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For a topic outline on this subject, see List of basic art topics. For the main article, see The arts.

The Arts Portal

Art is the expression of creativity or imagination. The word art comes from the Latin word ars, which, loosely translated, means "arrangement". Art is commonly understood as the act of making works (or artworks) which use the human creative impulse and which have meaning beyond simple description. While art is often distinguished from crafts and recreational hobby activities, this boundary can at times be hard to define. The term creative arts denotes a collection of disciplines whose principal purpose is the output of material for the viewer or audience to interpret. As such, art may be taken to include forms ranging from literary forms (prose writing and poetry); performance-based forms (dance, acting, drama, and music); visual and "plastic arts" (painting, sculpture, photography, illustration); to forms that also have a functional role, such as architecture and fashion design. Art may also be understood as relating to creativity, æsthetics and the generation of emotion.

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Turkish literature (Turkish: Türk edebiyatı or Türk yazını) is the collection of written and oral texts composed in the Turkish language, either in its Ottoman form or in less exclusively literary forms, such as that spoken in the Republic of Turkey today. The Ottoman Turkish language, which forms the basis of much of the written corpus, was heavily influenced by Persian and Arabic and used a variant of the Perso-Arabic script.

The history of Turkish literature spans a period of nearly 1,500 years. The oldest extant records of written Turkic are the Orhon inscriptions, found in the Orhon River valley in central Mongolia and dating to the 8th century. Subsequent to this period, between the 9th and 11th centuries, there arose among the nomadic Turkic peoples of Central Asia a tradition of oral epics, such as the Book of Dede Korkut of the Oghuz Turks—the linguistic and cultural ancestors of the modern Turkish people—and the Manas epic of the Kyrgyz people.

Beginning with the victory of the Seljuks at the Battle of Manzikert in the late 11th century, the Oghuz Turks began to settle in Anatolia, and in addition to the earlier oral traditions there arose a written literary tradition issuing largely—in terms of themes, genres, and styles—from Arabic and Persian literature. For the next 900 years, until shortly before the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, the oral and written traditions would remain largely separate from one another. With the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the two traditions came together for the first time.

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Selected Picture

Photographed by: Markus Ortner

Graffiti art featuring children digging a hole through the Israeli West Bank barrier, one of nine images painted on the wall by pseudo-anonymous British graffiti artist Banksy in August 2005. Other images included an image of a ladder going up and over the wall and an image of girl with balloons floating over the wall.

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Ayumi Hamasaki (浜崎あゆみ, Hamasaki Ayumi^?, also 浜崎歩) (born October 2, 1978) is a Japanese singer-songwriter and former actress. Also called Ayu by her fans, Hamasaki has been dubbed the "Empress of Pop" due to her popularity and widespread influence in Japan. Born and raised in Fukuoka, she moved to Tokyo at fourteen to pursue a career in entertainment. In 1998, under the tutelage of Avex CEO Max Matsuura, she released a string of modestly selling singles that concluded with her 1999 debut album A Song for XX. The album debuted atop the Oricon charts and stayed there for four weeks, establishing her popularity in Japan.

Because of her constantly changing image and tight control over her artistry, Hamasaki's popularity extends across Asia; music and fashion trends she has started have spread to countries such as China, Singapore, and Taiwan. She has appeared in or lent her songs to many advertisements and television commercials. Though she originally supported the exploitation of her popularity for commercial purposes, she later reconsidered and eventually opposed her status as an Avex "product".

Since her 1998 debut with the single "Poker Face",Oricon does not count Nothing from Nothing, released by Nippon Columbia, among Hamasaki's albums. Hamasaki has sold around 50 million records in Japan, ranking her among the best-selling singers in the country. As a female singer, Hamasaki holds several domestic records for her singles, such as the most number-one hits, the highest sales, and the most million-sellers. No year from 1999 to 2008 had passed without one of her singles at the top of the charts. Hamasaki is also the first female singer to have eight studio albums that topped the Oricon.

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Did you know...

... that Belgian musician Adolphe Sax, who invented the saxophone, also devised the brass instrument saxtuba (pictured)?
... that Polish writer Franciszek Karpiński is best remembered through his hymns and carols?
... that Indian revolutionary poet Jwalamukhi was arrested for his writings in 1971?
... that the 1930 silent film A Daughter of the Congo was billed as a “talking, singing, dancing picture” although it only contained a single short sound sequence?
... that Daniel Hoevels's work has been described as "helping critics rediscover Hamburg's theater"?