What is Art

Art refers to a diverse range of human activities and artifacts, and may be used to cover all or any of the arts, including music, literature and other forms. It is most often used to refer specifically to the visual arts, including media such as painting, sculpture, and printmaking. However it can also be applied to forms of art that stimulate the other senses, such as music, an auditory art. Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy which considers art.

Traditionally the term art was used to refer to any skill or mastery, a concept which altered during the Romantic period, when art came to be seen as "a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science". Generally art is a (product of) human activity, made with the intention of stimulating the human senses as well as the human mind; by transmitting emotions and/or ideas. Beyond this description, there is no general agreed-upon definition of art, since defining the boundaries of "art" is subjective.

The evaluation of art has become especially problematic since the 20th century. Wollheim distinguishes three approaches: the Realist, whereby aesthetic quality is an absolute value independent of any human view; the Objectivist, whereby it is also an absolute value, but is dependent on general human experience; and the Relativist position, whereby it is not an absolute value, but depends on, and varies with, the human experience of different humans. An object may be characterized by the intentions, or lack thereof, of its creator, regardless of its apparent purpose. A cup, which ostensibly can be used as a container, may be considered art if intended solely as an ornament, while a painting may be deemed craft if mass-produced.

Visual art is defined as the arrangement of colors, forms, or other elements "in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium". The nature of art has been described by Richard Wollheim as "one of the most elusive of the traditional problems of human culture". It has been defined as a vehicle for the expression or communication of emotions and ideas, a means for exploring and appreciating formal elements for their own sake, and as mimesis or representation. Leo Tolstoy identified art as a use of indirect means to communicate from one person to another.

Benedetto Croce and R.G. Collingwood advanced the idealist view that art expresses emotions, and that the work of art therefore essentially exists in the mind of the creator. Art as form has its roots in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and was developed in the early twentieth century by Roger Fry and Clive Bell. Art as mimesis or representation has deep roots in the philosophy of Aristotle.

What is Fine Art

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 media 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.

Fine art is sometimes referred to as 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 endeavor as exclusive and 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". Furthermore, creative writing is frequently considered a fine art as well.

An academic course of study in fine art may include a Bachelor of Fine Arts and/or a Master of Fine Arts degree. Doctor of Fine Arts degrees (earned as opposed to honorary degrees) have begun to emerge as well at some academic institutions.

Type of fine art

• Architecture (frequently considered a fine art, especially if its aesthetic components are spotlighted [in contrast to structural-engineering or construction-management components])
• Avant-garde music (much of it frequently considered both a performing art and a fine art)
• Comics
• Dance (much of it frequently considered both a performing art and a fine art)
• Drawing
• Electronic Media (perhaps the newest medium for fine art, since it utilizes modern technologies such as computer hardware and software from production to presentation. Includes amongst other things video, digital photography, digital printmaking and interactive pieces)
• Film and Cinematography
• Fine art photography
• Printmaking
• Sculpture
• Textiles, including quilt art and "wearables" or "pre-wearables" frequently considered fine art if part of an art display
• Theatre (a performing art that is frequently also considered a fine art)
• Western art music (a performing art that is frequently also considered a fine art)

What is Poster

Poster printing

Many printing techniques are used to produce posters. While most posters are mass-produced, posters may also be printed by hand or in limited editions. Most posters are printed on one side and left blank on the back, the better for affixing to a wall or other surface. Pin-up sized posters are usually printed on A3 Standard Silk paper in full colour. With help of special poster printing software it is possible to print large posters at home on standard A4 printers.

What is Giclee print

Giclée, commonly pronounced "zhee-clay," is a generic term for the process of making fine art prints from a digital source using ink-jet printing. The term, from the French verb gicler meaning "to squirt, to spray", originally applied to fine art prints created on Iris printers in a process invented in the early 1990s but has since come to mean any high quality ink-jet print. The word “giclée” was created by Jack Duganne, a printmaker working in the field, to represent any inkjet based digital print used as fine art. The intent of that name was to distinguish commonly known industrial "Iris print" proofs from the type of fine art prints artists were producing.

Canvas print

A canvas print (also known as a stretched canvas) is an image printed onto canvas, which is then framed and displayed.

Description: Reproductions of original artwork have been printed on canvas for many decades using offset printing. Since the 1990's "Canvas print" has come to be associated with either dye sublimation or inkjet printers. With the advent of these new printers it became possible for artist and photographers to print their works directly on canvas stock to create limited run reproductions. Prints using the inkjet method may also be referred to as a Giclée or Giclee Canvas Print.

Display methods :After the image is printed, the canvas is trimmed to size and glued or stapled to traditional stretcher bars or a wooden panel.

What's the difference between a Poster and an Art Print?

Typically, the art print is printed on a higher grade of paper so it is thicker and often provides more texture.

Why are some Art Prints more expensive than others?

Most of the more expensive Art Prints, if they are not oversized, may be one or a combination of the following:

• Signed by the artist-The artist's signature appears on the print.
• Limited edition-The publisher or artist has released a limited amount of each print.
• Serigraph- An Art Print that is printed through a silkscreen stencil. Each color requires a separate stencil and is printed with higher quality of ink.
• Lithograph- An Art Print that has been produced by the process of putting designs or writing with a greasy material on stone, from which printed impressions are produced.