art
the products of human creativity; works of art collectively
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
Researched by: Codex + Grok
Purpose and description
Enable an AI agent to recognise a work of art, assess its identity and condition, and determine appropriate handling, interpretation, display and intervention.
Art, in the collective sense of works of art, is the class of human-made or human-designated artefacts, images, and related objects whose recognised function is aesthetic, expressive, ritual, or conceptual, and which are identified, documented, and circulated as works of art rather than solely as tools, commodities, or records.
It can be Identify and compare artworks while distinguishing works, manifestations, editions and reproductions.; Assess whether an observed change is deterioration, prior intervention or documented artistic variability.; Prepare handling and conservation proposals that protect identity-bearing features.; Specify an exhibition or activation consistent with documented artistic requirements.; Generate evidence-qualified descriptions that preserve disputed attribution and interpretation.; Determine whether a proposed loan, reproduction, substitution or treatment has sufficient evidence and authority to proceed..
Distinguishing features
Record the evidence for treating the item as art, such as maker intention, commissioning context or documented reception; appearance and aesthetic appeal alone do not settle the classification.
For a functional or decorative object, establish whether its artistic identity requires recording features beyond its practical function; allow both classifications when supported.
For a found object, identify the selection, designation or arrangement that constitutes the artwork and distinguish it from an otherwise equivalent undesignated object.
For an image, cast or reproduction, establish whether it is an independent artwork, an authorised edition member, a substitute display object or documentation of another work.
For an installation or multipart work, determine which components and spatial relationships constitute the work and which are equipment, packaging or exhibition context.
Scope
+ Identification of artworks, including titles, attribution, constituent parts and boundaries
+ Relationships between an artwork, its physical manifestations, editions, copies and authorised realisations
+ Materials, artistic techniques and features whose alteration could change the work
+ Provenance, authenticity claims and competing interpretations with their supporting evidence
+ Condition, conservation needs and artist-authorised change
+ Artwork-specific requirements for display, activation, handling and reproduction
- Artists' biographies and careers beyond evidence relevant to a work
- Museums, galleries and collections as organisations or managed holdings
- Art sales, insurance contracts and financial transactions
- Copyright law and licensing systems beyond permissions attached to the work
- Creative production projects and performances as activities, except their relationship to an artwork
- Software and digital infrastructure internals beyond dependencies needed to realise or preserve a work
Characteristics
- Art designation
- Maker-designated, institutionally documented, contextually attributed, disputed or undetermined; record evidence and claimant Makes the basis for treating an item as art explicit without requiring a universal definition of art.
- Artistic form and medium
- Recorded terms such as painting, sculpture, print, textile, assemblage or installation; allow multiple and uncertain terms Guides recognition, examination and selection of relevant handling and display questions.
- Attribution
- Work to named maker, workshop, collaboration or unknown maker, qualified by claim, evidence and uncertainty Separates documented authorship from signatures, traditions and later attribution.
- Manifestation role
- Unique object, edition member, artist's proof, authorised realisation, reproduction, fragment or unresolved Determines whether another object can represent, replace or instantiate the same work.
- Physical extent
- Dimensions in mm or m, mass in kg and component count, with configuration and measurement date Supports identification and establishes space, mounting and movement requirements.
- Identity-bearing features
- Work to significant surfaces, materials, components, arrangements or behaviours, with evidence of significance Distinguishes changes that affect artistic identity from changes to replaceable support equipment.
- Observed condition
- Dated observations by component or region, including alteration, loss, instability and uncertainty Supports conservation and handling decisions without reducing condition to a single quality score.
- Permitted variability
- Fixed, variable within documented limits, intended to change, renewable, or undocumented Prevents intended ageing or authorised reconfiguration from being mistaken for damage.
- Action authority
- Proposed action to authorising party, permission evidence, conditions and unresolved restrictions Allows display, treatment and reproduction decisions to account for distinct forms of authority.
Analytical facets
- substance
- material
- origin
- manufactured
- agency
- inert
- mobility
- portable
- scale
- handheld
- affordances
- graspable
Also called
+126
Where this came from
oewn:2024 · CC BY 4.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 18 findings · 31 questions.
