UNIVERSITY OF THE EAST

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES-MANILA

DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES AND PHILOSOPHY

LECTURE NOTES IN ART APPRECIATION

CLASS OF DR. ALLAN C. ORATE

MODULE 5
Art and Philosophy: Formalism,
Expressionism and Hedonism

M5. OBJECTIVES

At the end of the lessons, the students are expected to:

1. Relate the study of art to the field of philosophy.

2. Compare and contrast formalism, expressionism, hedonism and other theories of art.
3. Identify artworks, styles, artists that abide with formalist, functionalist and hedonistic theories.
4. Apply the theories to art analysis.
5. Interpret formalism as foundation of modern non-objective art.
6. Formulate a philosophical approach to the study of Art Appreciation.
7. Evaluate the merit or demerit of artworks using the principles of formalism, expressionism and
aesthetic hedonism.
8. Make works of art that show the application of the theories.

M5. READINGS

M5. READING 1. Kandinsky, Wassily (1911). “Theory” excerpt from Concerning the Spiritual
in the Arts, pp. 46-52 In http://www.semantikon.com/art/kandinskyspiritualinart.pdf
M5. READING 2. Tolstoy, Leo (1897). Excerpt from What is Art. In https://www.google.com.
ph/webhp?sourceid=chromeinstant&rlz=1C1RLNS_enPH670PH670&ion=&espv=2&ie=UTF8#
q=what+is+art+leo+tolstoy+pdf.

M5. VIDEOS
Topic Overview

M5. VIDEO 1. “Kandinsky and Schonberg” in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0DXYT

N0OAM
M5. VIDOE 2. “ArtSleuth VAN GOGH, The Starry Night (final version)” in https://www.you
tube.com/results?search_query=Artsleuth+Van+Gogh+Starry+Night+MOMA.
M5. VIDEO 3. “Dirty Dancing: Time of Your Life” in https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=
WpmILPAcRQo

LECTURES IN ART APPRECIATION PREPARED BY DR. ALLAN C. ORATE 1

 M5. LECTURES
Topic Overview

In the previous module, we define art as a copy of people, things or events. Now we look at art
according to its composition, according to the human emotion that it elicits from us, and according
to the pleasurable experiences that art affords us. Thus, art is appreciated in the sense of its form,
its emotional effect and its appealing quality. Just like in the art of sound, we might be interested
in the technical way of writing it through musical notation, for stimulating a patriotic purpose of
it such us singing the national anthem, or for simply enjoying the music while we take rest and
relaxation. Art is not only about the world, but it is about us because it relates to our feelings,
imagination and experiences.

M5. LECTURE 1
Formalist Theory of Art

Formalism is a theory which asserts that art is the combination of perceptual elements. Art is the
“form,” defined by George Santayana as “the sensuous elements in combination.” In the case of
painting, these are the visual elements such lines, shapes, value, texture and colors. This means
that, for example, what is appreciated in Mondrian’s Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue, are
only the combinations of three primary colors, the black vertical and horizontal straight lines, and
the squares and rectangular shapes. This painting is purely formal; it does not have representation,
emotional expression nor intellectual meaning.

The art theory of formalism was formulated b, Clive Bell. He writes: “to appreciate art, we need
bring with us nothing from life.” Bell claims that art is “only the significant form.” This is
similar to the famous quotation, “art for art’s sake,” by Theophile Gautier. It means that art has
no human responsibility; art exists only for itself. The application of formalism in modern art came
from the Paul Cezanne, who said: “artists need to look at things only as form made up of
spheres, cylinders and cones.” For instance, when you look at the full moon, you don’t see the
“moon” but you see a “yellow circle.” What you see in Cezanne’s Still Life with Apples are not
“apples” but “red circles and patches of yellow with black outline”.

In formalism, we see only the visual elements, but in representationism, we see images of things.
We look at a particular design: when we consider this design as representation, we see a “pine
tree”, but when we regard it as a form, we see a “green isosceles triangle on top of a long brown
rectangle”. In the same way, looking at The Mona Lisa, representationally, we see the eyes of the
woman, her nose and lips; we see the face and the arms. But formally, we see two small circles, a
triangle, a curve line and oblongs and elliptical shapes.

The notable formal paintings are those by Mondrian who made many variations of Composition
with Red, Yellow and Blue; the suprematist works by Kasemir Malevich such as Black Rectangle,
Blue Triangle; the op art paintings showing optical illusions by Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely;
as well as the modernist pieces by Hernando Ocampo in Philippine art. There are also formal
designs in Badjao’s vinta and Tiboli’s tinalak. Islamic art is basically non-figurative. One artistic
feature is the arabesque or the formal, geometrical designs found in the walls and floors of
mosques and Islamic architectural works such as the Taj Majal in Agra, India.

LECTURES IN ART APPRECIATION PREPARED BY DR. ALLAN C. ORATE 2

In his book, Concerning the Spiritual in the Arts, Wassily Kandinsky said that representation in
the arts is brought by materialism of people in the society, and formal art seeks to bring out the
spiritual quality of art. “Art is born from the inner necessity of the artist in an enigmatic, mystical
way through which it acquires an autonomous life; it becomes an independent subject, animated
by a spiritual breath.” He created series of no-objective paintings in evolving forms, like Squares
with Concentric Circles, Impression V, Improvisation 28 and Composition 6.

