ABSTRACT
As suggested in the above quote by a prominent philosopher of art in the 1950s, each of the arts represents a type of communicative activity between artist and audience, with the forms of expression varying from medium to medium. In the visual arts, this communication is accomplished through the creation and manipulation of visible and sometimes tactile forms, such as line, color, texture, space, mass, and volume. The artist selects and applies these visual forms to create patterns, which often portray meaning through the use of simple or complex symbols representing objects, ideas, and emotions. Visual forms, patterns, and symbols tend to be culturally specic, and allow art historians to identify when, where, and by whom an individual work was made. Because the arts consume human and material resources that could otherwise have been used for acquiring necessities such as food and shelter, artists have also tended to occupy specialized niches within those cultures, either as persons of relative wealth and authority, or through the patronage or purchases of such persons.