Artistic identity Establish what is recognised as the artwork and how its manifestations relate.
An artwork's identity may depend on designation, edition status or arrangement rather than physical resemblance alone.
Designation and boundaries
Identify the basis of art status and the extent of the work.
Basis and extent of the work
Record supported art designations and distinguish constitutive parts from surrounding objects.
- Who identifies this item or assemblage as art, and what evidence supports that designation? definition
- Which objects, surfaces, arrangements or instructions constitute the work, and which belong only to its presentation? boundary
Manifestations and editions
Distinguish the work from particular objects, copies and realisations.
Manifestation status
Record how this manifestation participates in the identity of the work.
- Is this a unique work, edition member, proof, authorised realisation, reproduction or fragment? definition
- What edition records, certificates, instructions or other evidence establish that status? provenance
- Under what documented conditions would a replacement or new realisation count as the same work? boundary
Making and provenance Track evidence about authorship, production and the history of the work.
Attribution and authenticity depend on distinguishable claims about who made the work and how the present object reached its current state and custody.
Authorship and production
Separate creative attribution from fabrication and subsequent intervention.
Attributed making
Record maker claims, production roles and their evidential limits.
- Who is credited with conception, execution and fabrication, and which credits are disputed or unknown? provenance
- What supports the proposed date, place, materials and techniques of production? provenance
Object history and authenticity
Connect the present manifestation to historical records without treating gaps as proof.
Continuity and competing claims
Record custody history, identifying evidence and unresolved authenticity claims separately.
- Which ownership, custody, exhibition or treatment records can be linked to this particular manifestation, and where are the gaps? provenance
- Which inscriptions, images, material examinations or expert assessments support or challenge its claimed identity? provenance
Material condition and continuity Assess physical change in relation to the features that sustain artistic identity.
Preserving an artwork requires distinguishing damage from intended transformation and replaceable material from artistically significant substance.
Material and condition evidence
Locate and document the materials and changes relevant to the work's integrity.
Significant material state
Connect component-level condition observations to artistic significance.
- Which materials, finishes, marks and components are identity-bearing, and what evidence establishes their significance? definition
- What losses, distortions, surface changes or instabilities are observable, where are they, and against which dated baseline are they assessed? measurement
Change and treatment
Establish acceptable change and limits on conservation intervention.
Permitted material change
Record intended transformation, replacement rules and intervention constraints.
- Which changes are documented as intended or acceptable, and which remain unclassified? boundary
- May a proposed cleaning, repair, renewal or component replacement proceed, and what artistic evidence and authorisation are required? action
- Which earlier treatments altered original material or appearance and must inform the proposed intervention? provenance
Presentation and meaning Record how the work should be encountered and how interpretive claims are supported.
Installation choices and explanatory framing can materially alter the experience or apparent meaning of a work.
Installation and activation
Capture requirements for a valid presentation or realisation.
Presentation parameters
Distinguish artistically required settings from curatorial choices and undocumented assumptions.
- Which orientation, spacing, lighting, framing, sequence, sound or audience-interaction requirements are documented as part of the work? boundary
- What must be measured or checked to confirm that a proposed installation satisfies those requirements? measurement
- What instructions and dependencies are needed to install, activate and deactivate this work? action
Interpretive evidence
Separate observable content from attributed intention and later interpretation.
Supported description and interpretation
Record titles, depicted subjects and interpretive claims with their sources and uncertainty.
- Which titles and descriptions originate with the maker, and which were supplied by later owners, cataloguers or communities? provenance
- Which claims about subject, symbolism or purpose are directly supported, inferred or contested? definition
Artwork use and authority Connect proposed actions to artwork-specific permissions and preservation constraints.
Possession of an artwork does not by itself resolve authority to reproduce, alter or realise it, and physical actions can affect artistic integrity.
Permissions and integrity
Identify evidence needed to authorise uses that reproduce or change the work.
Authority for proposed use
Record relevant parties, permission evidence and restrictions for each contemplated action.
