This Study Resource Was: Art Appreciation

Art Appreciation
On Art and Artists

“There really is no such thing as Art. There are only artists.”
The Idea of Beauty

What is Aesthetic?
 Refer to some mental state that a spectator brings to or undergoes either in response to
artworks or to nature
 Aesthetics are reception oriented
“The trouble about beauty is that tastes and standards of what is beautiful vary so much”
“The artist tries to get it ‘right’”
m
er as
co
Two ways of reading art
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 Art’s specificity
o.
o The language or vocabulary that has to do with the mediums, techniques and visual
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elements if art that constitute it as a distinct area if human knowledge and signifying
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presence
o Being historically situated and shaped by social, economic, and political forces
Documentary Information
o
 Title of the work

aC s
v i y re
 Artist’s name
 Medium and techniques
 Dimensions or measurements
 Date of the work
ed d
 Provenance
ar stu
Four Planes of Analysis

 Basic Semiotic Plane
o Study of signs
sh is
o Signifier+ Signified= Sign

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o A visual work is an embodiment of signs

o Elements
 Visual elements
 Choice of medium and technique
 Format
 Other physical properties and marks of the work
o We utilize
 Human psychophysical experiences (psychological and physical)
 Sociocultural conventions of a society and period
 Iconic Plane
o Connected to the semiotic approach
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o Deals with the features, aspects, and qualities of the image, which are the second
level signifiers
o Is the subject meaningful in terms of the sociocultural context? Does it reflect or
have a bearing on the values and ideologies arising in a particular place and time?
 Contextual Plane
o Social and historical context of the work of art to bring out the human and social
implications
o Brings out the trajectories of the work into the larger reality that has produced it
o Situates the work in the personal and social circumstances of its production
 Axiological or Evaluative Plane
o Analyzing the values of a work
o Standards of excellence in artistic skill, creativity, insight
o Is the medium appropriate?
o Familiarity with the medium is needed
 In order to have your own value system
 Relate it back to the larger social environment
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er as
The critic is the “one who vitally contributes to the dynamic dialogue, interaction
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and debate in the field of art and culture as these intersect with other human
concerns among them political, social, and economic.”
o.
Form
rs e
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 “…there had to be more to art than the simple imitation of reality”
 If imitation is the sole purpose of the graphic arts, it is surprising that the works of such arts
are ever looked upon as more than toys
o
 The work of art communicated not by what it showed but by how it showed it
aC s
 Art expresses the imaginative life rather than a copy of the actual life
v i y re
 “A work of art should be designed for intense complication”

 Elements of design
o Order
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 Unity
o Variety
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 Rhythm of the line

 Mass
 Space
sh is
 Light and shade

Th
 Color
Death of the Author
Roland Barthes
 1915- 1980, Normandy, France

 Literary and cultural critic and theorist, philosopher, author, linguist, and semiotician
 Author of Mythologies (1957), A Lover’s Discourse
“in literature, the epitome and culmination of capitalist ideology, has attached the greatest
importance to the ‘person’ of the author”
“In the multiplicity of writing, everything is to be disentangled, nothing deciphered”
“the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author”
Points to ponder
 How connected is the author to the work?

 Author-ity
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 Rethinking criticism
er as
o How involved/detached should the author/artist be?
co
eH w
o.
rs e
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o
aC s
v i y re
ed d
ar stu
sh is
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Simulacrum and Simulations
How would you describe our world today?
 Climate change
 Technological
 Hierarchical
 Fast paced
 AN absence of reality
Baudrillard: everything is a simulacra and simulation of a reality
 There is no reality
 Reality does not matter
Four stages
1. It is the reflection of a basic reality; the image is a good appearance

 The more representative of reality, the closer to truth
m
er as
 Signification- signs which imitate reality
2. It masks and perverts a basic reality; it is an evil appearance
co
eH w
 Reproduced by mechanical technologies
 Art as a commodity
o.
 As such, may mask political agendas
rs e
3. It masks the absence of a basic reality; it plays at being an appearance
ou urc
 It bears no relation to any reality whatsoever
 We are confronted with a precession of simulacra – the representation precedes and
determines the real
o
 Hyperreality
aC s
1.Media
v i y re
 Consumerism
 News platforms
2.Capitalism
ed d
 Capital as our identity

ar stu
 Pierre Bourdieu’s ‘Forms of Capital’

