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'''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, and elitist.
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.

Contents

Types of fine art

See also

External links

Types 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)

★ 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

★ Graffiti (while a topic of sometimes-heated debate, some graffiti is viewed as legitimate, "capital-A" art by art critics and other academics, and some of it has even appeared in art galleries; see article for more)

★ Intermedia (interdisciplinary; traditionally referred to as Fine Art Media)

★ Literature and Creative writing

★ Painting

★ Printmaking

★ Sculpture

★ Textiles (if as "wearables" or "pre-wearables", is sometimes considered fine art; 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)

See also

★ Contemporary art

★ Aesthetics

★ Art

★ Visual arts

External links

★ The Metropolitan Museum of Art ''Art History Timeline''

★ European Painting Art