Importance of art anthropology in terms of art and art criticism

Abstract

The existence of art is important since it demonstrates the aspects of people and social relations. These aspects are one of the dynamics connecting art with culture. Art criticism is one of the institutions that contributes to the history of art, and thus to the history of culture by keeping the record of the artistic values, the causality and the sense making process in the emergence of the work of art. Also, anthropology examines how the culture has emerged and developed from conceptual and practical aspects, while keeping the record of the changes undergone by people and social relations. For this reason, it is inevitable for art and art criticism to make use of the anthropological data. Many different disciplines may be used as an effective source by itself or by the informed choice of the artist in the process of the emergence of art works. One of the qualities of art criticism is to add aesthetic and social meaning to the work of art by discovering these disciplines which are effective in the emergence of art work. This article shall focus on the role of anthropology in the emergence of art works and in the process of sense-making of this art work by criticism. First, the important characteristics of anthropology in terms of art and art criticism shall be mentioned. Afterwards, why the anthropology is important in terms of art and art criticism shall be mentioned and the importance of anthropology's characteristics of keeping the record of the change of the people and the society shall be explained in terms of art and art criticism. © 2023 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.