Published in 2007 this article from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy explores whether art can be defined or not, and how useful is a philosophical definition of art?
Traditional definition
Art is a formalist adherence to observation, mimetic. plato says "Artworks are ontologically dependent on, and inferior to, ordinary physical objects, which in turn are ontologically dependent on, and inferior to, what is most real, the non-physical forms. Grasped perceptually, artworks present only an appearance of what is real." I would say this is a very formal and obvious definition of art.
Contemporary definitions:
Conventional definitions: Institutional and Historical
Conventional definitions go against the formal, mimetic, expressive and aesthetic properties of traditional definitions and is more influenced by the notion of creating artwork that is totally original and "Differ radically from all previous artworks."
Institutional
George dickies enumerative definitions of institutional art "(1) An artist is a person who participates with understanding in the making of a work of art. (2) A work of art is an artifact of a kind created to be presented to an artworld public. (3) A public is a set of persons the members of which are prepared in some degree to understand an object which is presented to them. (4) The artworld is the totality of all artworld systems. (5)An artworld system is a framework for the presentation of a work of art by an artist to an artworld public. "
This says to me that practically anything can be art as long it can be explained and presented as art. This definition is a bit to broad I think.
Historical
Specifies that art must have some connection with previous artworks and regard artwork pre-existing and prior to its creation. "Historical narrativism is the view that a sufficient but not necessary condition for the identification of a candidate as a work of art is the construction of a true historical narrative according to which the candidate was created by an artist in an artistic context with a recognized and live artistic motivation, and as a result of being so created, it resembles at least one acknowledged artwork." (Carroll, 1993)
Aesthetic communication, account of appreciation, a mix of both historical and aesthetic value, functional definitions allow a better view of aesthetic properties such as shape, line, colour alongside historical values like influence. But there are arguments against this definition "Aesthetic definitions are held to be too broad because beautifully designed automobiles, neatly manicured lawns, and products of commercial design are often created with the intention of being objects of aesthetic appreciation, but are not artworks."
References
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/art-definition/
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