What do we really mean by Art?

The answer to this question is hugely subjective and thusly open to ones opinion. Art is a diverse range of human activities and the products of those activities. In their most general form these activities include the production of works of art, the criticism of art, the study of the history of art, and the aesthetic dissemination of art. Typical art focuses primarily on the visual arts, which includes the creation of images or objects in fields including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and other visual media. Art may also be characterized in terms of mimesis (its representation of reality), expression, communication of emotion, or other qualities. So in a sense “art” can be almost anything one creates and wants to call art that can be then seen, enjoyed and even judged by others for it’s artistic merit

Expressing oneself in a creative manner.

Art is “quality of communication”. Just that.

Not definable. @Cruiser was more long winded than I am, but the definition is fine with me.

Art (and its sub-categories: music, dance, visual art, sculpture, painting, poetry, literature, etc.) is entirely subjective. One person’s art is another person’s trash.

I would only disagree with @cruiser on his last sentence. There isn’t a requirement that it be seen by anyone else. Art is the product of creative vision whether there is ever an audience or not. (Art for the sake of art)

@elbanditoroso I was not long winded…I was just being artistic..

An interesting question is why our species appreciates art. It is present in every culture, so it must be something we are born with. Certainly the ability to recognize patterns has survival value, but there must be more to it than that. There is a theory that artistic sensibility evolved for the same reason as the peacock’s tail. The peacock’s tail, for all its aesthetic quality, has no direct usefulnes, but having a well developed tail signals to peahens what a good catch that the peacock is in having the strength to survive with such an obstacle. For art the idea is that being artistic demonstrates someone’s cleverness and also the ability to survive while engaging in frivolous activity. I don’t go along with this at all.