Lesson 5

Philosophical Perspective of Art

• Review
• What are the 5 forms of visual arts.
• Acttihcerrue
• Wingdra
• Pingtain
• Phraphotogy
• reculupts
Visual Arts also include
• 1. Fine Arts –
• - rooted in drawing and design-based works such as painting,
printmaking, and sculpture.
• The area of fine art is constantly being extended to embrace new
activities of either new technology, or artistic invention;
• The former is exemplified by acrylic painting, as well as silkscreen
printing and giclee prints; the latter by the invention of mixed-media
artworks employing collage, decollage, photomontage, or “found-art”
A true giclée( zhee Klay) print refers to an archival print
made from an inkjet printer equipped with a highly
permanent set of inks in a wide range of colors.
Photomontages aren't stuck to just print artworks these days. You can simply create the same techniques in your online photo montage by cropping, resizing, rearranging, removing backgrounds, and adding a 21st-century touch with music from our library or yours.
Collage describes both the technique and the resulting work of art in which pieces
of paper, photographs, fabric and other ephemera are arranged and stuck down
onto a supporting surface.
Décollage is a French word meaning literally to unstick, generally
associated with a process used by artists of the nouveau réalisme (new
realism) movement that involved making art from posters ripped from
walls.
 Visual Arts also include
• 2. Contemporary Arts – visual arts also include a number of modern
art forms such as; assemblage, collage, mixed-media, conceptual art,
installation, happenings and performance art, along with film-based
disciplines such as photography, video art and animation, or any
combination thereof. This group of activities also includes high tech
disciplines like computer graphics and giclee prints

• Another modern visual art, is the new environmental or land art,

which includes transitory forms like ice/snow sculpture and graffiti art.
Visual Arts also include

• 3. Decorative Arts and Crafts – In addition, the general category of

visual arts which encompasses a number of decorative art
disciplines and crafts, including ceramics and studio pottery,
mosaic art, mobiles, tapestry, glass art ( including stained glass )
and others.

• 4. Others - In addition, new types of body art may also fall under
the general heading of visual arts. These include tattoo art, face
painting, and body painting.
Philosophical Perspective of Arts

• 1. Art as mimesis (Plato) – Mimesis is derived from the

Greek word “mimos” meaning to imitate. Mimesis is
a critical and philosophical term that carries a wide
range of meanings, which include imitation,
representation, mimicry, imitation, nonsensuous
similarity, the act of resembling, the act of expression,
and the presentation of the self.
Philosophical Perspective of Arts
• 1. Art as mimesis (Plato)
According to Plato, all artistic creation is a form of imitation;
that which really exists, in the “world of ideas” is a type
created by God; the concrete things perceives in his
existence are supernatural representations of this ideal type.

• Therefore, the painter, the tragedian, and the musician are

imitators of an imitation, twice removed from the truth.

• Example; God created waterfall, man enhanced it, the

painter paints it in his canvass.
Philosophical Perspective of
Arts
• 2. Art as representation (Aristotle)

• Aristotle’s Poetics is often referred to as the

counterpart to this Platonic conception of poetry.
Poetics is his treatise on the subject of mimesis.
Aristotle was not against literature as such; he stated
that human beings are mimetic beings, feeling an urge
to create texts art that reflect and represent reality.
Philosophical Perspective of
Arts
• 2. Art as representation (Aristotle)

• Similar to Plato’s writings about mimesis, Aristotle

also defined mimesis as the perfection, and imitation
of nature. Art is not only imitation but also the use of
mathematical ideas and symmetry in the search for
the perfect, the timeless, and contrasting being with
becoming. Nature is full of changes, but art can also
search for what is everlasting.
Philosophical Perspective of
Arts
• 2. Art as representation (Aristotle)
• Aristotle thought of drama as being “ an imitation of
an action’ and of tragedy as “falling from a higher to a
lower estate” and so being removed to a less ideal
situation in more tragic circumstances than before.
• He posited the characters in tragedy as being better
that the average human, and those of comedy as
being worse.
Philosophical Perspective of
Arts
• 3. Art for Art Sake (Kant).
• The beautiful, for Emmanuel Kant (1724-1804)
is “ that which without any concept is recognized
as the object of necessary satisfaction”.
• In other words, the appropriate stance of the
spectator, perceiving “beauty” is one of
indifference.
•
Philosophical Perspective of
Arts
• 3. Art for Art Sake (Kant).
• As Kant wrote in the Critique of Judgment, “
For judging of beautiful objects as such, taste is
requisite, but for beautiful, for the production of such
objects genius is requisite.”
• In a very famous statement, he asserted that
“Genius is the talent ( or natural gift) which gives the
rule to art.
•
The Subject of Art
• The subject of art refers to any person, object, scene or event described
or represented in a work of art.

• There are two types of subject of art as follows:

• 1. Representational or Objective – Representational art or figurative art

represents objects or events in the real world, usually looking easily
recognizable. It uses “form” and is concerned with “what”’ is to be
depicted in the artwork.

• Example: painting, sculpture, graphic arts, literature and theater arts.

•
The Subject of Art
• 2. Non-representational or Non-objective . These are those
arts without any reference to anything outside itself ( without
representation) It is non-objective because it has no
recognizable objects. It is abstract in the sense that it doesn’t
represent real objects in our world . It uses “content” and is
concerned with “how” the artwork is depicted.