3.Multinational capitalism (also, globalization)
4.Urbanization
5.Language and ideology
sh is
 Antonio Gramsci’s ‘hegemony’, Michael Foucault’s ‘power-

Th
knowledge’
4. It bears no relation to any reality whatever; it is its own pure simulacrum
Culture and architecture under martial law
 Architecture as a means of justifying Marcos’ seizure of power

 The coalescing of authoritarian state power and architecture to rejuvenate an alleged
national and cultural identity
 Relation to reality?
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

(Walter Benjamin)
“Aura”
 The uniqueness of a work of art is inseparable from its being in a

 Cult value and exhibition value
“Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its
m
presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to
er as
be”
co
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Mechanical Reproduction
o.
 To destroy the aura is the mark of a perception whose “sense of the universal equality of
rs e
things has increased to such a degree that it extracts it even from a unique object by means
ou urc
of reproduction
Politics
o
 “mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on
aC s
ritual”
v i y re
L’art pour l’art
 “with the advent of the first truly revolutionary means of reproduction, photography,
ed d
simultaneously with the rise of socialism, art sensed the approaching crisis…”
ar stu
Why Benjamin?
 Notions on valuation and hierarchical systems found within art media

sh is
o Do we still look at aura as a way to value art?

 Revisit our notions of what art is today in the modern and contemporary era
Th
o Should art be democratic? Is it supposed to be shared?
The price of everything (2018)
 The Art Establishment

 Art distribution, class, and the economy
Culture Industry and the state of the Philippine Film
 Mainstream film
o Typical plot
o More prestigious artists
o Love theme
o Products and merchandising
o Catered towards the masses
o Usually has a happy ending
 Independent film
o Catered to niche groups; “educated” groups
o Shows culture
o Focuses on message
o Low budget
State of Philippine Cinema
m
er as
 Distribution/Circulation
 Content or Narratives
co
eH w
 Audiences
 Profit driven productions
o.
rs e
“Culture Industry as the capitalist driven entertainment industry and its mass production of
ou urc
commodities such as films and music”
“Culture Industry are owned by capitalist classes that enables them to spread their advertising driven
o
ideology”
aC s
“Culture industry produces ‘rubbish’ that represses and renders audiences socially and politically
v i y re
inactive”
Standardization: consumers become statistics and content are formulaic

ed d
ar stu
sh is
Th
Avant-garde and Kitsch
 Avante-garde’s exclusivity to ideas and knowledge

 Reexamine our own taste as a self-reflexive exercise
o What’s important for you?
o Why is it important?
Avant Garde
 Emerged as criticism of stagnant art

 Imitation of imitating “superior consciousness” coinciding with modern intellectual
revolution
o Focused on the form, content as secondary
o Asks questions, kept people thinking
 Necessarily attached to the bourgeoisie as an “umbilical cord of gold”
Kitsch
m
 German definition: “trash”
er as
 Kitsch is a product of the industrial revolution which urbanized the masses of Western
co
Europe and America and established what is called universal literacy
eH w
 Formulaic; offers instantaneous emotional gratification without intellectual effort
o.
 Simulacra of “culture”
rs e
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o
aC s
v i y re
ed d
ar stu
sh is
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Art Appreciation

On Art and Artists

The Idea of Beauty

“The artist tries to get it ‘right’”

 Title of the work

Four Planes of Analysis

o Signifier+ Signified= Sign

o A visual work is an embodiment of signs

 “A work of art should be designed for intense complication”

 Rhythm of the line

 Light and shade

 1915- 1980, Normandy, France

 How connected is the author to the work?

Baudrillard: everything is a simulacra and simulation of a reality

1. It is the reflection of a basic reality; the image is a good appearance

 Capital as our identity

 Pierre Bourdieu’s ‘Forms of Capital’

 Antonio Gramsci’s ‘hegemony’, Michael Foucault’s ‘power-

 Architecture as a means of justifying Marcos’ seizure of power

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

 The uniqueness of a work of art is inseparable from its being in a

L’art pour l’art

 Notions on valuation and hierarchical systems found within art media

o Do we still look at aura as a way to value art?

o Should art be democratic? Is it supposed to be shared?

The price of everything (2018)

 The Art Establishment

State of Philippine Cinema

Standardization: consumers become statistics and content are formulaic

 Avante-garde’s exclusivity to ideas and knowledge

 Emerged as criticism of stagnant art

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