“Art” encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, such as painting, sculpture, printmaking, music, drawing, decorative arts, photography, and installation.
We tend to differ between traditional categories of art, like drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture and decorative arts and furnishings, like basketry, enamelwork, floral decoration, furniture, glassware, interior design, lacquer work, metalwork, mosaic, pottery, rug and carpet, stained glass, and tapestry.  Photography  as a rather new medium and piece of art stands at the chronological end of the chain of development.

History
                               
Venus of Willendorf, circa 24,000–22,000 BP.                  Cave painting of a horse from the Lascaux caves, c. 16,000 BP.
People have always been striving for communication with other members of their kind. As a result, dozens of sculptures, cave paintings, rock paintings and petroglyphs were produced in the Paleolithic period dating to roughly 40,000 years ago and later, but the precise meaning of such art is often disputed because so little is known about the cultures that produced them.
Many great traditions in art have a foundation in the art of one of the great ancient civilizations: Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, China, Ancient Greece, Rome, as well as Inca, Maya and Olmec. Each of these centers of early civilization developed a unique and characteristic style in their art. Due of the size and duration of these civilizations, more of their art works have survived and more of their influence has been transmitted to other cultures and later times. Some also have provided the first records of how artists worked. For example, the period of Greek art saw a veneration of the human physical form and the development of equivalent skills to show musculature, poise, beauty, and anatomically correct proportions.
In Byzantine and Medieval art of the Western Middle Ages, much art focused on the expression of Biblical and non-material truths, and used styles that showed the higher unseen glory of a heavenly world, such as the use of gold in the background of paintings, or glass in mosaics or windows, which also presented figures in idealized, patterned (flat) forms.
Renaissance art had a greatly increased 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 a systematic method of graphical perspective to depict recession in a three dimensional picture space.
                                
Detail of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa,                         Adam. Detail from Michelangelo's fresco in the showing the painting technique of sfumato                                               Cappella Sistina (1511)
The western Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century saw artistic depictions of physical and rational certainties of the clockwork universe, as well as politically revolutionary visions of a post-monarchist world. This led to Romantic rejections of this in favour of pictures of the emotional side and individuality of humans. The late 19th century then saw a host of artistic movements, such as Academic Art, Symbolism, Impressionism and Fauvism among others.
The history of twentieth century art is a narrative of endless possibilities and the search for new standards, each being torn down in succession by the next. Thus the parameters of Impressionism, Expressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism, etc. cannot be maintained very much beyond the time of their invention. Increasing global interaction during this time saw an equivalent influence of other cultures into Western art, such as Pablo Picasso being influenced by African sculpture. Japanese woodblock prints had an immense influence on Impressionism and subsequent development. Later, African sculptures were taken up by Pablo Picasso and to some extent by Henry Matisse. Similarly, the West has had huge impacts on Eastern art in 19th and 20th century, with originally western ideas like Communism and Post-Modernism exerting powerful influence on artistic styles.
Skill and craft
A common view is that art requires a certain level of creative expertise by the artist, whether this be a demonstration of technical ability or an originality in stylistic approach such as in the plays of Shakespeare, or a combination of these two. Traditionally, skill of execution was viewed as a quality inseparable from art and thus necessary for its success; for Leonardo da Vinci art was a manifestation of skill. Rembrandt's work, on the other hand, was most admired by his contemporaries for its virtuosity.
The purpose of art
The various visual arts exist within a continuum that ranges from purely aesthetic purposes at one end to purely utilitarian purposes at the other. Such a polarity of purpose is reflected in the commonly used terms artist and artisan, the latter understood as one who gives considerable attention to the utilitarian. This should however by no means be taken literally. Even within one form of art motives may vary widely; thus a potter or a weaver may create a highly functional work that is at the same time beautiful — a salad bowl, for example, or a blanket — or may create works that have no purpose beyond being admired. In cultures such as Africa and Oceania a definition of art that encompasses this continuum has existed for centuries. In the West, however, by the mid-18th century the development of academies for painting and sculpture established a sense that these media were “art” and therefore separate from more utilitarian media. This separation of art forms continued among art institutions until the late 20th century, when such rigid distinctions began to be questioned.
Particularly in the 20th century, a different sort of debate arose over the definition of art. A seminal moment in this discussion occurred in 1917, when Dada artist Marcel Duchamp submitted a porcelain urinal entitled “Fountain” to a public exhibition in New York City. Through this act Duchamp put forth a new definition of what constitutes a work of art: he implied that it is enough for an artist to deem something “art” and put it in a publicly accepted venue. Implicit within this gesture was a challenge to the established art institutions — such as museums, exhibiting groups, and galleries — that have the power to determine what is and is not considered art. Such intellectual experimentation continued throughout the 20th century in movements such as conceptual art and minimalism. By the turn of the 21st century a variety of new media (e.g., video art) further challenged traditional definitions of art.
Value and judgement
Though perception is always coloured by experience and is necessarily subjective, it is commonly taken that what is not somehow aesthetically satisfying, cannot be art. However, "good" art is not always aesthetically appealing to a majority of viewers. In other words, an artist's prime motivation need not be the pursuit of the aesthetic. Also, art often depicts terrible images made for social, moral, or thought-provoking reasons. Thus, the debate continues as to what mode of aesthetic satisfaction, if any, is required to define 'art'.
Communication
Art is often intended to appeal and connect with human emotion(s). It can arouse aesthetic or moral feelings, and can be understood as a way of communicating these feelings. Artists express something so that their audience is aroused to some extent, but they do not have to do so consciously. Art explores what is commonly termed as the human condition; that is, essentially what it is to be human. Effective art often brings about some new insight concerning the human condition, which is not necessarily always positive. The degree of skill that the artist has will affect their ability to trigger an emotional response and thereby provide new insights; the ability to manipulate them at will shows exemplary skill and determination.
Art, class and value
Many people view art as belonging to some social classes and often excluding others. In this context art is seen as an upper-class activity associated with wealth, the ability to purchase art, and the leisure required to pursue or enjoy it. For example, the palaces of Versailles in Paris or the Hermitage in St. Petersburg with their vast collections of art, amassed by the fabulously wealthy royalty of Europe exemplify this view. Collecting such art is the preserve of the rich, or of governments and institutions.
Fine and expensive goods have been popular markers of status in many cultures, and they continue to be so today. There has been a cultural push in the other direction since at least 1793, when the Louvre, which had been a private palace of the Kings of France, was opened to the public as an art museum during the French Revolution. Most modern public museums and art education programs for children in schools can be traced back to this impulse to have art available to everyone. Museums in the United States tend to be gifts from the very rich to the masses (The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, for example, was created by John Taylor Johnston, a railroad executive whose personal art collection seeded the museum.) But despite all this, at least one of the important functions of art in the 21st century remains as a marker of wealth and social status.

Art definition