• Non-representational art is also known as abstract art or non-

objective art. It emphasizes the visual elements of art, such as
color, shape, line, and texture, rather than representing
specific objects or subjects
The Subject of Art
• 2. Non-representational or Non-objective
Sources of Subject Art

• 1. Primary sources provide first-hand testimony or

direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation.
They are created by witnesses or recorders who
experienced the events or conditions being
documented. Often these sources are created at the
time when the events or conditions are occurring.
 Sources of Subject Art
• 1. Primary sources

• Primary sources can also include autobiographies,

memoirs, and oral histories recorded later.
• Primary sources are characterized by their content,
regardless of whether they are available in original
format, in microfilm/microfiche, in digital format or in
published format.
Sources of Subject Art
• 2. Secondary sources interpret and analyze primary
sources. Because they are often written significantly after
events by parties not directly involved but who have a
special expertise, they may provide historical context or
critical perspectives.

• Secondary sources routinely include pictures, quotes

or graphics of primary sources. Depending on the subject,
newspaper and journal articles can fall into both
categories.
Some of these sources of art subject are;

• 1. Nature – animals, people, landscapes. These

three are the most common inspiration and
subject matter for art.

• 2. History – artists are sensitive to the events

taking place in the world around. The dress, the
houses, the manner of living, the thoughts of a
period are necessarily reflected in the work of the
artist.
 Some of these sources of art subject are;

• 3. Greek and Roman mythology – These are

the gods and goddesses. Its center is on
deities and heroes.

• 4. The Judaeo Christian tradition - religion

and art, the Bible, the Apocrypha, the rituals
of the church.
 Some of these sources of art subject are;

• 5. Oriental Sacred Texts – The countries of the orient,

especially China, Japan, and India, have all produced
sacred texts of one kind or another and these inspired
various kinds of art. Most fruitful have been the texts
and traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism.

• 6. Other Works of Art- These are the subjects that can

be found in those works that take their subject directly
from other works of art.
Kinds of subject
1. Still Life – group of inanimate objects arranged in an indoor setting
Kinds of Subject

• 2.Landscapes, Seascapes, and Cityscapes

• Artists have always been fascinated with their physical environment.
Kinds of Subject
• 4. Portraits
• People have always been intrigued by the human face as an index of
the owner’s character. As an instrument of expression, it is capable of
showing a variety of moods and feelings
Kinds of subject
• 3. Animals- They have been represented by
artists from almost every ages and places.
• In fact, the earliest known paintings are
representation of animals on the walls of caves.
• The carabao has been a favorite subject of
Filipino artists. The Maranaos have an animal
form of sarimanok as their proudest prestige
symbol.
Kinds of subject
• 3. Animals
• Sometimes, animals have been used as symbols in
conventional religious art, example;
• a. The dove stands for the Holy Spirit in
representation of the Holy Trinity
• b. The fish and the lamb are symbols of Christ
• C. The phoenix is the symbol of resurrection
• D. The peacock is the symbol of immortality through
Christ.
Kinds of subject
• 5. Figures – The sculptures’ chief subject has
traditionally been the human body, nude or
clothed. The body’s form, structure and
flexibility offers the artist a big challenge to
depict it in a variety of ways, ranging from the
idealistic as in classical Greek sculptures to the
most abstract.
•
Kinds of subject
• 6. Everyday life – Artists have always shown a
deep concern about life around them. Many of
them have recorded in paintings their
observation of people going about their usual
ways and performing their usual tasks.
Kinds of subject

7. History and Legends - History consists of

verifiable facts, legends, of unverifiable ones.
Kinds of subject
• 8.
Religion and Mythology – Art has been a hand maiden
of religion. Most of the world’s religions have used the
arts to aid in worship, to instruct, to inspire feelings of
devotion and to impress and convert non-believers.

• 9. Dreams and fantasies – Dreams are usually vague and

illogical. Artists especially the surrealists have tried to
depict dreams as well as the grotesque terrors and
apprehensions that lurk in the depths of the
subconscious.
Different Levels of Meaning
• A subject matter has three different levels of meaning.
These are:

• 1. Factual Meaning –the literal meaning or the narrative

content in the work which can be directly apprehended
because the objects presented are easily recognized.
• Example stones, river, house..
.
Different Levels of Meaning

• 2. Conventional Meaning – refers to the special

meaning that a certain object has in a particular
culture or group of people.
• Example; flag symbol of a nation, cross for Christianity,
crescent moon for Islam
Different Levels of Meaning

• 3. Subjective Meaning, any personal meaning

consciously or unconsciously conveyed by the artist
using a private symbolism which stems from his own
association of certain objects, actions or colors with
past experiences.
Choose the letter of the correct answer.
• 1. He said that all artistic creation is a form of imitation.
• A. Aristotle
• B. Plato
• C. Kant
• D. Socrates
• 2. He asserted that, ““Genius is the talent ( or natural gift) which gives
the rule to art”
• A. Aristotle
• B. Plato
• C. Kant
• D. Socrates
• 3. This kind of subject is a group of inanimate objects arranged in an
indoor setting
• A. Landscapes
• B. Animals
• C. Still Life
• D. Portraits
• 4. Animals have been used as symbols in conventional religious art,
such as the _________ is the symbol of resurrection.
• A. dove
• B. fish
• C. peacock
• D. phoenix
• 5. These are realistic likeness of a person in sculpture, painting,
drawing, print.
• A. Still life
• B. Everyday Life
• C. Figures
• D. Portrait.
• 6-10.(5 pts.)When do we say an art is representational or non
representational?