GEC006 NOTES
Art Appreciation
What is Art: Introduction and Assumptions
Art is something that is perennially around us. Some people may deny having to do with it
but it is indisputable that life presents us with many forms of and opportunities for
communication with the arts.
EXAMPLES
A bank manager choosing what tie to wear together with his shirt and shoes.
A politician shuffling her music track while comfortably seated on her car looking
for her favorite song.
A student marveling at the intricate designs of a medieval cathedral during his field
trip.
A market vendor cheering for his bet in a dance competition on a noontime TV show
program
Despite the seemingly overflowing of arts around people, one still finds the need to
see more and experience more, whether consciously or unconsciously.
One whose exposure to music is only limited to one genre finds it lacking not to have been
exposed to more.
One whose idea of a cathedral is limited to the locally available ones, finds enormous joy in
seeing other prototypes in Europe.
As one moves through life, one locates better, more beautiful objects to desire (Scott,
2020).
One can never be totally content with what is just before him. Human beings are drawn
toward what is good and ultimately, beautiful.
Why study the humanities?
For as long as man existed in the planet, he has cultivated the land, altered the
conditions of the fauna and the floar, in order to survive.
Through his bare hands, man constructed infrastructures that tended to his needs,
like his house.
He sharpened swords and spears. He employed fire in order to melt gold. The initial
meaning of "art" has something to do with all these craft.
ART
The word "art" comes from the ancient Latin, ars which means "craft or specialized form of
skill, like carpentry or smithying or surgery." (Collingwood, 1936)
Arts in Medieval Latin meant "any special form of book-learning, such as grammar, logic,
magic or astrology. (star sign or zodiac sign)
Art According to Medieval Latin
Early medieval renaissance saw arts as craftsmanship, however, this changed in the 17th
century when the idea of "aethetics" the study of beauty come to play.
In the 18th century, it has become "not delicate or highly skilled arts, " but "beautiful arts"
Humanities
"The humanities constitute one of the oldest and most important means of
expression developed by man (Dudley et al 1960).
The humanities, ironically, have started even before the term has been coined.
Assumptions of Art
Art if universal
Art is not nature
Art involves experiences
Art is universal
Literature has provided key works of art. Examples are the Iliad and Odessey, the
sanskrit Mahabharata and Ramayana.
These mentioned were written even before recorded history, and these have been
passes on through generations.
Art has always been timeless and universal, spanning generations and continents
through and through.
In every country and in every generation, there is always art.
It is a misconception that those which are made a long time ago are considered art.
Age is not a factor in determining art.
Art is not nature.
Art is man's expression of his reception of nature. Art is man's way of interpreting nature.
Art is made by man, where as nature is a given around us.
Art involves experiences
For most people, art does not require a full definition. Art is just an experience.
By experience, we mean "the actual doing of something." (Dudley et al 1960).
Art depends on experience, and if one is to know art, he muct know if not as fact or
information but as experience.
ART APPRECIATION: CREATIVITY, IMAGINATION, AND EXPRESSION
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. Differentiate art from nature,
2. Characterize artistic expression based on personal experiences with art,
3. Discuss the nature of art’s preliminary expression, and
4. Categorize works of art by citing personal experiences.
It takes an artist to make art. One may perceive beauty on a daily basis.
However, not every beautiful thing that can be seen or experienced may truly be
called a work of art.
Art is a product of man’s creativity, imagination, and expression.
Not everyone can be considered an artist, but all are spectators of art.
We are able to distinguish what is fine and beautiful from what is not and what is
good quality and from poor.
This gives us a role in the field of art appreciation.
Answer briefly.
In one of your encounters with art through museum visits, musicals, and plays among
others, have you ever felt disconnected from an artwork? Was there a point in time when
you did not understand what message the art was trying to convey? Explain why you think
you did or did not understand the art.
ART APPRECIATION AS A WAY OF LIFE
“The role of art as a creative work is to depict the world in a completely different light and
perspective” – Jean-Paul Sartre
Each artwork beholds beauty in its own kind, the kind that the artist sees and wants
the viewers to perceive.
More often than not, people are blind to this beauty and only those who have developed a
fine sense of appreciation can experience and see the art the way the artist did.
Hence, refining one’s ability to appreciate arts allows him to deeply understand the
purpose of an artwork and recognize the beauty it possesses.
In cultivating an appreciation of art, one should also exercise and develop his taste for
things that are fine and beautiful.
This allows individuals to make intelligent choices and decisions in acquiring necessities
and luxuries, knowing what gives better value for time or money while taking into
consideration the aesthetic and practical value.
Learning to appreciate art no matter what vocation or profession you have, will lead to a
fuller and more meaningful life.
THE ROLE OF CREATIVITY IN ART MAKING
Creativity requires thinking outside the box.
In art, creativity is what sets apart one artwork from another.
When can we say that something is creative?
When we have not seen anything like it
When it is out of the ordinary
When it is not just a copy or imitation of someone’s work
…THERE IS ORIGINALITY!
Nowadays, being creative can be quite challenging.
