Novelty in Art

The Novel is rarely regarded as a pre-eminent Artform, but the term connotes a characteristic that is essential to Art. Creativity entails Novelty, and manifests it in two main ways. First, an Artwork, as a whole, is innovative insofar as it is unprecedented. Second, the unexpected within an Artwork expresses its Vitality, which may be why Aristotle cites Discovery and Peripety as essential features of any worthy Plot. In the first case, Novelty is in contrast to mechanical reproduction, e. g. cookie-cutter copying of something original, and, in the second, to the introduction of arbitrary elements that are inconsistent with what has preceded. So, Novelty achieves a balance between Variation and Coherence, which qualifies it here as Evolvement. But 'Evolvement' is just a neologistic synonym of 'growth', so Novelty in an Artwork is a manifestation of its Creativity and Vitality, and a property of it that can be objectively assessed. Hence, Artworks can be evaluated as objectively more or less Creative, Vital, and Innovative, and distinguished accordingly.