Visual Arts

Fine arts is the general term for originally sculpture, painting, graphics and handicrafts, in a broader sense also architecture and artistic photography.

Since the early 19th century, the term visual arts has been used in German-speaking countries as a collective term for the visual arts. In contrast to the performing arts (theatre, dance, film art), literature and music, which take place over time and require an interpreter, a work of fine art usually exists as a physical and spatial structure that does not require an interpreter to be noticed by the viewer.

Due to the development of new media and the progressive expansion of the concept of art in the 20th century, the term visual arts is now much broader and can no longer be clearly distinguished from other art forms in individual cases.

Up until the beginning of the modern age, a work of art could be experienced primarily visually and often haptically. In the 20th and 21st centuries, however, it changed in a process-oriented manner into a pure idea or only existed as instructions for action.

Today`s visual arts are defined in a narrower sense by the art business, which includes established representatives of art criticism, the art trade, collectors and art museums.