- Which documented permissions or unresolved claims apply to displaying, photographing, reproducing, modifying or re-realising this work? action
- Who has the relevant authority for the proposed use, and what evidence distinguishes that authority from ownership or custody? provenance
Handling, loan and storage
Translate the artwork's construction and significance into practical movement and storage constraints.
Safe custodial actions
Record work-specific limits on contact, separation, packing and environmental exposure.
- Which surfaces may be touched, which components may be detached, and what supports or packing protect fragile or identity-bearing features? action
- What documented exposure limits and current condition observations determine whether the work can be stored, moved or lent? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Kinds and varieties
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Painting (easel, mural, panel, and related pictorial surfaces)
- Sculpture (including relief, installation, and monumental three-dimensional work)
- Drawing and unique works on paper
- Prints, multiples, and artist's books
- Photography
- Decorative and applied arts (ceramics, textiles, furniture, metalwork, glass)
- Public and civic art
- Digital, time-based, and new-media works (often with a physical carrier or display object)
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of art this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Wikidata - Q735 - Item for art as creative activity and its products; the instance class for an individual artwork is typically Q838948 (work of art).
- Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) - 8-digit concept IDs prefixed 300… - Controlled vocabulary for object types, materials, and techniques of art; used in museum and image catalogues.
- Object ID - structured record (type, materials, measurements, inscriptions, distinguishing features, images), not a serial number - International checklist for uniquely describing a movable artwork or cultural object.
- Museum accession number - institution-specific, commonly {prefix}-{year}-{running number} - Primary local identifier for a work in a collection; not globally unique without the holding institution.
- Iconclass - alphanumeric notation (e.g. 11H(…), 25H…) - Subject classification of visual art, not an identifier of the work itself.
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of art this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- UNESCO 1970 Convention on illicit import, export and transfer of cultural property (UNESCO)
- 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, with 1954 and 1999 Protocols (UNESCO)
- UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects, 1995 (UNIDROIT)
- Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (WIPO)
- Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, 17 U.S.C. § 106A (United States) - moral rights of attribution and integrity for certain visual works
- Regulation (EU) 2019/880 on the introduction and the import of cultural goods (European Union)
- Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, 1998 (non-binding, widely cited in restitution practice)
- ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums (International Council of Museums)
- ISO 21127 CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (ISO)
- Categories for the Description of Works of Art - CDWA (Getty Research Institute)
- Cataloging Cultural Objects - CCO (Visual Resources Association)
- Spectrum collection-management standard (Collections Trust, United Kingdom)
- Object ID documentation standard (J. Paul Getty Trust / ICOM)
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of art this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Held, conserved, and exhibited in museums, galleries, and heritage sites as collection objects with accession records.
- Bought and sold through dealers, fairs, and auction houses; used as collateral, investment, and diplomatic gift.
- Installed in civic space as public art (monuments, murals, commissioned sculpture).
- Used in worship and ritual (icons, altarpieces, temple sculpture, liturgical objects).
- Taught from in studios and art history; reproduced as study images under catalogue and copyright rules.
- Documented for insurance, customs, export licence, and police recovery after theft.
- Subject of provenance research, restitution, and repatriation claims.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of art this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Overall height, width, and depth (object, unframed and framed) - tens of millimetres (small works, jewellery, miniatures) to several metres (large paintings, public sculpture); museum catalogues record to the millimetre - mm
- Mass - grams (works on paper, small objects) to tonnes (stone or metal monument) - kg
- Display illuminance (conservation limit, not a property of the work) - about 50 lx for highly light-sensitive media (watercolour, textile, photograph); up to about 200 lx for oil paint on canvas - lx
- Storage and display relative humidity - commonly specified around 40-55 (narrower bands for unstable mixed-media works) - % RH
- Storage and display temperature - commonly specified around 16-22 for occupied galleries; cooler for film and some photographs - °C
- Creation date - from prehistoric portable objects to the present; recorded as a year, range, or century - year (CE/BCE)
- Insurance or fair-market value - from negligible to nine-figure sums at the top of the market; highly skewed and jurisdiction-dependent - currency (e.g. USD, EUR)
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of art this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Material decay: light fading, acidic paper embrittlement, flaking paint, bronze disease, pest attack, pollutant staining.
