of John Ruskin and a romantic idealization of the craftsman taking pride in his personal
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William Morris (March 24, 1834 – October 3, 1896) was an English artist, writer, socialist and activist. He was one of the principal founders of the British arts and crafts movement, best known as a designer of wallpaper and patterned fabrics, a writer of poetry and fiction
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Modernism describes a series of reforming cultural movements in art and architecture, music, literature and the applied arts which emerged in the three decades before 1914.
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Virginia Woolf
Born: January 25 1882(1882--)
London, England
Died: March 28 1941 (aged 59)
near Lewes, East Sussex, England
Occupation: Novelist, Essayist, Publisher, Critic
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Note: Authority for the statements in this article are to be found in the list of sources at the end. Only the most important links have been indicated.
The Bloomsbury Group
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York University (French: Université York), located in Toronto, Ontario, is Canada's third-largest university and has produced several of the country's top leaders in the fields of law, politics, literature, philosophy, journalism, management, meteorological, chemical, and
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For other uses, see MFA.
In the United States, a
Master of Fine Arts (MFA) is a terminal graduate degree in an area of visual, plastic, literary or performing arts typically requiring two to three years of study beyond the bachelor level.
..... Click the link for more information. Architecture is the art and science of designing buildings and structures. A wider definition often includes the design of the total built environment: from the macrolevel of town planning, urban design, and landscape architecture to the microlevel of construction details and,
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Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is a branch of philosophy, a species of value theory or axiology, which is the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste. Aesthetics is closely associated with the philosophy of art.
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Structural engineering is a field of engineering that deals with the design of a structural system(s) with the purpose of supporting and resisting various loads. Though other disciplines touch on this field, a physical object or system is truly considered a part of structural
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Construction Management refers either to the study and practice of the managerial and technological aspects of the construction industry (including construction, construction science, construction management, and construction technology), or to a business model where one party to a
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For experimental rock music, see .
Experimental music is a term introduced by composer John Cage in 1955. Cage defined "an experimental action is one the outcome of which is unforeseen" and he was specifically interested in completed works that
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