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GE 107- Reading in Visual Arts

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PREPARED BY:
NEIL LEONARDO BALTAR
Course Facilitator
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GE 107- Reading in Visual Arts

Reading Visual Art

PRELIMINARIES

Course Title: Reading Visual Art

Course No.: GEE 107
Course Description: This course introduces the Visual Art including film as text,
techniques of reading and analysis.

OVERVIEW

Reading Visual Arts is a course that develops students’ ability to innovate, appreciate,
critique, and analyse. Through transdisciplinary and multimodal approaches, this course
equips students with broad knowledge of the human disciplines that characterized modernity,
cultural studies that underpinned modern life. Knowledge on the tacit understandings people
have of the visual domain, cultivate their imagination, make sense of the importance of
visuality, explore the effect the idea of aesthetics has on reading of visual texts, analyse the
economic effects of a globalized market, and illustrate explanations and arguments with
images and anecdotes that are highly eclectic. All these are grist to the mill when studying
visual culture, and in developing the sorts of literacies that allow us to read and analyze the
visual material that makes up our everyday world.

MOST ESSENTIAL LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the lessons, the students must have:

a) Summarize changing perceptions and definitions of art throughout history.

b) Differentiate mediums and techniques in visual arts.
c) Categorize the elements of compositional balance in a work of art.

TOPIC OUTLINE
 Chapter 1: Reading the Visual
 Seeing as Reading
 Seeing in Context
 Techniques of seeing as reading
 Text and Intertext
 Text and Genres
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CONTENT/DISCUSSION
Big Picture in Focus: Summarize changing perceptions and
definitions of art throughout history
Metalanguage
For you to demonstrate the desired objectives, you will need to have a
wide range of understanding of how art is defined from the ancient past until
today. There is a need to explain the different function of arts as well. Only then
can the relevance of art in one’s individual life can be fully realized.
Key Terms:
Aesthetics. The branch of philosophy that deals with the principles of beauty and artistic taste.
Intuitive. Spontaneous, without requiring conscious thought; easily understood or grasped by
instinct.
Fine arts. The purely aesthetic arts, such as music, painting, and poetry, as opposed to industrial
or functional arts such as engineering or carpentry.
Form. The shape or visible structure of an artistic expression.
Formalism. The study of art based solely on an analysis of its form – the way it is made and what
it looks like.
Human condition. The characteristics, key events, and situations which compose the essentials of
human existence, such as birth, growth, emotionality, aspiration, conflict, and mortality.
Mimesis. The representation of aspects in the real world, especially in human actions, in literature
and art.
Muses. Goddesses of the inspiration of literature, science, and the arts in Greek mythology.

Essential Knowledge

To perform the aforesaid big picture (unit learning outcomes) for the first
three (3) weeks of the course, you need to fully understand the following essential
knowledge that will be laid down in the succeeding pages. Please note that you are not
limited to exclusively refer to the these resources. Thus, you are expected to utilize
other books, research articles and other resources that are available in the university’s
library e.g. ebrary, search.proquest.com etc.

“The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live.”

– Auguste Rodin
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Why Art Matters?

Before you proceed, complete the thought bubble below:

For me, “art” is

As a thought experiment, imagine what a society without art would be like.

Without art, the world

Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Arts

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In the general overview of the humanities, Sanchez, Abad, and Jao (2011) mentioned
that art, like love, is difficult to define. That’s because art concerns itself with “the
communication of certain ideas and feelings by means of a sensuous medium.” The Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy1 says that “art’s contingent cultural and historical features are
emphasized by some definitions of art.” Philosophy plays an important role in the definition
of art as philosophy even has a word to refer to the philosophical study of beauty and taste –
aesthetics.
Simply, we can define art according to the possession of their representational,
expressive, instrumental and formal properties. For instance, Plato in The Republic, believes
that arts are representational or mimetic in nature – meaning, they imitate physical objects
(beautiful or meaningful) that exist in the world. Art as an expression is a belief that art is
created to reflect the inner state of the artist – the subjective experiences and the emotions.
Instrumentalism in art presents that art is created as a tool or “instrument” to persuade the
viewers, through social commentary on social issues. Lastly, we can also approach art
according to the arrangement of its formal elements, that is lines, shapes, colors, etc.
Representationalism, expressionism, instrumentalism, and formalism are the basic aesthetic
theories about art.
Merriam-Webster defined art as “the conscious use of skill and creative imagination
especially in the production of aesthetic objects.”2 After all, the word art came from the word
“ars” which means skill. That means that art is a skill resulting from learning and practice. It
is synonymous with craft, cunning, and workmanship.
One thing is certain – art will always related to human condition. Still, the definition
of art and how art is viewed remains to be controversial across time. While there may be
differing perspectives regarding art, we can summarize how art is viewed from a particular
period/era below:
1
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/art-definition/
2
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/art

