Name______________________________________________________
World
History

Article
“What
is
Art
Anyway?”

Directions:

Read
the
essay
and
answer
the
following
questions.

What
is
Art
Anyway?

By
Walter
Robinson






Art is more than just a three-letter anagram
for the words tar and rat. Throughout
civilization, art has been used to express the
entire range of human feelings and spiritual
5
 beliefs. A sandstone Buddha made during
India’s classical fifth-century Gupta period is
the very picture of enlightenment and serenity,
while the crucified Christ in Mathias
Grunewald’s sixteenth-century Isenheim
10
 Altarpiece communicates profound and
redemptive suffering. A Roman-era equestrian
statue conveys nobility and grandeur, a
Supremacists painting from the early years of
the Russian Revolution expresses utopian
15
 idealism, and Warhol’s portrait of Marilyn
Monroe symbolizes glossy Hollywood
celebrity.
The goal of art history is to help
illuminate all of these ideas and, by extension,
20
 the societies from which they spring. Today we
think of art as a dismally low-paying profession
that requires unusual amounts of creativity,
imagination and skill. With luck and hard
work, a contemporary artist dreams of showing
25
 his or her paintings or sculptures at galleries
and museums or selling them at auctions for
ridiculously large sums of money.
Our notions of art and artists, although
rooted in the older traditions of Greece and
30
 Rome, are fairly recent developments
springing from European
_______ 1. All of the following have been functions of art in history except
a. expressing religious beliefs
b. defining morals
c. providing anagrams
d. communication


civilization. Even in Europe, it’s only during
the last few hundred years that art was created
for museums or private collectors. Before that,
35
 art was intended either for the church or for the
king and his court. On other continents and in
other times art had different functions. Art was
part of a magic ceremony or served the gods or
ancestors. In ancient times art may have been
40
 made by all members of the community
together, rather than by professionals alone. In
aboriginal civilizations, for example, what we
call art is but one of the community rituals that
are designed to ensure a good hunt or to
45
 celebrate a birth, a death, or some other life
transition.
In every society, art has a special place. It
is part magic and part science, part truth and
part imagination. Art helps define morals,
50
 history, and beliefs. Art helps delineate the
structure of society, of communities, and of
families. It is a form of communication that
goes beyond language to forge mythical links
within the tribe, with the gods or with forces of
55
 nature. People express themselves artistically
to impose their will on the material world and
secure immortality for themselves. The most
successful artists today sell their art for enough
money to buy imposing things in the material
60
 world.
_______2. Today, art is made more for
a. people to buy and museums to show
b. religious purposes
c. political reasons
d. bringing people together

_______3. The term “delineate,” as used in line 50, means

a. describe
b. divide
c. define
d. unite

_______4. The author would agree most with which one of the following ideas?
a. Most art today is ridiculously overpriced.
b. Art reflects the values and ideas of people who made it in their particular time in history.
c. Artists have an unusual amount of creativity and imagination.
d. Art doesn’t mean as much to people today as it did in the past.

_______5. In lines 5-17, the author lists several specific pieces of art. The purpose for this list is to
a. show that there have been many different types of art throughout history
b. show that art made at certain times reflected specific ideas common at that time
c. illustrate the fact that art history is complex
d. show that all art has a function

_______6. Starting in line 55, the author writes, “People express themselves artistically to impose their
will on the material world and secure immortality for themselves.” This suggests that
through art
a. people can live forever
b. people can make a living for themselves
c. people desire to control others
d. art links people to the past

7. Now that you have read the essay, answer the author’s question in a brief paragraph. What is art
anyway? (Be sure to use your own words!)