Art is a way of understanding and reflecting reality by creating a special product – works of art that can evoke an emotional response from people. Along with science, art is used by humanity to properly perceive and comprehend the world around us. The most important function of art is to satisfy two spiritual needs of human beings: the love of beauty and the desire for aesthetic pleasure.
Art also helps to shape the social conscience, to stimulate, through the sensations one receives, the emergence of new thoughts and perceptions. It can take all kinds of forms and serve many purposes (from the sublime and noble to the base and repugnant).
Types and Genres of Art
Art is a very voluminous definition, so it combines a huge number of ways of displaying the author’s intent. Types of art are classified according to such parameters: The subject of display – representational (to display the real reality) and non-imaginative (to embody by expressive means the internal world of a person). By dynamics – spatial (characteristic of a particular area) and temporal (corresponding to a particular historical era). According to utilitarianism – fine (performing a purely aesthetic function) and applied (additionally demanded in everyday life). Materials – traditional art materials (paints, clay, granite, marble, wood, metal), modern means of information processing (computer graphics, digital painting), sound (musical works), word (prose, poetry, calligraphy), human performer (singer, actor, clown).
The history of the development of art The history of art dates back to ancient times. Among scientists there is no consensus about the origin of this way of reflecting reality. A large part of philosophers think that God’s Providence served as the impetus for the birth of art, it awakened in our ancestors the highest spiritual origin and the desire to create. According to another theory, primitive man, by creating primitive articles (pictures), tried to understand the world around him and to pass the acquired knowledge to the other members of society.
In every hearth of civilization gradually formed a style with individual distinctive features. Masterpieces of ancient masters became a source of inspiration for descendants in the distant future. During the Middle Ages in Europe, art was completely subordinated to the service of religion. The church was the main client of the works, the central motifs were biblical subjects and spiritual truths. In Islamic countries the restriction on the image of a person led to the decadence of painting. Other kinds of art such as architecture, carpet weaving, calligraphy, ceramics developed here. In ancient China stone carving, sculpture, and painting were well developed.
The Renaissance era radically changed the concept of art. Revolutionary ideas of humanism were a powerful engine for the creation of masterpieces by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Albrecht Dürer. The invention of printing contributed to the development of literature and graphics. A little later, during the Enlightenment was a time of radical restructuring of public life. This was inevitably reflected in art by the appearance of new styles: baroque; romanticism; classicism; realism; and academicism.
In the twentieth century a huge role in art began to play cinema. Gradually it has taken a dominant position in terms of influencing the masses, shaping the lifestyle, propaganda of values of different regimes. And the development of Internet and general computerization of the population at the turn of XX-XXI centuries gave impulse to the appearance of new types of media art.