Period/era How Art was Viewed

Pre-modern/pre-aesthetic: The Greek word for “art” is techne, whose Latin
Ancient Greece and Rome equivalent is ars, both of which mean skill. Art was
equated with craft or the sciences
During the Enlightenment, the natural sciences were
Modern/Aesthetic: 1700s emancipated from the arts. A system of fine arts was
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The fine arts are those objects made by humans to be

enjoyed aesthetically. This may be in the form of painting,
sculpture, architecture, music, or even poetry.

Other arts were eventually added by aestheticians;

gardening, engraving, the decorative arts, dance and
theatre, the opera, eloquence and prose literature, film and
photography.

In aesthetics, philosophers pay attention to the practice,

history, and criticism of the individual arts, and to the
philosophical problems and puzzles raised by them.

In the first column in the table below, list down your most striking
encounters with arts. On the second column, explain why you think
each encounter is an experience of art.

My Encounter with Arts Why?

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What Does Art Do?

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A primary purpose essential to most artistic disciplines is the underlying

intention to connect with or appeal to human emotion.

Key Points:
Art can arouse aesthetic and moral feelings, and can be understood as a
way of communicating these feelings.
An everyday object, such as a glass or a chair, is transformed with
aesthetic and design values through decorative arts. Art can function on
a therapeutic level as well, with art therapy.
Since the introduction of conceptual art and post-modern theory, it has
been proven that anything can, in fact, be term as art.
Fine arts represent and exploration of human condition and the attempt
at a deeper understanding of life.
An artist is a person involved in activities related to art.

How Does Art Look?

There is no single standard of visual values that define what art looks like.

Key points:
How best to define art is a subject of constant contention. There have
been several publications, both in books and journals, that engage with
determining what art is.
The word art is usually associated with creative art or fine art. Here we
mean that the skill is being used to express the artist’s creativity to
engage an audience’s aesthetic sensibilities, or to draw the audience
towards consideration of more beautiful things.
Another methodology is the institutional approach to art. This approach
states that art must be examined as a sociological category. This means
that regardless of any formal definition, art schools, museums, and
artists can get away with what they consider as art.
The proceduralist approach to art suggests that art is labeled as "art"
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through a process by which it is created or viewed. Thus, art is not art

because of its inherent features, nor because of the reception it has
received from institutions of the art world.
In art theory, the term formalism means that an art’s work value is
determined solely by its form, or how it is made, with no regard for
context.
Since conceptual art and postmodern theory came into prominence, it
has been proven that anything can be term as art.
The idea of defining art today is far more difficult than it has ever been.

What Makes Art Beautiful?

In the context of art, beauty refers to anything that pleases the senses - the
interaction between line, color, texture, shape, motion, and size.

Key points:
It is difficult to express what is beautiful about art because of a lack of
language.
It is human instinct to appreciate harmony, balance, and rhythm.

This forms our concept of beauty.

The branch of under philosophy that deals with the appreciation and
nature of art, beauty, and taste is aesthetics.
An aesthetic judgment cannot be empirical judgment but instead must
be processed on a more intuitive level.

Art Value: Functions of Art

Art serves several functions. These functions include, but not limited to, the following:

Aesthetic Function. An artwork is a direct source of sensual pleasure

and it elicits perhaps an intrinsically aesthetic response. Artists have
different reasons for indulging in art, and this is because they want to
express something. Mostly, works of art are created to beautify and
decorate, say for instance, a house, a building, or a public space.
Economic Function. Art serves its economic purpose, as there are
creations of art that are also useful in the society. Also, paintings,
sculptures, and other works of art are worth millions of money. In art,
there is an opportunity to make money.
Educational Function. Arts can be a means to pass down the values,
attitudes and history of a culture. Art can also be an effective tool to
educate, eg. a mounted play about an important historical event, or
ancient scrolls and diagrams of prehistoric people.
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Religious Function. People in the prehistoric period relied on works of

art to worship their gods, as evidenced by statues of gods. and deities, as
well as makeshift temples and places for worship. Most of the art forms
evolved from religion.
Social and Cultural Function. Because man is a social being, he/she
associates with other fellow human beings. This can be seen in churches
are designed for communal worship, where people come together to
pray. Arts also showcases group identity and pride in the form of tattoo,
flags, and banners. Buildings and other infrastructures form the material
culture of the society.

