ART APPRECIATION

MRS. SHARLENE DAYANARA SANTOS- PURIFICACION

LESSON 1:

INTRODUCTION TO ART APPRECIATION

•1896 illustration of Igorot tattoo patterns which are records of
war exploits and status

Humanities is an academic discipline that studies the

different aspects of the human society and culture (Bod, 2013).

Humanities
-Derived from the Renaissance Latin expression studia humanitatis (or study of humanity),
-Referring to an education befitting a cultivated man, or simply from the Latin word,
-”humanus”, meaning human, cultured, or refined

“what makes us human?” (Ganzon, 2017).

Stanford University defines Humanities as “the study of how people process and
document the human experience”

These disciplines seek to identify the answer to the perennial

questions of human existence like:
•What is the nature of beauty? How does culture define reality?
•How do human beings articulate the series of human experiences in this all-encompassing
universe?

THE IMPORTANCE OF HUMANITIES

why the humanities are still important in the modern world
◦Humanities provide insights into everything.
◦We learn how to think creatively and critically as we explore the humanities.
◦We learn how to reason and ask questions.
◦We gain additional knowledge as we encounter more human experiences.
◦We learn about the values of different cultures through the works of humanities experts,
about how history is made, and what goes on behind every work of art
◦It enabling us to understand the world we live in.

WHAT IS ART?
ETYMOLOGY
-It came from the Ancient Latin word “ars” which means “craft or specialized form of skills,
like carpentry or smithying or surgery” (Collingwood, 1938)

•The Webster Dictionary (2012) defines art as the “human ingenuity in adapting natural
things to man’s use.”
•Form of communication (Ganzon, 2018)

LION PANEL , CHAUVET CAVE, ARDECHE VALLEY, FRANCE

–Arts then suggested the capacity to produce an intended result from carefully planned
steps method.
–Art only meant using the bare hands to produce something that will be useful to one’s day
to day life.

MEDIEVAL LATIN
•”Any special form of book- learning, such as grammar or logic, magic or astrology” (
Collingwood, 1938)

RENAISSANCE PERIOD
•Reacquired the meaning that was inherent in its ancient form of craft
•Activities was merely craftsmanship

17th CENTURY
•The problem and idea of aesthetics began to unfold
•Technical workmanship

18th CENTURY
•The word evolved
•Fine Arts and Useful Arts
-Fine Arts means “not delicate or highly skilled arts, but ‘beautiful’ arts (Collingwood, 1938)

•The humanities constitute one of the oldest and most important means of expression
developed by man ( Dudley et al., 1960)
•Human history has witnessed how man evolved not just physically but also culturally
•The humanities then, ironically, have started even before the term has been coined.
•Human persons have long been exercising what it means to be human long before he was
even aware of his being one.

ASSUMPTIONS OF ARTS
Art is universal
•Art has always been timeless and universal, spanning generations and continents through
and through.
•Art is not good because it is old, but old because it is good (Dudley et al., 1960)

•They are liked and adored because they meet our desires
•Art has been crafted by all people regardless of origin, time, place, and that it stayed on
because it is liked and enjoyed by people continuously.
•A great piece of work will never be obsolete.
•Art will always be present because human beings will always express themselves and
delight in these expressions.

Art is NOT Nature

•Good movie must reflect reality as closely as possible
◦Art is man’s expression of his own reception of nature.
◦Arts is man’s way of interpreting nature.
◦Art is not nature.
◦Art is given by man, whereas nature is given around us.
◦Movies are not to be direct representation of reality.

-Why the artist made it?

-What is it that he wants to show?

Art involves experience

◦Art is just experience
◦“actual doing of something” (Dudley et al., 1960)

•Knowing is different from hearing from others what the said thing is.
•Arts depends on experience, and if one is to know art, he must know it not as fact or
information but as experience (Dudley et al., 1960)
•An important aspect of experiencing art is its being highly personal, individual, and
subjective.

Degustibus non disputandum est ( Matters of taste are not matters of dispute)

Why do you think you did or did not understand the art?

