Art is the procedure or creation of intentionally and imaginatively arranging the elements in a manner that plea to the senses or emotions. In its narrow sense, the word art most often refers specifically to visual arts, comprising media like sculpture, painting, and printmaking. However, the arts may also encompass a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature. Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy which studies art.

Traditionally, the term art was utilized to refer to any mastery or skill. This notion changed in the Romantic period, when art came to be seen as a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science. Generally, art is a human activity, prepared with the purpose of inspiring emotions and thoughts. Beyond this explanation, there is not any universal agreed-upon meaning of art.

The evaluation and definition of the art has turn out to be particularly difficult as the 20th century. Richard Wollheim differentiates 3 approaches: Realist, whereby aesthetic excellence is a complete value sovereign of any individual view; Objectivist, whereby also is an absolute value, but is dependent on general human experience; as well as the Relativist location, whereby it is not a supreme value, but depends on, and varies with, the human experience of different humans. An object might be portrayed by the goals, or need thereof, of its creator, in spite of of its obvious reason. A cup that ostensibly could be used as a container, may be considered art if intended solely as an ornament, whilst a painting might be considered craft if mass produced.

Visual art is defined as the arrangement of colors, forms, or other elements "in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium". Nature of the art has been illustrated by Wollheim as the most indefinable of traditional problems of human culture". It has been defined as a vehicle for the expression or communication of emotions and ideas, a means for appreciating and exploring official fundamentals for their personal sake, as well as as memesis or depiction. Leo Tolstoy recognized art as the utilization of indirect way to converse from each other. Benedetto Croce as well as R.G. Collingwood highly developed the idealist vision that the art expresses emotions, as well as that the art work therefore fundamentally exists in mind of the maker. The theory of art as form has its roots in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, plus was established in early 20th century by Clive Bell and Roger Fry.  Art as mimesis or representation has deep roots in the philosophy of Aristotle.

The most common usage of the word "art," which rose to prominence after 1750, is well understood to signify the skill used to create an aesthetic outcome. It can also be defined as the use of ability and thoughts in the formation of aesthetic environments, objects or experiences that can be shared with others.