work of art, artwork, work or art object is a creation, such as an art
object, design, architectural piece, musical work, literary composition,
performance, film, conceptual art piece, or even computer program that is made
and or valued primarily for an "artistic" rather than practical function. This
article is concerned with the concept in the visual arts rather than music or
literature, although similar issues arise in those fields.
Traditional media for visual works of art include: calligraphy, carvings,
gardens, ceramics, painting, prints, sculpture, drawings, photography or
buildings. Since modernism, the field of fine art has expanded to include film,
performance art, conceptual art, Welded sculpture and video art.
What is perceived as a work of art differs between cultures and eras and by the
meaning of the term "art". From the Renaissance until the twentieth century, and
to some extent still, Western art critics and the general western public tended
not to define applied art or decorative art as works of art. They tended to
accord them lower status than works, such as paintings, with no practical use,
according to the hierarchy of genres. Other cultures, for example Chinese and
Islamic, have not made this distinction so strongly.
The related terms artwork and art object, used especially in American English,
came into use in the 20th century. Some contemporary works of art in conceptual
art and other fields exist essentially as sets of instructions by the artist for
the physical creation of the object, which is expected only to be physically
created periodically—just as a piece of music or drama exists as a score or
script. An example is Emergency Room by Thierry Geoffroy. Sometimes physical
objects are transferred by the artist, but the work requires their arrangement
in a specific form set out by the artist. In such cases, the distinction between
the terms is useful; the "work of art" has no permanent physical form, but
sometimes manifests as a physical "art object." Equally a work of found art may
not change its physical properties, but becomes art when so presented by the
artist. In contrast, a work of art may change the qualities of the materials
concerned, as in An Oak Tree by Michael Craig-Martin.
The French form of "art object," objet d'art, has been used for much longer in
English and usually means a work of decorative or applied art. To establish
whether a work is a work of art, the concepts of attribution, artistic merit and
literary merit may be invoked.
Among practitioners of contemporary art, various new media objects such as the
DVD, the web page, and other interactive media have been treated as art objects;
such treatment frequently involves a formalist (or "medium-specific") analysis.
The formal analysis of computerized media has yielded such art movements as
internet art and algorithmic art. The purpose of "new media objects" is not to
replace traditional media, but to challenge old media.
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