LESSON 2:

ART APPRECIATION: CREATIVITY, IMAGINATION AND EXPRESSION

•It takes an artist to make art.
•Not every beautiful thing that can be seen or experienced may truly be called a work of art.
•An artwork may be inspired by nature or other works of art
•But an artist invents his own forms and patterns due to what he perceives as beautiful and
incorporates them in creating his masterpiece.

1). Art Appreciation as a Way of Life

-Jean- Paul Sartre, described the role of art as a CREATIVE WORK that depicts the world in a
completely different light and perspective, and the source is due to human freedom
-Refining one’s ability to appreciate art allows him to deeply understand the purpose of an
artwork and recognize the beauty it possess (Collins &Riley, 1931)
-Develop his taste for things that are fine and beautiful, this continuous demand for
aesthetically valuable things influences the development and evolution of art and its form.
-Learning to appreciate art no matter what vocation or profession you have, will lead to a
fuller and more meaningful life ( Collins & Riley, 1931)

The Role of Creativity in Art Making

Characteristics of creative people
1. Sensitivity
2. Flexibility
3. Originality
4. Playfulness
5. Productivity
6. Fluency
7. Analytical skill
8. Organizational skill

Creativity requires thinking outside the box.

2). Art as a Product of Imagination, Imagination as a Product of Art

- “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now
know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will
be to know and understand.” (Albert Einstein)
-Through imagination, one is able to craft something bold, something new, and something
better in the hopes of creating something that will stimulate change.

•People + ( curiosity+ imagination)= ADVANCEMENT

•Imagination allows endless possibilities.

-An artworks does not need to be a real thing, but can be something that is imaginary(
Collingwood, 1938)
-Something imaginary does not necessarily mean it cannot be called art. Artists used their
imagination that gives birth to reality through creation.
-In the same way that imagination produces art, art also inspires imagination.

3). Art as Expression

-What an artist does to an emotion is not to induce it, but express it.
•Through expression, he is able to explore his own emotions and at the same time, create
something beautiful out of them.

Expressing emotion is different from describing emotions (Collingwood).

1. Visual Arts
•Artists produce visual arts driven by their desire to reproduce things that they have seen in
the way they perceived them (Collingwood & Riley, 1931)

2. Film
•Art of putting together successions of still images in order to create an illusion of
movement.
•Filmmaking focuses on its aesthetic, cultural and social value.
•Both an art and an industry
•Filmmaking simulates experiences or creates one that is beyond the scope of our
imagination.
•It aims to deliver ideas, feelings, or beauty to iits viewers.

3. Performance Art
•Live art
•Medium is mainly human body

4 important elements:
-Time
-Where the performance took place
-The performer’s
-Relationship between the audience and the performers

4. Poetry Performance
•Expresses emotions through words
•Combined with movements, tone, volume, and intensity

5. Architecture
•Art is the pursuit and creation of beautiful things while architecture is the making of
beautiful buildings.
 3 Important elements
-Plan
-Construction
-Design

6. Dance
•DANCE IS A SERIES OF MOVEMENTS THAT FOLLOWS THE RHYTHM OF THE MUSIC
ACCOMPANIMENT.

7. Literary Art
•Literary Art goes beyond the usual professional, academic, journalistic and other technical
forms of writing.
•It focuses on writing using unique style, not following a specific format or norm.

8. Theater
Elements
• Acting
• Gestures
• Lighting
• Sound effects
• Musical score
• Scenery
• Props

9. Applied Arts
•ARTISTS IN THIS FIELD BRING BEAUTY, CHARM, AND COMFORT INTO MANY THINGS THAT
ARE USEFUL IN EVERYDAY LIFE (COLLINS & RILEY, 1931)
-Industrial design
-Interior design
-Fashion design
-Graphic design

LESSON 3

FUNCTIONS AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ART

•Aristotle claimed that every particular substance in the world has an end, or telos in Greek,
which translates into “purpose”

•Man, in Aristotle’s view of reality, is bound to achieve a life fulfillment and happiness, or in
Greek, eudaimonia
-The telos and function of a thing are both related to a thing’s identity

-The telos, the function, and the “whatness” of a thing are all interconnected.

