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Lesson 3

 SUBJECT OF A WORK OF ART

SUBJECT OF ART
In appreciating art, there are clues that connect the artwork and the
viewer, allowing the viewer to understand easier what he is seeing. These
clues are the three basic components of a work of art: the subject and content
and it will be discussed on the succeeding pages.

It is the visual focus or the image that may be extracted from

examining the artwork. Simply put, it answers the “what” of a certain
artwork. There are two types of subject: the representational and non-
representational.

Representational Art has

subject that refers to objects or
events occurring in the real world.
It also termed as figurative art
because the figures depicted are
easy to make out and decipher.

MONA LISA by Leonardo da Vinci

Despite not knowing who Mona Lisa
is, it is obvious that the painting is of
a woman that is realistically
proportioned with only the upper
torso shown, with the background of
a landscape and the woman showing
a beguiling and mysterious smile.

Non-representational art,
on the other hand, are artworks
that do not refer to the real world.
It is limited to the visual elements
such as shapes, lines and colors
that are employed to translate a
particular feeling, emotion and
idea or concept.

CONVERGENCE
by Jackson Pollock(1952)

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A question that might interest your curiosity is, “Is non-

representational art the same with abstract art?” There is no clear-cut divide.
They rather exist in a spectrum. Abstraction distorts the view, simplifies or
reduces the structure of a known thing, person or place often into its simplest
geometric shapes. While non-representational art does not begin with a thing
or a subject allowing its viewer to give it a personal interpretation.

SOURCES OF SUBJECTS OF ARTWORKS

There are different possible sources of subject that are commonly used
by artists. These serve as inspirations for artists.

1. Nature is a common
subject used by artist
particularly by visual
artists.

LOQUATS AND A MOUNTAIN

BIRD, by an anonymous
painter of the Southern Song
Dynasty (1127–1279); small
album leaf paintings like this
were popular amongst the
gentry and scholar-officials of
the Southern Song.

2. History. Another subject commonly used in making artworks is

history.

SPOLARIUM(1884) by Juan Luna

This infamous painting of our very own Juan Luna was a satirical portrait
of what was really happening during the Spanish regime.

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3. Greek Mythology. Some artists are also fond of using Greek

Mythology as a subject. Below is a photo of example of such
artwork.

THE COMBAT OF MARS AND MINERVA by Joseph Benoit Suvee

4. Religion. Religion as a subject was frequently used specifically

during the medieval ages.

LA PIETA (“the pity”) is known by many as one of Michelangelo’s greatest works.

Sculpted from marble in the years 1498-1499. It depicts a common religious
subject matter that many artists all over the globe had recreated in
Michelangelo’s time.

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5. Culture. Today, contemporary artists make use of life experiences

and culture as a subject of their artworks.

FISHERMEN
By Ang Kiukok, an awarded Filipino contemporary painter
National Artist and leader of Philippine figurative expressionism, Ang Kiukok’s oil
painting “Fishermen” got the highest bid at an auction hosted by Salcedo Auctions on
March 8, 2014 in Makati. AngKiukok's work combined the hope and struggle of fishermen
working together for their haul, the crimson sun hovering above them, representing
perpetual energy.

METHODS OF PRESENTING SUBJECT OF ARTS

There are several methods of presenting art subjects in order to be
understood and appreciated by the viewer or audience. Through these
methods, the artist can express his ideas or concepts or convey the message
he wants to extend. Each method has its own characteristics and will be
discussed below.

1. Realism. Through this method, an artist attempts to describe

accurately what is observed through his senses. He selects, arranges
and changes details to express his ideas. Poetry and drama were
influenced by realism. Along the process of selecting and presenting
his subject, the artist cannot avoid to be influenced by his emotions
and ideas. It is in novels that realism achieved greatness. Examples of
novels that were influenced with the ideas of realism are Mga Kukong
Liwanag by Edgardo Reyes and Dilim sa Umga by Efren Abueg.
These are novels of social commentaries which are realistically
vivid and clearly presented. Below are samples of paintings that used
realism method to express an idea or concept. Amorsolo is a well-
known realist painter.

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THE HARVESTERS
by Fernando Amorsolo, a famous Filipino painter

2. Abstraction. This method allows the artist to move away or separate.

Abstract art moves away from showing thing as they are. It is the
opposite of realism. There are four types of abstract art:

a) Distortion. The subject b) Elongation. The subject is

is in misshapen lengthened for protraction or
condition. extension.

A DISTORTION OF REALITY PORTRAIT OF LUNIA CZECHOWSKA

by Henrietta Harris By Amedeo Modigliana

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c) Mangling. The subject is d) Cubism. The subjects are

either cut, mutilated, shown in geometrical
lacerated, or hacked. shapes.

MURDER BY GASLIGHT THREE MUSICIANS

by Alfred Packer By Pablo Picasso

e) Abstract expressionism. This is characterized by great verve and

large canvases and a deliberate lack of refinement in the
application of paint. It uses typically strong color, heavy impasto,
uneven brush strokes and rough textures.

