THEORIES GK COLLEGE

OF ART
by Prof. Crisencio M. Paner
LESSON
OBJECTIVES
Understand the definitions of art, theories
of the nature, functions, and effects of art.
LET'S In the next few sessions, we will be exploring
different theories, such as:

APPRECIATE
Representational theory:
art as representation

Expressive theory:

ART
art as expression

Formalist theory:
organic unity

TOGETHER Aestheticism

Pragmatism
ETC.
BEFORE WE BEGIN,
THINK ABOUT THIS:
What is Art?
Why does art exist?
 "The expression or application of human creative
skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such
as painting or sculpture, producing works to be
appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional
power."
"The various branches of creative activity, such as visual
arts (painting, sculpture, graphics, printmaking, drawing,
decorative arts, film making, photography, architecture),
music, literature, poetry, theater, and dance."
 WHY DOES ART EXIST?

The purpose of works of art may be to communicate political,

spiritual, or philosophical ideas, to create a sense of beauty (see
aesthetics), to explore the nature of perception, for pleasure, or
to generate strong emotions.
Art is an act of expressing feelings, thoughts, and observations.
 REPRESENTATIONAL THEORY:
ART AS REPRESENTATION

Art as portraying the visible forms of nature, from a

schematic cave drawing of an animal to the evocation of
an entire landscape in sun or storm.
A representational artist may seek faithfulness to how
things are.
He or she may dwell selectively on the ugly and
defective, the unfulfilled; or on the ideal, the fully
realized potential.
 REPRESENTATIONAL THEORY:
ART AS REPRESENTATION

The artist opens our eyes to the world’s

perceptual qualities and configurations,
to its beauties, uglinesses, and horrors.
However, there is an art that is not at all
representational: music is seldom and
very inessentially representational;
painting and sculpture can be abstract
as well as figurative.
EXPRESSIVE THEORY:
ART AS EXPRESSION
Art viewed as a representation or
manifestation of the inner state of the artist.
Music expresses feelings, emotions, moods,
their conflicts, triumphs, defeats.
A painted landscape may engage us as
expressive of peace, melancholy or
menace.
 Starry night conveys strong feelings of hope
through the bright lights of the stars shining
down over the dark landscape and night.

Starry Night-Vincent Van Gogh

Oil on Canvas, 1889 (sold at USD100M)
FORMALIST
THEORY: The work of art viewed as an organic unity;

ORGANIC UNITY i.e., a self-contained, self-justifying entity

Art, it can be argued, is not a window upon
the world: it is on the artwork itself that
appreciative attention must primarily be
focused, particularly on its distinctive
structure, its design, unity, form.
FORMALIST
THEORY: Discrete episodes of expressive intensity are not
enough: "Does the work hang together?" is always a

ORGANIC UNITY relevant and surely a vital question, a question that

shows the primacy of formal unity.

Can formalism, then, constitute a single all-sufficient

theory of art? Other critics have argued that the theory
has most plausibility with regard to complex works of
art, but has little power to illuminate in the case of
simple ones, where the concepts of synthesizing,
interconnecting, mutual modifying gain no hold.
 BREAK
TIME
Examine the painting for 15 minutes.How did
the piece of art make you feel? What
elements did you notice first?
ELEMENTS OF A PAINTING
Dominican monks at San Marco followed a life of
strict, devout worship and lived in simple, humble
cells.
Fra Angelico's The Annunciation was designed to aid
their meditations and inspire their devotions.
Fra Angelico's deeply moving Annunciation - which
depicts the Virgin being told by Archangel Gabriel
that she is to bear the child Jesus - located on the
south wall of the north corridor, was deliberately
positioned on the upper floor in front of the staircase,
as an illusionary window, which looked out onto a
garden and cloistered area.
In this way, the artist brought the sacred scene of the
Annunciation into the monks' perceived world of
physical reality.
AESTHETICISM

Late 19th century European movement based on

the idea that art exists for the sake of its beauty
alone.

The movement began in reaction to prevailing

utilitarian social philosophies and to what was
perceived as the ugliness and philistinism of the
industrial age.
AESTHETICISM
Its philosophical foundations were laid in the 18th
century by Immanuel Kant, who postulated the
autonomy of aesthetic standards from morality, utility, or
pleasure.

The movement was popularized in France by Madame

de Staël, Théophile Gautier, and the philosopher Victor
Cousin, who coined the phrase l'art pour l'art ("art for
art's sake") in 1818.
 The Peacock Room is recognized as the most important example of Aestheticism
applied to interior design in order to create an inspirational environment. Such
Aesthetic rooms elevated interior design to the realm of fine art.
PRAGMATISM
Art conceptualized in terms of its effects on its audience, to
accomplish purposes such as the creation of specific shared
experiences.

As a means of enhancing the experience and thought

As a means of escape from, or consolation for, reality

As a means of perceiving a higher, more perfect, or ideal reality

PRAGMATISM As a source of pleasure or delight

As a means of promoting cultural and historical community or

continuity

As instructive, didactic, or propagandistic

As therapeutic; i.e., as healing or purgative

As a means of communication
 INSTITUTIONAL THEORY
OF ART
The institutional theory of art is a theory about the
nature of art that holds that an object can only
become art in the context of the institution known
as "the artworld".
Addressing the issue of what makes, for example,
Marcel Duchamp's "readymades" art, or why a pile
of Brillo cartons in a supermarket is not art,
whereas Andy Warhol's famous Brillo Boxes (a
pile of Brillo carton replicas) is, the art critic and
philosopher Arthur Danto wrote in his 1964 essay
"The Artworld"

Readymades-Marcel Duchamp, 1951

 Artist: Andy Warhol
Location: National Gallery of Canada
Period: Pop art
Created: 1964
Value: $ 3M (2010)

In 1963, Pop artist Andy Warhol exhibited "Brillo Box" in a New York gallery. The sculpture was similar
in appearance to the large cardboard container in which little packages of Brillo are shipped to stores
(though Warhol's is made of wood, not cardboard).
HISTORICAL THEORY
OF ART

Historical theories of art hold that for

something to be art, it must bear some
relation to existing works of art.
For new works to be art, they must be similar
or related to previously established
artworks.
The philosopher primarily associated with
the historical definition of art is Jerrold
Levinson (1979).
Look for 2 famous examples of each of the 9 theories discussed with the
corresponding descriptions
Send your PDF file(format: Surname_Example of Art Theories.pdf) assignment to
panercris@gmail.com on or before 12 PM, June 24, 2021 (Note: every 1 hr late = 1 pt.
deduction; this assignment will be credited 20 pts.)
Read also this article:
http://cmpaner.blogspot.com/2010/07/italya-sa-mata-ng-isang-maykapansanan.html
Be ready for graded recitation next meeting
 Email Address

ANY
panercris@gmail.com

QUESTIONS?
Mobile Number
09999401794

Don't hesitate to reach out for Consultation Hours

questions or clarifications 4 PM to 6 PM
 THANK YOU!

References:
Hepburn, Ronald W. “THEORIES OF ART.” THEORIES OF ART- RONALD W, 30 Nov. 1999, users.rowan.edu/~clowney//Aesthetics/theories_of_art.htm.
Spiegel, Laurie. “Theories of Art.” Retiary, 1998, retiary.org/art_theories/theories_of_art.html.