FUNCTION OF ARTS
•An inquiry on the function of art is an inquiry on what art is for.
“...function is so important that it has usurped the name of the art on the identification of
individual works” (Dudley et al. 1960)
•They are functional “in so far as they are designed to accomplish some definite end”
(Dudley et al., 1960)

1). Personal Functions of Art

-highly subjective and depends on the artist who created the art. -created for expressing self,
for entertainment, for public display or for other purpose

•The Sick Child, 1885

•Death in the Sickroom, 1895
(Edvard Munch)

2). Social Functions of Art

-celebration or to affect collective behavior
-Art may convey, message such as to support, to protest, contestation and other messages
an artist intends to carry at his work
-Art can depict social conditions such as photography of industrialization and poverty.

•“Liberty Leading the People,” 1830

(EUGÈNE DELACROIX,)

3). Physical Functions of Art

-utilitarian
-This are artworks that are crafted in order to serve physical purpose such as jars, plates, and
jewelries.
-Architecture, jewelry-making, interior design all serves physical functions

Music was used for dance and religion.

The ancient world saw music only as an instrument to facilitate worship and invocation to
gods.

•Sculptures have been made by man most particularly for religion.

•Sculptures were also made in order to commemorate important figures in history.
-The Ecstasy of St. Teresa, marble and gilded bronze niche sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini,
1645–52; in the Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome.

•Architecture might be the most prominent functional art form.

•It is in architecture where one can find the intimate connection of function and form.

Does art always have to be functional?

-The value of a work of art does not depend on function but on the work itself.
-A functional object cannot be claimed to be beautiful unless it can perform its function
sufficiently.

PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE ON ART

1). Art as Imitation

•Artists as imitators and art as mere imitation

-In Plato’s metaphysics or view of reality, the things in this world are only copies of the
original, the eternal, and the true entities that can only be found in the World of Forms

Plato was deeply suspicious of arts and artists for two reasons
-They appeal to emotion rather than to the rational faculty of men
-They imitate rather than lead one to reality

•Poetry rouses emotions and feelings and thus, clouds the rationality of people.

•Socrates claimed that art is just an imitation of imitation.

•For Plato, art is dangerous because it provides a petty replacement for the real entities that
can only be attained through reason.

2). Art as Representation

•Aristotle considered art as an aid to philosophy in revealing the truth.

•Poetry only admits of an attempt to represent what things might be

•Aristotle conceived of art as representing possible versions of

reality.

Two particular purposes

-First, art allows for the experience of pleasure.
-Experiences that are otherwise repugnant can become entertaining in art.

Two purposes of Art according to Aristotelian Worldview

1. art allows for the experience of pleasure.
2. art also has an ability to be instructive and teach its audience things about life;

3). Art as a Disinterested Judgment

-Emmanuel Kant said that judgment of beauty, and art is innately autonomous from specific
interests
-Kant recognized that judgment of beauty is subjective

4). Art as a Communication of Emotion

Leo Tolstoy
-Art is given a unique opportunity to serve as a mechanism for social unity.
-Art is central to man’s existence because it makes accessible the feelings and emotions of
people from past and present.

LESSON 4

SUBJECT AND CONTENT

Three Components of Art
Subject - (What)
Form - (How)
Content - (Why)

SUBJECT
•It denotes the topic, focus or image of the work of art. It can be a person, an object, a
theme or an idea.

TYPES OF ARTS
Representational Art or Figurative Art
•These type of art have subjects that refer to objects or events occurring in the real world.
Non- representational Art / Non- figurative Art
• consists of images that have no clear identity, and must be interpreted by the viewer

Abstract
-Abstract art is in itself a departure from reality, but the extent of that departure determines
whether it has reached the end of the spectrum, which is non- representationality- a
complete severance from the world.