WHITE LIGHT(1954), a mixed media of housepainter’s paint, enamel

and aluminum by Jackson Pollock. Instead of brush and easels, he used
wood stick, floor brush and knife as his tools. He also mixed sand, grass
and wood in the color paint to make relief and raw texture. He created
this in a year during which he suffered from a severe creative block and
related depression and alcoholism.

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3. Symbolism. The subject might

Crossing the Bar(Excerpts)
simply be an emblem or sign of an
idea or quality. In poetry and
For tho' from out our
painting, symbol has a freer
bourne of Time and Place
development. It goes beyond the
ordinary sign and assumes a new
The flood may bear me far,
meaning originating from a
personal and unique association
I hope to see my Pilot face
form in the mind of the poet or
to face
painters. An example of a poem is
“Crossing the Bar” by Alfred
When I have crost the bar.
Tennyson. Above are the
last four lines of the poem.

The last two lines are symbolic and it clearly shows the strong desire
of the author to see God when he dies.

The famous SPOLARIUM by Juan Luna is an example of a painting that uses

symbolism. It was a satire of the suffering that Filipinos were experiencing
during the Spanish regime.

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4. Fauvism. This method is

characterized by the use of
bright colors. The movement
was led by Henri Matisse. It
was the first important art
movement in the 1900s.
Other fauvists were Andre
Derain, Raoul Drify, and
George Rouault who were all
from France.
THE RED ROOM
By Henri Matisse

5. Dadaism. It is a process
movement in arts formed by
group of artists and poets in
1916 in Zurich, Switzerland.
The French word “dada”
means hobby horse and it
was deliberately chosen to
refer to nonsensical subject.
It was a form of artistic
anarchy born out of disgust
for the social, political and
cultural values of the time.
It embraced elements of art,
music, poetry, theatre,
dance and politics. It was
more of a protest movement
with an anti-establishment
manifesto.
THE SPIRIT OF OUR TIME (1920),
an assemblage sculpture by Raoul
Hausmann

6. Futurism
It developed in Italy about the same time that Cubism appeared
in France. It was an Italian art movement of the early twentieth
century that aimed to capture in art the dynamism and energy of the
modern world. Such paintings glorified the Mechanical energy of the
modern life, including automobile, motorcycle and railroad. It was
launched by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909. On
February 20, 1909, he published his Manifesto of Futurism on the front
page of the Paris newspaper Le Figaro.

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Futurism was
exceptionally forceful in
its denunciation of the
past. This was because
in Italy, the weight of
past culture was felt as
particularly oppressive.
What the futurists
proposed instead was an
art that celebrated the
modern world of
industry and technology.

UNIQUE FORMS OF CONTINUITY IN SPACE

a casting sculpture by Umberto Boccioni

7. Surrealism
This movement in arts and literature was founded in Paris in
1924 by the French poet Andre’ Breton. Surrealism is coined from the
words super realism and was influenced by the Freudian psychology
which emphasizes the activities of the subconcsious mind. Subjects of
this kind attempts to show what is inside man’s mind as well as the
appearance of his outside world. Surrealists claim to create forms and
images primarily of no reason, but by impulse, blind feeling or even by
accident. They can be violent and cruel messages but also informative
and symbolical.

THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY is a 1931 painting by artist Salvador Dalí, and

one of the most recognizable works of Surrealism

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8. Expressionism broke away from the literal

This method was
introduced in Germany
during the first decade of
the twentieth century. Its
influences affected
European artists from 1920
to the present.
THE SCREAM, tempera and
casein on cardboard by Edvard
Munch, 1893; displayed at the
National Gallery, Oslo.
representation of nature in
order to express more
subjective outlooks or states
of mind.
Playwrights seemed
to have been influenced as
well on English and Filipino
like the work of Amelia
Lapena-Bonifacio in
“SepangLoca” (1958) and
Paul
Dumol’s“MapaitnaBaso”.
These plays depicted the
idea of rebirth of the
individual as possible only
within the context of
transformation of the entire
society. The emotional
expressions in
expressionistic paintings
usually manifest pathos,
morbidity, violence or
chaos, defeat and tragedy.

The roots of the

German Expressionist school
lay in the works of Vincent
van Gogh, Edvard Munch,
and James Ensor, each of
whom in the period 1885–
1900 evolved a highly
personal painting style.
These artists used the
expressive possibilities of
color and line to explore
dramatic and emotion-laden
themes, to convey the
qualities of fear, horror, and
the grotesque, or simply to
celebrate nature with
hallucinatory intensity. They

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The painting Starry Starry Night

The small town depicted in Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night is Saint-Rémy-
de-Provence in the south of France. Van Gogh painted the work while he was a patient
at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, a psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy. Presently, the
hospital has a wing named after the painter.

Art Appreciation