关键词: 艺术定义, 美学, 艺术史, 审美价值, 文化价值

Abstract: This paper tries to present a new definition of art on the basis of contemporary Western philosophy of art. William E. Kennick's and Arthur Danto's definitions are sophisticatedly open, but they fail to take into account of the dimension of value in art. This paper proposes that art is both a production and a culture, which means that art is the production of cultural value through artisanship. The definition of art in the classical aesthetics has defined art as craftsmanship plus aesthetic value and defines artworks as the product with aesthetic value, while this paper defines art as craftsmanship plus various cultural values and defines artworks as the product with various cultural values. The comparison can show that the definition porposed in this paper goes beyond specific cultural understanding of art so that it is possible to compare artworks in different cultures and to write a world or general history of art.

Key words: definition of art, aesthetics, art history, aesthetic value, cultural value