Russian artist Vasily Kandinsky is the proponent of non- representational art

SOURCES OF SUBJECT
1. NATURE
2. HISTORICAL EVENT
3. GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGIES
4. THE JUDEO/ CHRISTIAN TRADITION
•Greeks and Romans- Polytheism
•Judeo- Christian- monotheism
5. SACRED ORIENTAL TEXTS

KINDS OF SUBJECT
-History
-Still Life
-Figures
-Animals
-Nature
-Landscape
-Seascape and City Scape
-Myth and Mythology
-Dreams and Fantasies

CONTENT
• indicates the artist’s intention, or the meaning behind the work. It can be the intellectual
message of an artwork, a statement, an expression, or mood developed by the artist and
interpreted by the observer

“statement we apprehend or the feeling or mood we experience with the work of art”
(Feldman, 1967).

CONTENT IN ART
1. Factual meaning
2. Conventional meaning
3. Subjective meaning

The Creation of Adam

1. Subject- Religion/ bible
2. Factual meaning- about creation
3. Conventional meaning- Man created in the image of God
4. Subjective meaning-
• Indeed, there are artworks that are difficult to understand - no one, actually, can be
expected to understand without effort and study the meanings of many works of art,
especially those works about religion and mythology. To fully grasp the content of works of
art, one must learn as much as he or she can about the culture of the people that produced
them and maintain an open mind in considering various options to appreciate and interpret
art.

LESSON 5

ARTISTS AND ARTISANS

•The impulse to create is at the core of human civilization, much like the impulse to
communicate through language.

•Early on, artists were embedded in the development of culture, and in turn, art was
nurtured by the varying cultures in which it existed.

-The Stonehedge (Wiltshire, England) of the Neolithic Era or New Stone Age

The Artisan and the Guilds

•Have you ever wondered why some examples of artistic and creative production have ever
survived to this day?

-What made the difference was the materials, medium, and the principles behind the
process of their creation.

-Another contributory factor is the emergence of technology and knowledge in managing

and conserving all of these objects and structures, enabling the retention of the integrity of
the artwork and the intention of the artist in terms of the design and overall aesthetic.

-Craftsmen and builders in the past did not have sophisticated terminologies and principles
that architects and engineers abide by today.

-What they had was a sense on how materials behaved, how the environment, light, and
weather patterns affected structures , and other more intuitive principles of creation.

•The Cologne Cathedral between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900

•The Cologne Cathedral in Germany by Gerhard Ryle

During the Middle Ages, the practice of artists was not grounded on the idea of individual
capacities or success; rather, in commitment to work in the together as a collective
 GUILDS
•a type of social fellowship, an association structured with rules, customs, rights and
responsibilities.
•With a lifetime commitment to a particular trade, an artisan develops immerse skill and
expertise in his craft.

Artist
• Art practitioner
• Create art for the pleasure of creating it
• Indirectly functional
• Focus on beauty
Artisan
• Create something new, original and at time provocative
• Craftsmen
• Make practical artistic products

-It was through mimesis or copying that artisans first learned to depict religious images and
scenes.

-The Church of the most Holy Trinity in Loay Bohol, locally referred to as Santisima Trinidad
Parish

•Tipos del pais- water color paintings that showcased the different local inhabitants of the
of the country in different garbs, and clues to their occupation and status
•Letras y figuras- combined the principles of lipos del pais and incorporated it as a means to
illustrate the letters of one’s name or surname

THE ARTIST AND HIS

-Moving back to Europe, the is a big shift that propelled the evolution of the pivotal role of
the artist in the arts started during Middle ages up to Renaissance.

•Transformation of the craftsman to an artist or an

independent artist
•The widespread patronization of secular art
•The assertion of cognition, the will, and individuality

-Before the Renaissance Period, artworks were left unsigned. Artists claiming authorship for
their works by affixing their mark onto the surface of their paintings were a big milestone in
the history of the artist.
-The site that saw this shift was a very personal space for the artist himself, which is the
studio.
-Artist’s studio is interesting to see and learn where creativity manifests itself, especially
since an artist’s studio is an extension of the artist himself.