ART AS A PRODUCT OF IMAGINATION, IMAGINATION AS A PRODUCT OF ART
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now
know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will
be to know and understand.” – Albert Einstein
Imagination is not constrained by the walls of the norm, but goes beyond that.
Through imagination, one is able to craft something bold, something new, and
something better in the hopes of creating something that will stimulate change.
In artist’s mind sits a vast gallery of artworks
An artwork does not need to be a real thing, but can be something that is imaginary.
However, something imaginary does not necessarily mean it cannot be called art.
Artists use their imagination that gives birth to reality through creation.
In the same way that imagination produces art, art also inspires imagination.
IMAGINATION ART
ART AS EXPRESSION
“What an artist does to an emotion is not to induce it, but express it. Through expression,
he is able to explore his own emotions and at the same time, create something beautiful out
of them.” – Robin George Collingwood
Expressing emotions is different from describing emotions.
This makes people’s art not a reflection of what is outside or external to them, but a
reflection of their inner selves.
VISUAL ARTS
Creations that fall under this category are those that appeals to the sense of sight
and are mainly visual in nature.
Artists produce visual arts driven by their desire to reproduce things that they have
seen in the way that they perceived them.
There are also other artistic disciplines that also involve a visual aspect, such as
performance arts, theater, and applied arts.
Some mediums of visual arts include paintings, drawings, letterings, printing,
sculpture, digital imaging.
FILM
Film refers to the art of putting together successions of still images in order to
create an illusion of movement.
Filmmaking focuses on its aesthetic, cultural, and social value and is considered both
an art and an industry.
Techniques in film-making process:
Motion-picture camera (also known as movie camera)
Animation techniques
Computer-generated imagery (CGI)
Filmmaking simulates experiences or creates one that is beyond the scope of our
imagination as it aims to deliver ideas, feelings, or beauty to its viewers.
PERFORMANCE ART
Performance art is a live art and the artist’s medium is mainly the human body
which he or she uses to perform, but also employs other kind of art such as visual
art, props, or sound.
Elements of performance arts:
Time
Where the performance took place
The performer’s body Relationship between the audience and the
performer(s)
The fact that performance art is live makes it intangible, which means it cannot be
bought or traded as a commodity.
POETRY PERFORMANCE
Poetry is an art form where the artist expresses his emotions not by using paint,
charcoal, or camera, but expresses them through words.
These words are carefully selected to exhibit clarity and beauty and to stimulate
strong emotions of joy, anger, love, sorrow among others.
It uses a word’s emotional, musical, and spatial values that go beyond its literal
meaning to narrate emphasize, argue, or convince.
These words combined with movements, tone, volume, and intensity of the delivery
add to the artistic, value of the poem
ARCHITECTURE
Art is the pursuit and creation of beautiful things while architecture is the making of
beautiful buildings.
However, not all building are beautiful because some only embody the functionality
they need, but the structure, lines, forms, and colors are not beautifully expressed.
Important elements:
Plan
Construction
Design
Buildings should embody these three important elements if they wish to merit the
title architecture.
DANCE
Dance is series of movements that follows the rhythm of the music accompaniment.
Dancing is a creative art form that allows people to freely express themselves.
IT HAS NO RULES.
Choreography may seem not to allow this, but in art expression, dancers are not
confined to set steps and rules but are free to create and invent their own
movements as longs as they deem them graceful and beautiful.
LITERARY ART
Artists who practice literary arts use words to express themselves and communicate
emotions to the readers.
Simply becoming a writer does not make one a literary artist.
Literary art goes beyond the usual professional, academic, journalistic and other
technical forms of writing.
It focuses on writing using a unique style, not following a specific format or norm.
It may include both fiction and non-fiction such as novels, biographies, and poems.
Romeo and Juliet – William Shakespeare
The Little Prince – Antoine de Sain-Exupery
THEATER
Theater uses live performers to present accounts or imaginary events before a live
audience.
Theater art performance usually follows follow a script, though they should not be
confused with literary arts.
THEATER
Like in filmmaking, theater also considers several elements such as acting, gesture,
lighting, sound effects, musical score, scenery and props.
Like performance art, theater also is a live performance.
Genres: drama, musical, tragedy, comedy and improvisation
APPLIED ARTS
Applied arts is incorporating elements of style and design to everyday items with
the aim of increasing their aesthetic value.
Artists in this field bring beauty, charm, and comfort into many things that were
useful in everyday life.
Industrial design, interior design, fashion design, graphic design
Philosophy of the Beautiful: on Art Appreciation
Beauty is within one's perspective; it is perfection in terms of symmetry and balance; when
something is pleasurable and endures happiness.. (Ang 2018)
- Beauty - depende sa tumutingin, depende sa perspective ng bawat tao.
Indeed man/ woman aspires for perfection he/she has a natural tendency to contemplate
and enjoy perfect and beautiful things. (Zulueta, 2006)
In fact, anything that is beautiful is also meaningful and relevant and must be understood
by the public. Beauty must impress our imagination and affect our lives-- in art, things do
not make sense are eliminated.
Philosophical Concept
1. Pragmatism (also called practicalism) is a contemporary doctrine that denotes the
tendency of man/woman to subordinate his/her logical thinking to ends of practical living.