M5. LECTURE 2
Expressionist Theory of Art

Expressionism emphasizes that art is the process by which the artists bring out their emotions. In
order for us to appreciate art, it is not enough that we perceive the form and the representation by
our senses, but we need to feel the art by our hearts. As art spectators, we experience the same
emotion that the artists have presented in their works.

Expressionism may be traced back from the view of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. He
speculated on the so-called catharsis that refers to the artists’ overflowing emotion which they
divert into the process of art production. For Susanne Langer, “art is the creation of symbolic
forms expressive of human feeling.” Art is the “objectification of emotion,” according to Leo
Tolstoy. While Benedetto Croce’s intuitionism claims that art is like language which the artists
use to convey their ideas.

The emotional expressions in art are indicated by the visual elements, forms or representations.
Eemoticons are simple drawings of human faces depicting various feelings through the variations
of lines. Convex line means “happy”, concave means “sad”, while straight means “insensitive’.
The emotion in Leonardo’s The Mona Lisa is expressed by the line of the lips; the smile of the
woman is usually described as “enigmatic” or “mysterious”, but it could also mean “cheerful,”
“powerful”, “seductive” and “sinful”. In Amorsolo’s paintings, the smiling dalagang Filipina may
be an indication of fresh, innocent and peaceful disposition in life.

One expressionist painter is Edvard Munch. The theory of expressionism in implied in this
quotation form him: “For so long as I can remember, I suffered a deep feeling of anxiety which I
tried to express in my art.” His painting, The Scream, demonstrates terrible fear as shown by the
curving and swerving lines of red, orange and yellow in the sky, and by the somber colors of grey,
blue and brown on the river, as well as by the face of the woman with bulging eyes and elongated
mouth. Munch’s The Sick Child is said to be the painting which expressed the great sadness he felt
as a child due to the sickness and death of his elder sister.

The most famous painter in the theory and style of expressionism was Vincent van Gogh. He
made self-portraits which showed the transition of his personality. His masterpiece, The Starry
Night, was painted while he was confined in a mental hospital due to severe emotional depression.
In this painting, the dominance of blue is said to be symbolic of van Gogh sadness. The patches of
yellow in the canvas are the effects of his alcohol addiction. The curve and hazy lines in the clouds
are indications of his mental collapse and epileptic attacks. Having lost the will to live, van Gogh
committed suicide by shooting himself at the stomach. In reference to art, his emotion and insanity,
he wrote: “I put my heart and soul in my work, and have lost my mind in the process.”

LECTURES IN ART APPRECIATION PREPARED BY DR. ALLAN C. ORATE 3

 M5. LECTURE 3
Aesthetic Hedonism

As an ethical view about human life, hedonism was formulated by Aristipus and Epicurus. They
believed that whatever is good is what brings pleasurable experience to the individual person. The
hedonists would say: “Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die.” This means that we only
have one life, and when we die be become nothing at all. This insight is applied to aesthetics. In
the words of David Hume: “pleasure and pain, are not only necessary attendants of beauty
and deformity, but constitute their very essence.” Similarly, for Albert Faurot, painting,
sculpture and music are meant only “for giving pleasure and life enhancement.” According to
Immanuel Kant too, art is more of play and fun than of work, however, the person must be
disinterested to the pleasure which art provides.

There is some truth in aesthetic hedonism considering our common experiences of nature and art.
We find the rainbow beautiful because of the pleasure it presents to our eyes, while the sight of a
shit is ugly because of its terrible appearance and bad odor. When we listen to music we feel relax,
or when we watch a movie, we enjoy it. Art is beautiful because of the sensuous delight it affords
us. If the music is irritating to our ears, or the film is boring, they bring us pain, and thus ugly.

In culinary art, we appreciate the food not only because it is nutritious, but more because it is
delicious. When we eat lechon, we enjoyed the taste, and never minded its cholesterol that might
bring us high blood and heart attack. We tend to appreciate fast foods because they are delicious,
although they are not healthy for the body because of their artificial flavorings and taste enhancers.

In painting, we tend to look at what bring pleasure to the eyes, and we try to avoid painful sights.
For example, we enjoy seeing the The Mona Lisa, rather than the Woman in Pink by Chaim
Soutine. It is more favorable to behold the handsome face of Albrecht Durer in his Self-Portrait,
than the Grotesque Face of Scaramuchia by Leonardo.

In Hindu culture, there is the kama sutra which means the “way” or “art of pleasure”. It is a literary
and art form containing illustrations and texts which depict naked male and female bodies in
explicit sexual acts. Its purpose is to teach people the means to attain pleasurable and sensual states.
Hindus believe that the experience of pleasure is a stage in man’s life necessary to achieve spiritual
release or moksha. For them, the kama sutra is not a work of pornography, it is rather an expression
of their religion and deep spirituality.

LECTURES IN ART APPRECIATION PREPARED BY DR. ALLAN C. ORATE 4