Art

Introduction
Surrounded by thousands of photographic images, we often take it for granted that in addition to supplying information and seducing customers, camera images also serve as decoration, afford spiritual enrichment, and provide significant insights into the passing scene. But in decades surrounding the discovery of photography, the question of whether photography is an art and its influence on modern art has often arisen. This has led to means of fitting this mechanical medium into traditional forms of artistic expressions like paining and drawing. Photographs that reproduce art objects also have had a profound effect on the democratization of public taste and knowledge, changing public perceptions of visual culture and making possible the establishment of art history as a serious discipline.

Part Two
Art is explored in a philosophy branch, aesthetics, and encompasses diverse range of human activities, creations and modes of expressions. These include music, literature, film, paintings, photography etc thus it is a product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to ones senses and emotions. Definition and evaluation of art is often varied. As described by Richard Wollheim art is, “one of the most elusive of the traditional problems of human existence”. He further vies art in three perspectives: realist view, where aesthetic value of an art work is independent of any human view, the Objectivist view in which art is of an absolute value but dependent on general human experience and the relativist approach whereby it is not an absolute value but depends human experience of different humans. It is of these views that complicate further the precise definition of art.
Art is conventionally defined as ”the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments or experiences that can be shared with others.” By this definition artistic works have existed for as almost as long as human kind, from prehistoric art to contemporary art.

Most traditions in art have foundation in art of ancient civilizations: ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, Greece etc. each of these civilizations developed a unique and characteristic style in their art. The Western middle ages had Byzantine and medieval art that focused on the expression of biblical and not material truths. They used styles that showed higher unseen glory of a heavenly world.
Renaissance art had emphasis on the realistic depiction of the material world, and the place of humans in it reflected in the corporeality of the human body and development of graphical perspective to depict recession in three dimension picture space. Other traditional art ages had varied perspectives that were influenced by their religion, economic activities and cultures in entirety.

However in 20th century modernism or the idealistic search of truth was born. Relativism was accepted as an avoidable truth and newer periods of art; contemporary art and postmodern criticism where cultures of the world are seen as dynamic thus separation of such cultures became increasingly blurred.  This lead radical break in conception of the function of art and a host of artistic movements came forth with impressionism among them.

Impressionists employed use of color and brush over line as traditionally used. This was mostly attributed to influence from painters such as Eugene Delacroix. They relaxed the boundary between subject and background so that the effect of impressionist painting resembled a snapshot, a feature enhanced by photography.

The question of whether photography is a form of art may seem pointless today as while some photographers used camera to emulate the subjects and styles, graphic artists use photographs for information and ideas. Photographs of that reproduce art objects also have had a profound effect on democratization of public taste and knowledge, changing perceptions of visual art and making possible the establishment of modern art history a serious discipline.

Traditional artists did not wholly welcome the entrenchment of photography in visual art. This was captured in Paul Delaroche’s pronouncement that photography and camera signaled the end of painting. Discussion on the role of photography in art was rife in France and England. In both countries, public interest in the topic was a reflection on the belief that national stature and achievement in the arts was correlated. From the maze of conflicting statements and heated discussions over the role of photography, three main positions about the potential of photography as an art emerged.

The simplest position, entertained by many painters and general public, was that photographs should not be considered art because they were made with a mechanical device and by physical and chemical phenomena instead of by human hand and spirit. The second widely view, shared by painters, some photographers and some critics was that photographs would be useful to art but should not be considered equal in creativity to drawing and painting. Lastly, motivated by a notion that photography is comparable to other replicatable techniques such as etching and lithography, a fair number of individuals realized that camera images were and could be as significant as handmade works of art and that they might have a beneficial influence on traditional forms of visual art.

Artists reacted to photography in various ways. Many portraits, miniaturists in particular realized photography was “the handwriting on the wall” thus incorporated it in their work. Notable is in the case of Queen Victoria’s painter Henry Collen(), while others renounced painting altogether. Still some painters, most prominent among them Ingress began to use photography to make record of their work and provide them with source material for poses and backgrounds, and at the same time denying its influence on their vision. The irony of this situation was aptly captured by French journalist Ernest Lacan, who observed that “photography is like a mistress whom one cherishes and hides about which one speaks with joy but does not want others to mention.”

The view that photographs might be worthwhile to artists—acceptable for collecting facts, eliminating the drudgery of study from the live model was enunciated in considerable detail by Lacan and Francis Wey. The latter, a philologist as well as an art and literary critic, who eventually recognized that camera images could be inspired as well as informative, suggested that they would lead to greater naturalness in the graphic depiction of anatomy, clothing, likeness, expression, and landscape configuration. By studying photographs, true artists, he claimed, would be relieved of menial tasks and become free to devote themselves to the more important spiritual aspects of their work, while inept hacks would be driven from the field of graphic art. Wey left unstated what the incompetent artist might do as an alternative, but according to the influential French critic and poet Baudelaire, writing in response to an exhibition of photography at the Salon of 1859, lazy and incompetent painters would become photographers. Fired by a belief in art as an imaginative embodiment of cultivated ideas and dreams, Baudelaire regarded photography as "a very humble servant of art and science, like printing and stenography"—a medium largely unable to transcend "external reality." For this critic as well as for other idealists, symbolists, and aesthetes, photography was linked with "the great industrial madness" of the time, which in their eyes exercised disastrous consequences on the spiritual qualities of life and art.

Whereas whether photography should be incorporated in art is still debatable, art still remains an integral subject today. Art has disparate functions spreading over personal, social and physical aspects of life. Art, at its simplest, is a form of communication. As most forms of communication have an intent or goal directed toward another individual, this is a motivated purpose. Illustrative arts, such as scientific illustration, are a form of art as communication. Maps are another example. However, the content need not be scientific. Emotions, moods and feelings are also communicated through art. As Steve Mithen said, “Art is a set of artifacts or images with symbolic meanings as a means of communication.” Art, too, is entertainment. Art may seek to bring about a particular emotion or mood, for the purpose of relaxing or entertaining the viewer. This is often the function of the art industries of cartoons, art galleries and paintings.

One of the defining functions of early twentieth century art has been to use visual images to bring about political change. The art movements which had this goal - Dadaism, Surrealism, Russian Constructivism, and Abstract Expressionism, among others - are collectively referred to as the avant-garde arts. While similar to art for political change, subversive art may seek to question aspects of society without any specific political goal. In this case, the function of art may be simply to criticize some aspect of society.
Art has been extensively employed in psychological and healing purposes. Art therapy too is used by art therapists, psychotherapists and clinical psychologists as. The Diagnostic Drawing Series, for example, is used to determine the personality and emotional functioning of a patient. The end product is not the principal goal in this case, but rather a process of healing, through creative acts, is sought. The resultant piece of artwork may also offer insight into the troubles experienced by the subject and may suggest suitable approaches to be used in more conventional forms of psychiatric therapy.

In conclusion, visual art is integral and irreplaceable aspect of human life. With advances in its forms, an invention such as photography complements traditional art and should not view as their competitors. Entrenchment of such new technologies will ensure art evolves with humanity and passed on down the ages.