Art is almost as old as man. It is a form of work,and work is an activity peculiar to mankind. Marx defined work in these words:
The labour process is...purposive activity...for the fitting of natural substances to human wants; it is the general condition requisite for effecting an exchange of matter between man and nature; it is the condition perennially imposed by nature upon human life, and is therefore independent of the forms of social life- or, rather, it is common to all social forms.