Types of arts

Fine arts

The concept of fine art refers to any work of art that is practiced for its aesthetic value and not its functional value, meaning that it includes any creative expression that conveys an idea, an emotion, or any social flattery, and thus the difference between the concept of fine art and other types of Arts; Such as decorative arts or crafts that have a utilitarian purpose or practical application. It is noteworthy that the idea of ​​art for the sake of art only appeared in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is also worth noting that the concept of fine arts has expanded during the past two centuries in conjunction with the development of new media; Such as photography and digital designs, and thus it is expected in the future that fine arts will include other new types.


Fine arts is the traditional or classical type of art that has been taught since ancient times in the famous schools in Florence, Rome, Paris, and London, where the linear perspective and its arrangement of the types of painting constituted one of the main legacies of these academies, and it should be noted that the church was the largest and most important sponsor of this genre. of the arts, which indicates that religious arts contain the largest collection of forms and works of fine arts.

Fine arts include a group of shapes and artwork, and the following is an explanation of them:

Drawing: Drawing includes all artwork, whether using charcoal, chalk, crayons, pastels, lead, or ink and lead together. It is noteworthy that this includes two main applications, namely gilded manuscripts and picture books.

Printing: This includes the use of simple techniques; Engraving on wood or stenciling, or using more difficult and laborious techniques; such as engraving, engraving, and lithography, in addition to the most modern and advanced forms; Such as screen printing, photocopying, and giclee prints.

Sculpture: includes sculpting in stone, marble, wood, or clay.

Painting: This type of artwork includes painting using oil, watercolor, gouache, acrylic, or modern paints.

Calligraphy: Calligraphy is another form of fine art, originating in China, and refers to the intricate form of writing in an ornate style.

visual arts

The term visual arts is a comprehensive and modern term for a wide category of arts, as it includes many artistic disciplines from various sub-categories, and all forms of fine arts and contemporary arts fall under the umbrella of visual arts. It is difficult to define precisely, but the concept of visual arts leads to the term general art, which refers to all works of art that individuals can view in public places, including performances and festivals.

Visual arts include all forms of fine arts, in addition to the following:

• Graphic art and photography.
• earth art; It is one of the new arts that are being established on a large area of ​​land.
• new media i.e. digital art; This includes computer graphics, animation, virtual art, interactive art, video games, 3D printing, art as biotechnology, or any combination of those types.
• Contemporary forms of expression including many styles; such as assembly, collage, and conceptual synthesis.

Plastic Arts

The term plastic art represents any artwork that includes placing a model or forming it in 3 dimensions, so sculpture is the most common example of plastic arts; Because sculptors modify, shape, and cut using a variety of traditional and modern materials, and based on that definition, the concept of plastic arts cannot be expanded to include all forms of art in 3 dimensions, for example architecture falls under the category of plastic arts.

Many works and forms of art fall under the fine arts, and the following is an explanation of them:

• All works of art using materials that can be shaped, modeled, or otherwise processed; Such as clay, stone, metal, wood, paper or origami.
• All 3D artwork made from everyday materials or found objects, including finished works, and this type of art is called scrap art.

decorative arts

The decorative arts are the arts concerned with the decoration and design of objects whose value is mainly derived from their usefulness and not only for their aesthetic features. Thus, the decorative arts fall under a large umbrella of arts called applied arts, or handicrafts; This is because the distinguishing feature of handicrafts lies in the presence of a large degree of manual work rather than the presence of skill and the use of the machine, and it should be noted that some modern forms of this type of art fall within the disciplines of design, so it is possible that the term decorative arts will disappear; Because it aligns closely with the categories of applied arts and crafts.

It is noteworthy that the decorative arts were very prevalent in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the French royal court, and decorative arts include all decorative artistic forms of utility, including the following:

• All forms of art based on glass, clay, wood, metal, jewelry design, chain making, mosaic art, stained glass, and ceramics, in addition to furniture, furnishings, carpets, weaving, and embroidery.
• Interior design work, including office decoration.
• Precious armor, weapons, backgrounds and costumes for ballet dance performances and theatrical ensembles.

Performing arts

Performance Art originated in the early seventies as a general term to denote many activities that include the use of the body and works, so that it is characterized by presenting a live show to the audience, and depends on the arts of acting, poetry, music, dance, and drawing, so this type Art represents an event more than a physical piece, and it is indicated that it depends on the time factor, so by its nature it is ephemeral, but it can be recorded with video cameras.

Performing arts includes all of the following:


Traditional performing arts: including theatre, opera, music, and ballet. Contemporary Performing Arts: This includes mime and others.

Hypermodern performing arts: This includes happenings.

Applied Arts

The concept of applied arts refers to the application of aesthetic and artistic designs to objects and tools that are used in daily life, in the sense of making practical and aesthetically attractive things, where fine arts only serve as an intellectual stimulus for individuals, while applied arts integrate the art of design with creativity. in order to produce a benefit.

The applied arts include the following:

All functional things: These include things that involve the application of aesthetic designs to them, including the production of cups, watches, chairs, and others.

Folk arts: they are mainly part of the applied arts.

Architecture: It is considered one of the most important forms of applied arts in the twentieth century, including the designs of high-rise skyscrapers.

Computer arts: includes graphic and industrial design, interior design, in addition to all forms of decorative arts.

Art Classification Mechanism

The arts are classified into several categories and groups that overlap each other, and although there is still disagreement today regarding the exact composition of the classification of these categories, this classification is generally accepted, so that individual arts are collected based on their similarities, for example, theater combines , dance, and music are among the forms of the performing arts, and painting, sculpture, and photography are all combined as examples of the visual arts.


Reasons why it is difficult to classify arts

1. There are several reasons and things that make the matter of classifying the arts very complicated and difficult, and the following are the most important of those reasons:
2. The classical idea of ​​the arts differs from the current idea of ​​it today, as the arts were concerned with the human ability to produce things as long as the production of those things was organized and subject to rules, as art focused on skill more than the artwork itself.
3. In the past, the arts represented logical and tacit knowledge that was not dependent on inspiration, intuition, or imagination, and that concept was represented in Greek and Roman artworks. Thus, the definition of arts previously referred to works of architecture, sculpture, carpentry, weaving, and others.
4. The old concept of art today is represented by new concepts such as craft and skill, where the word art in Greek means technical, and thus art is commensurate and in line with the ancient idea of ​​arts, where the ancient Greeks combined fine arts and handicrafts; Because they saw that the essence of artistic work is skill and its production.
5. The umbrella of arts in the past embraced a greater number of artistic disciplines compared to the current general concept of the arts, as poetry and music were outside the umbrella of arts for the Greeks, while they considered science as an art, and considered that art is a matter subject to rules.
6. Poetry and music were incorporated into the arts before the end of antiquity; Once their bases were discovered, it is also indicated that the classic idea of ​​the arts that survived for more than two thousand years did not exclude crafts and sciences from the categories of arts, and it is worth noting that the current concept of art is a relatively recent one.

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