- Theft, looting, and illicit trafficking, often enabled by thin documentation.
- Forgery, pastiche, and false or inflated attribution.
- Iconoclasm, vandalism, and wartime destruction or seizure.
- Over-cleaning and irreversible restoration that destroy original surface or evidence.
- Provenance gaps, especially Nazi-era, colonial, and conflict-related displacements, leading to title failure and restitution disputes.
- Fire, flood, and climate-driven building failure in stores and historic sites.
- Copyright, moral-rights, and traditional-knowledge conflicts over reproduction, alteration, or sacred restriction.
- Physical injury from unstable public sculpture or falling display hardware (hazard to people, not only to the work).
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of art this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- European 'fine art' / beaux-arts historically ranked painting, sculpture, and architecture above decorative arts; German Kunstgewerbe and Japanese kōgei treat applied work as a central art category.
- Islamic traditions have long privileged calligraphy, geometry, and architecture; figurative easel painting is not the default high-art form.
- Western museums long classed African, Oceanic, and Indigenous American works as ethnography rather than art; that boundary is actively being rewritten.
- English 'art' is narrower than German Kunst or the older sense of art as skilled making ('the art of…').
- Export-licence thresholds, droit de suite (artist resale right), and moral-rights strength differ sharply between the United States, the EU, and other jurisdictions.
- Sacred images may be legally and socially inalienable in one region and ordinary market objects in another.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of art this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Craft - Craft is organised around skilled making and often around use or a trade; the same object is treated as art when its primary recognised function is aesthetic or conceptual display rather than continued use. The boundary is institutional and contested, not a material test.
- Design - Design answers a brief for manufacture or use (product, graphic, interior); an artwork is typically authored as an autonomous work, even when it borrows design methods.
- Archaeological or ethnographic artefact - An artefact is primarily evidence of a past or living culture; the same object is an artwork when it is also catalogued and valued under an art-historical or art-market object type. Function in the source culture does not decide the museum category by itself.
- Document or record - A document is kept for evidential content (text, data, legal force); a work of art is kept for its made form. Illustrated manuscripts and artists' archives sit on the line and are typed by the holding system.
- Natural object - Not human-made. A natural specimen becomes art only if an agent designates it as a work (readymade/found-object practice); otherwise it remains a specimen.
- Illustration or commercial image - Made to serve a text, brand, or advertisement; it is classed as art when circulated and collected as an autonomous work (original drawing, limited print) rather than only as a reproduction in context.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of art this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Sources
- art (Q735) - Canonical item for art as creative work/products of creativity; neighbour item Q838948 (work of art).
- Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA) - Museum/cataloguing categories that treat a work of art as a describable object (object/work, materials, measurements, creation, provenance).
- Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (1970) - International legal frame treating many artworks as cultural property subject to export control and restitution.
- Object ID - Minimum documentation standard (Getty, ICOM and partners) used to identify movable art and cultural objects after theft.
- ISO 21127: Information and documentation - A reference ontology for the interchange of cultural heritage information (CIDOC CRM) - Reference ontology in which artworks are modelled as human-made objects and conceptual objects with production, condition, and information-object relations.
- ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums - Professional rules for acquisition, display, conservation, and deaccession of artworks in museum custody.
- Cataloging Cultural Objects: A Guide to Describing Cultural Works and Their Images - VRA/ALA cataloguing practice that distinguishes a cultural work (including art) from its images and records core work-level data.
What the second pass must settle
- How should this PHY.OBJ entry relate to conceptual, performance-based and digital artworks whose identity is not exhausted by a physical manifestation?
- Does 'works of art collectively' require a first-class aggregate within this model, and how should that differ from a collection managed as a holding?
- What evidence and review process should resolve conflicting artist, estate, community and institutional claims about designation, attribution or permitted change?
- Which medium-specific condition vocabularies and conservation references are needed before the model can support reliable intervention decisions?
- How should the model distinguish an authorised replacement, a restored work and a newly created work when original material or technical dependencies are substantially replaced?