Art can usually be understood from three levels. First, from the spiritual level, art is regarded as a field of culture or a form of cultural value, alongside religion, philosophy and ethics. The second is to understand art from the level of activity process, and think that art is an artist's self-expression, creative activity or imitation of reality. Third, from the level of activity results, art is considered as a work of art, and the objective existence of art is emphasized.
It is generally believed that art is a way for people to grasp the real world, and artistic activities are a spiritual practice for people to grasp the objective objects intuitively and integrally, and on this basis, create artistic images in the form of symbols. Finally, it appears in the form of works of art, not only because of the artist's understanding and reflection of the objective world, but also because of subjective factors such as the artist's own feelings, ideals and values. It is a spiritual product.
The difference between art and other ideologies lies in its aesthetic value, which is its most important and basic feature. Artists express and convey their own aesthetic feelings and ideals through artistic creation, and appreciators gain aesthetic feeling through artistic appreciation to meet their own aesthetic needs. Aestheticism is the most perfect display of aesthetics. Besides aesthetic value, art also has other social functions, such as cognitive function, educational function and entertainment function. Among them, the social function of art is that people know nature, society, history and life through artistic activities, which is different from the cognitive function of science. The educational function of art is that people are influenced and infected by truth, goodness and beauty through artistic activities, which subtly causes profound changes in thoughts, feelings, attitudes towards life and values. It is different from moral education. The concept of artistic entertainment is that people can meet their aesthetic needs and get spiritual enjoyment and aesthetic pleasure through artistic activities, which is different from physical pleasure.
As for art and fine arts, they are one. In the west, both "art" and "fine arts" originated from Latin "art" in ancient Rome. The original meaning refers to "artificial skills" as opposed to "natural creation", and generally refers to various hand-made works of art, music, literature, drama and so on. At that time, art in a broad sense even included skills in clothing, cultivation, boxing and medical technology. In ancient Greece, the concept of art was still skill and technology, but in the fifth century BC, when painting and sculpture in ancient Greece developed to a mature stage, a set of standards of classical beauty had been basically established, which laid the foundation for the evolution of artistic significance in the future. It was not until the Renaissance that art gradually equated with "beauty". /kloc-in the middle of the 0/8th century, the concept system of art based on beauty was formally established, and art became the main object of aesthetics. Today, the word "art" in English is still interpreted as both "art" and "art". It can be used to refer to music, dance, literature, drama, movies and other artistic categories, and sometimes it can also be used to refer to visual arts including painting, sculpture, crafts, architecture and so on. In many western works, we can even see that the author's "art" actually refers to a part of art that China thinks: painting. And their "art" (which we translate directly as "art") still refers to poetry, music, painting, sculpture, architecture and so on.