Introduction

Imagine you were able to travel to the future, let’s say about 500 years from now, and saw your favorite t-shirt hanging in a museum. The museum's description might read:

Title: T-shirt of Music Group
Artist: Hanes Company
Date: 2008-2009
Medium: 100% Pre-shrunk Cotton and Ink

This shirt, typically worn by a teenager, contains an image of a musical to whom the adolescent enjoyed listening on a regular basis. Shirts such as this were purchased in a large store and worn to schools, recreational activities, and even to restaurants. The artist was actually a large manufacturing company that screenprinted numerous shirts with the same logo and sold them for profit. Holes found on shirts such as these were not created by the artist; rather it was from wear-and-tear, demonstrating that the wearer really liked the musical group.

Throughout history, functional, as well as aesthetically appealing (nice-looking) objects have been produced. We now look at them as artifacts and works of art. In this unit, we will examine what is art and why it is valued around the world.

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