Plastic arts is a term that is now largely forgotten, covering art forms that involve the physical manipulation of the plastic medium by molding or modeling, such as sculpture or ceramics. The term also applies to all visual (non-literal, non-musical) art.

Materials that can be carved or shaped, such as stone or wood, concrete or steel, have also been included in the narrower definition, since with the appropriate tools such materials are also capable of modulation. [Right] This use of the term “Plastic” in art should not be confused with the use of Piet Mondrian and the movement he called, in French and English, “Neoplastic.”