This chapter explores the purposes and functions of art. It identifies 12 ways that works of art can serve these functions, including creating beauty, enhancing environments, revealing truth, immortalizing subjects, expressing religious beliefs and fantasies, stimulating intellect and emotions, creating order and harmony, recording and commemorating experiences, reflecting social and cultural contexts, protesting injustice and raising social consciousness, and elevating the commonplace. The chapter aims to help categorize art based on its purposes and functions, though individual works may serve multiple functions.

1. Chapter 1 What is Art?
This chapter helps you explore the quot;whyquot; of art, the things that works of art do. The following items
will assist in beginning to categorize art. Remember, however, that a given work of art may do
more than just one of the following.
 Art creates beauty
 Art enhances our environment
 Art reveals truth
 Art immortalizes
 Art expresses religious beliefs
 Art expresses fantasy
 Art stimulates the intellect and fires the emotions
 Art creates order and harmony
 Art expresses chaos
 Art records and commemorates experience
 Art reflects the social and cultural context
 Art protests injustice and raises social consciousness
 Art elevates the commonplace
Essay Question: Define conceptual art, give an example of a conceptual piece from
Understanding Art, and describe an idea that you have for a conceptual piece of your own.
--Simple one page essay. (Just answer the question) Due Sunday October 26th, 2008
1. How does the first chapter in your book try to answer the question quot;What Is
Artquot;?
2. What do quot;creating beauty, revealing truth, and expressing religious beliefsquot; all
have in common?
3. Give an example of how art enhances the environment.
4. How did Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung influence art of the twentieth century?
5. How is art used to explain social and cultural contexts and even to raise social
consciousness?
6. Give four more purposes for art that are not mentioned in the
7. Given all the reasons to create art suggested by both the author and yourself
(answer to question #6), which one or two are the most important to you?