Defining Visual Arts

Arts are generally classified into three: (1) visual arts; (2) performing
arts; and (3) literary arts. Visual arts are those forms that create works which are
primarily visual (forms perceived by the eyes). Performing arts are those forms
in which the artists used his/her own body, face, and presence as a medium.
Finally, literary arts centered on creative writing and other composition
processes which intended to read.

This course focuses on visual arts. The man can take the beauty of nature
through a piece of paper so that other people may take time appreciating the
captured image. Examples of these arts include:

Painting. This form of visual art aims to evoke an emotion from the
viewers. It is practice by applying colors or other media to a surface
with a brush or other objects.
Sculpture. This form of visual arts characterized as the art of
representing an imagined or observed objects in hard materials such as
glass, metals, or wood in three dimensions.
Architecture. This form of art provides us the physical structure we
lived. It is a profound expression of human culture in a particular period,
and it will endure and outlive us in forms of monuments that future
generations will study and strive to understand.
Drawing. This form of art enhances the way we see the world around
and conditions us to capture its details in a two-dimensional medium.
This has been a critical element of art throughout history and in the
contemporary art world.
Photography. This form of art is a process of creating portraits by recording
radiation on a radiation-sensitive medium, such as electronic image sensors or
photographic films.
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Self-Help: You can also refer to the sources below to help you
further understand the lesson:

1. Art History by Boundless Learning. Curation and Revision. Provided

by: Boundless.com. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
2. Javellana, R. (2018). Understanding, valuing, and living art. Quezon
City: Vibal.
3. Menoy, J. (2014). Introduction to humanities: A holistic approach.
Mandaluyong: Books Atbp Publishing Corp.
4. Sanchez, C. et. al. (2011). Introduction to humanities. Manila: Rex
5. Zulueta, F. (2003). The humanities. Mandaluyong: NBS
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Let’s Check
Activity 1. Now that you know the most how art as a field has change over time as well as
multiple functions in the society, let us try to check your understanding. Encircle the letter o
the correct answer.

1. If someone does a painting categorized 4. What do you call a person engage

as “Art for People”, what particular in the creation of art works an
issue is the main focus of the artist? generally recognized as
a. Early religious art commissioned professional by critics and peers.
by the church a. artist
b. Traditional forms rejected by b. art nouveau
Modernist trends c. art critic
c. An adaptation of impressionistic d. interior designer
and abstract idioms
d. The connection of art works to 5. Art created for purely aesthet
various nationalistic struggles, expression, contemplation
social realism, and activism communication. Painting an
sculpture are the best known of this
2. The artists in the visual arts are a. fine art
a. engineers, doctors, and singers b. figurative art
b. painters, sculptors, architects, c. fixative art
filmmakers, and photographers d. communicative art
c. dramatists, writers, and
photographers 6. Are those creations we can look a
d. none of the above such as a drawing or a painting
sculpture, architecture
3. When discussing the size, shape, photography, film and printmaking
material, color, and composition of a a. fine arts
work of art, we are discussing its b. performing arts
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8. The purpose of this art work is to 10. One of the oldest forms of art eve
support rituals, like worship services— found in the human world are thos
maybe a funeral or wedding: paintings found in caves which ar
a. ceremonial known to be the works of caveme
b. narrative in the primitive times. What er
c. functional does the word “primitive
d. artistic expression represent?
a. Medieval

READ ME!
In order to upgrade or widen your ideas and knowledge about Aesthetic
make some time to watch this discussion about Aesthetics and the
Philosophy of Art.

YOUTUBE LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=MZp8ulrMEjo

ACTIVITY 1
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GE 107- Reading in Visual Arts

21st Century learners are known as Aesthetic People, they add arts
for all the things they do. As a student that belongs to the 21st
Learners and taking Computer Science course. You need to improve
your digital skills through digital outputs.

By the use of your cellphone you need to make a Digital Slogan

connected to the theme “SALUTE TO OUR FRONTLINERS”
It represents various styles and pictures that’s shows Aesthetic
Deadline for submission is on May 19, 2021

Here are some of the example of the Digital Poster Slogan

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