- practical living (essential, useful)
People's View of Beauty
A thing or idea is beautiful if it will satisfy his/her practical needs in life.
Example: Cellphone
His/her way of testing the truth is through actual experience.
2. Existentialism is a term based on a concept that an individual is entirely free/
independent to make decisions and accepts commitment of free responsibility for this
decisions and actions in this uncertain world. - responsible for your decision (focus self or
individual)
People's View of Beauty
As a doctrine, it stresses on man's existence his/her personal freedom and his/her
consequent responsibilities for what he does, for his/her life to have meaning is beautiful.
3. Realism
A. A theory that general ideas, the universal, have independent existence of the individual
and the individual's mind.
B. A theory that external objects have an existence independent or any thought about them.
- based on what existing, happening, reality. Scenes
People's View of Beauty
This theory suggests that things occur, exist, happen beyond man's control, but their
existence, occurrence, or happening has a certain, meaningful purpose, independent of
man's thinking or interpretation.
4. Idealism refers to the concept of the standard of perfection. Ideal is a concept about
standard of perfection; it assumes that there is that idea of what is ideal. And the ideal is
the model of perfection. - idea of beauty, perspective view ideal concept
5. Naturalism refers to a tempter of mind, a confidence on the empirical or scientific
method as the only reliable source or method reaching the truth. - beauty of nature
People's View of Beauty
It asserts that a thing or idea becomes good/beautiful only if its truth is established by
actual experience as indeed good, and which conforms to the natural laws of nature of the
arts.
Various Types of Beauty
1. Ideal beauty - A type of beauty that one finds from objects, scenes or persons, which
conforms or approximates to man's idea of how beauty should be. - idea of how beauty
should be
2. Real beauty - A type of beauty that conforms to man's general perception or belief of
what an object, thing or quality should be as what is acclaimed in man's own society,
personal culture.
3. Natural beauty - A type of beauty as found in nature in its original form or state.
4. Artificial beauty - It makes some changes in nature a what has been endorsed to nature.
5. Decorative beauty - Beauty is realized from actual physical or material presence of a
physical object. - design
6. Spiritual beauty - Discerned from works of art with objects that are about or related to
religion or spirituality. - relation to religious
7. Intellectual beauty - Meaningful impression or idea you get beyond the surface.
- meaningful impression
On Art Criticism: Perspectives, etc.
Art critics are people who usually watch, monitors and give reviews or opinions to the
work of the artists.
Example: Gawad Tanglaw - film critic
Ferraro (2008), a leading humanities educator asserts that "before criticism to art can be
made, one should first know the four
(4) basic elements to art criticism:
1. Subject approach
2. Artist approach
3. Audience approach
4. Audience approach
1. The Subject Matter
Subject approach
1. What is the art about?
2. What is it trying to say?
3. What does it depict?
4. What is wanted to be communicated?
5. What seems to be the message?
Subject approach…
This is also called the mimetic approach.
It stresses on the importance of the subject matter or content of the work.
Beauty and significance of the subject matter are given emphasis.
2. Artist Approach
The Artist
1. What sort of a person is he?
2. What does his/her work reveal about him/her?
Artist Approach…
Art being the means the artist uses in expressing himself, art therefore becomes the
extension of the artist. Through his work, we may be able to know objectively some aspects
of this person.
In this approach, we stress the relationship of the artist to his work. We give major
consideration to the artist himself in appreciating his work, both aesthetic norms and
standards that he may suggest in his work.
Through the work, or series of works of the artist, he may have revealed his character traits
and individuality. He may have revealed his philosophy, life story, beliefs, and other
circumstances in life which may have influenced in the creation of his work, such as his
background, the era during which lived or place of origin.
3. The Audience
The Audience
1. What is the relevance of the artwork?
2. What are the expressive elements used to convey the meaning of the artwork?
3. What are the principles integrated in the work to convey the meaning of the work of art?
3. Audience Approach
The audience to art criticism emphasizes on the value of the piece of art.
The function or significance of the subject to him or society is given importance.
The Spoliarium of Juan Luna may be viewed on us value to the Filipinos during his
time; may be used on being a propaganda device, or used to influence the thinking of
the people.
The intrinsic value of the artwork is given emphasis. If it is didactic value, it will give
emphasis on what is moral, how the work can help improve the moral fiver of
society.
Socio-political value of the work.
4. Aesthetic Approach
The Aesthetic
1. Focus on lines, forms, colors, lights, and shadows.
2. To create images
Aesthetic Approach
The beauty of art rests on its form, it is how the subject matter is handled and
presented; how it is composed.
Art being a composition itself, consists of various elements.
The audience may start with the size, shape, and the medium used.
The audience may start with the size, shape, and the medium used.
He looks for the artistic use of lines, colors, and shapes in creating images. He
explores the quality of work given to the work.
Considerations like: how is the subject matter presented? Through abstractionism?
expressionism? Realism? Hyperrealism? Impressionism?
What lines are employed? vertical? diagonal? horizontal? dominant?
How do the lines behave? static? restless?
How are the colors handled? monochromatic? Analogous? Contrasting?
