Pakistan National Council Of The Arts
The European Academies of the 16th century formally solidified the gap between the fine and the applied arts which exists in varying degrees to this day. Some purposes of art may be to express or communicate emotions and ideas, to explore and appreciate formal elements for their own sake, or to serve as representation. The meaning of art is shaped by the intentions of the artist as well as the feelings and ideas it engenders in the viewer. Since the introduction of conceptual art and postmodern theory, it has been proven that anything can, in fact, be termed art. The decorative arts add aesthetic and design values to the objects we use every day, such as a glass or a chair. Thus, Japanese woodblock prints had an immense influence on impressionism and subsequent development. Later, African sculptures were taken up by Picasso and to some extent by Matisse. Similarly, in the 19th and 20th centuries the West has had huge impacts on Eastern art with originally western ideas like Commun