According to the Oxford dictionary art is « the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power. » Added to this category we may also find music and dance; fiction novels, poetry or theatre and architecture too. Each culture has its own specificity and depending on the century, art is more oriented towards poetry or sculpture for instance.
Today art has various forms in everyday life : literature, cinema, painting, sculpture, music which all respond to a search for aesthetics or create passions. Art helps us to educate, to pass on knowledge yet as Picasso said : « Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth » and for Cézanne « A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art ». Indeed emotions are strongly linked to art as well as creativity and Scott Adams said: « creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep ». We may wonder why it may be difficult sometimes to appreciate some forms of art that belong to a remote past, or else shall we try to understand every work of art.
In the past art was sometimes used for propaganda; it glorified the soldiers’ courage during the twentieth century world wars and it was used to teach morals or either was an invitation to immorality and freedom. As a matter of fact art has been evolving through time, artists create new forms of art to convey new messages or feelings thanks to new media as well such as screens. The film industry has been booming with the pandemy since the importance of images has increased a lot lately. In parallel comic books and graphic novels are gaining market share and to a lesser extent street art has developped in a lot of cities around the world as artists can express themselves rather freely and are exposed to public view. They often take advantage of this situation to express their political and social convictions.