Work stations-Studiolo and bottega

•Industrial revolution- artists released from the
limitations that affected the way in which they produced works.
•Latter part of the 1800- artists began to question
the merits stringent artistic training and education.
•1900- the art was truly liberated from the
traditions of the past.

Other players in the world of art

-In Howard S. Becker’s Art Worlds ( 1982), he asserted that

“all artistic work, like all human activity, involves the joint activity of a number, often a
larger number, of people. Through their cooperation, the artwork we eventually see or hear
comes to be and continues to be. The work always shows signs of that cooperation. The
forms of cooperation may be ephemeral, but often become more or less routine; producing
patterns of collective activity we can call an art world.

-The existence of art worlds, as well as the way their existence affects both the production
and consumption of artworks, suggests a sociological approach to the arts. It is not an
approach that produces aesthetic judgements; although that is a task many sociologists of
art have set for themselves.”

Terrain- where art is distributed (global network)

•Individuals
•Groups
•Institutions

-Art world does not only rely on ideas, sentiments, and aesthetic values, but also on skills
that are professionalized, stratified, and more importantly, monetized.

Curator-
•Ability to research and write
•Design layout
•Deciding for the display and hanging of materials for
exhibition
•hardest to define

Buyers- who initially assess and survey

Collectors- interested in artwork

Reason for buying

•For appreciation
•For the scholarship and education opportunity it may provide ( donors of study collection)
•For safeguard and preservation of their posterity
•For investment
•For communicating a way of lifestyle

Art dealer- direct hand in the distribution and circulation of the artwork
Museums and galleries- main institutions that display, distribute and circulate different art
work.

PRODUCTION PROCESS
•The process of creating an artwork does not necessarily follow a linear progression.

The process is TRIPARTITE

1. Preproduction
2. Production
3. Postproduction

Postproduction
•Allowing the artwork to set
•Tweaking the artwork
•Preparing the artwork for transport and display
•Promotion and inclusion of artwork in publications or discussions

MEDIUM AND TECHNIQUE

•Medium is the mode of expression in which the concept and idea, or message is conveyed.
•The technique of the artwork shows the level of familiarity with the medium being
manipulated

ENGAGEMENT WITH ART

-Anna Cline’s The Evolving Role of the Exhibition and Its Impact on Art and Culture (2012)
“Exhibitions act as the catalyst of art and ideas to the public; they represent a way of
displaying and contextualizing art that makes it relevant and accessible to contemporary
audiences. The art exhibition, by its nature, holds a mirror up to society, reflecting its
interests and concerns while at the same time challenging its ideologies and preconceptions.
Keeping art relevant to society and to a diverse audience at any given point in history is one
of the main goals of the art exhibition and one of the reasons it is so important to the
history of art”.
Awards and Citations

Awards Given to Artists in the Philippines

-Orden ng Pambansang Alagad ng Sining ( Order of National Artists)
-Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan ( National Living Treasures Award)

Orden ng Pambansang Alagad ng Sining ( Order of National Aritists)

•Highest national recognition ( music, dance, theater, visual arts, literature, film, broadcast
arts, and architecture and allied arts)
•National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA)
•Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP)

Fernando Amorsolo
•First recipient
•Grand Old Man of Philippine Art

Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan (GAMABA)

• Through the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan Committee and an Ad Hoc Panel of Experts,
conducts the search for the finest traditional artists of the land, adopts a program that will
ensure the transfer of their skills to others and undertakes measures to promote a genuine
appreciation of and instill pride among our people about the genius of the Manlilikha ng
Bayan”

First three outstanding artist in 1993

• Ginaw Bilog- master of the Ambahan poetry
• Masino Intaray- master of various traditional musical instruments of the Palawan people
• Samaon Sulaiman- master of the Kutyapi and other instruments.

Woodrow Wilson (1913) “ You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order
to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and
achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget that
errand.”