C HA PTER

CONTEXTS OF
2 CONTEMPORARY
ARTS

Book Source: Sining Rehiyon Contemporary

Philippine Arts in the Regions
Think of a superhero or a villain you admire or inspire the most and
cite some factors which you think pushes this character to become a
hero or a villain.

Example: Batman became a superhero because his parents were killed

when he was young.
LEARNING
OBJECTIVES ✓ Discuss the importance of understanding the
context of contemporary arts.
✓ Identify and discuss the fundamental components
of an art, its foundational disciplines and how
they are used in understanding an art.
✓ Explain how society, culture and history influence
the creation of arts highlighting Philippines’ arts in
its regional context.
✓ Discuss the practical aspects of art exhibition,
dissemination and display.
✓ Explain the need to support contemporary arts.
 CON TEXT
• Context refers to factors that surround a work of art. It includes
a host of conditions such as historical events, economic trends,
contemporary culture developments, religious attitudes, social
norms, other artworks of the time, among others.
• Context provides a deeper understanding of the work in
question and allows one to analyze the meaning and value
of art.

• It also probes into what artist was experiencing at the

moment when he was creating the work and how he
responded to those experiences through his art.
T h e f o l l o w i n g a r e th e i n q u i r i e s a b o u t
th e c o n t ex t o f a n a r t w o r k :

1. What key historical events occurred at the time the work was created?
2. What scientific discoveries or technological innovations may have
influenced the artist?
3. What were the other artistic influences on the work?
4. What were the philosophical ideas of the time that informed the
artwork?
5. What were the cultural influences?
6. Who was the intended audience?
7. Is the artist identified with a particular movement, school,
or style?
8. What was the original purpose of the artwork?
Classification of context
PRIMARY
context
It pertains to the artist’s
attitudes, beliefs, interests, and
values; education and training;
and biography (including
psychology), intentions and
purposes of making his/her art.
SECONDARY
context
Addresses the external conditions in
which the work was produced; the
apparent function of the work, religious
and philosophical convictions; socio-
political and economic structures; and
even climate and geography.
ART CRITERIA
Aesthetic experience
1 Our responses towards phenomena like enchantment,
fear, awe, terror, or guilt all that it takes to name
something as art or consider something as artistic.

Consensus of the art world

2 The art world is a network of institutions which exercises
the power to set the terms with which public is made to
perceive art.

Cultural practice and shared meaning

3 Every culture creates art, and each has its own standards
of representation, its own cultural context, and own
aesthetic conventions.
IMPLICATIONS OF CONTEXT
1. contexts are arbitrarily created and therefore dependent on
a point of view or perspective
2. contexts establish conventions, rules, norms, hierarchies,
classifications, assumptions, presumptions, and notions
regarding art
3. contexts establish the value and the criteria of valuation in
which labor and capital are invested in works designated as
art
4. that all of these are not a natural given nor should
remain unchanged. It should be questioned in light
of critical thinking
 STUDY OF ARTS IN THE REGIONAL
CONTEXT

The study of art must begin in one’s locality, in the regional sense. It
is the place where personal and group identities are nurtured as
individual experiences are accumulated and collective memories
are commemorated.

It is a social system that reflects relations between different human

beings and groups that are bound by shared and distinct identity,
language, culture, and tradition. The region is a viewed as a key
identity maker.
 The Promdi Project is a survey of
contemporary art practices in Dumaguete
and surrounding areas. Promdi, short for
“from the province,” is often used as a
derogatory term for people living outside
Metro Manila.

“Panahi: New Works on Visayan Contemporary

Textile Art”— exhibition held in 2016 at the
Negros Museum in Bacolod City, spotlighted
traditional textiles, particularly the Visayan
ones, as used in contemporary artworks.
FU ND AMENTAL COMPONENT S
OF ART

1 FO R M
is made up of formal elements, overall composition, materials and
techniques

To a p p r e c i a t e t h e f o r m o f a r t , c r e a t i v i t y a n d i m a g i n a t i o n m u s t
be t ake n int o acco unt .

• C r e a t i v i t y - the generation of new ideas, insights, and previously

unimagined images and artifacts

• I m a g i n a t i o n - is a faculty that allows us to generate mental pictures,

ideas, and sensations that do not exist in the world
2 is a medium by which cultural meanings are formed and
communicated
• I n t e r p r e t a t i o n – is concerned with search for meaning.

Language is the content or the mass of ideas comm unicate d

through;

▪ the image it creates

▪ the icons and their symbolic meanings
▪ the environment where it is used, displayed, or performed
▪ the traditions, beliefs, and values of the culture that produced it and
utilizes it
▪ writings and intellectual ideas that help explain the work
3 Mo de of pr oduction
• P o l i t i c a l E c o n o m y – is concerned with the power and the
distribution of economic resources in the context of art production in relation to
the following:
* Capital and Labor
* Power structures and power relations
* Institutions of control
* Art as propaganda and persuasive medium

• I d e o l o g y - is unearthed and revealed from the surface of the form. The

ideological nature of art questions how images serve the interests of some, but
not all, individuals in society.
 Fundamental Object of Process of
Compo nents of Art Analysis Analysis

FORM Technique Imagination

LANGUAGE Meaning Interpretation
Mode of Production Political Economy Ideology
 FOUNDATIONAL ART DECIPLINES
1 2
the presentation of ideas
and feelings by creating
expressive images
through the application
of tools and mastery of
techniques to a material
describing, analyzing,
interpreting, and
evaluating works of art
for the purpose of
understanding and
appreciating art
 Four Steps in Art Criticism

Description
What do you see?
ANALYSIS
How is the work
INTERPRETATION
What message does this
JUDGMENT
Is this successful work of art?
In this step, you will organized? artwork communicate? In this step, one expresses
collect information This step deals with the This step deals with the the success or failure of the
about the subject of work’s compositional content of the work. artwork and establishes its
the artwork. qualities. value in society.
 FOUNDATIONAL ART DECIPLINES
FORMS OF HISTORICAL INQUIRY

A t t r i b u t io n
the study of art, past
A u th e nt i c it y

3
and present, and its
contributions to cultures I c o n o gr ap hy
and society. It provides P r o v e n ance
answers to the questions
who, what, when, where,
Function
and why. Style
Psychology
C o n n o is s e u r s hi p
 FOUNDATIONAL ART DECIPLINES
T h r e e A e s t h e t ic T h e o r i e s
of Ar t Criticism

4
• I mitatio nal ism and
the nature, beauty, L iter al Qu al ities
and value of a
work of art. • Formalism and
F or mal Qu al ities

• Emotio nalism and

E x p r es sive Qu al ities
 ART WORLD ACTIVITIES

CORE COLLATERAL
ACTIVITIES ACTIVITIES
• Production of art • Facilitation of
production and
• Exhibition of art exhibition
galleries
• Dissemination of art
and art discourse
 SUPPORTING GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
AND INSTITUTIONS

National Commission for Culture and

the Arts (NCCA)
overall policy making, coordinating, and grants-
giving agency for the preservation,
development and promotion of Philippine arts
and culture

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA)

office in Intramuros, Manila.

The Cultural Center of the Philippines
(CCP)
Cultural Center of the Philippines
(CCP or Sentrong Pangkultura ng
Pilipinas)
the national center for the performing arts and it is
mandated to promote excellence in the arts
through the initiation and implementation of
activities that aim to improve and elevate
standards among cultural workers, artists, and
audiences and to recognize the multiplicity and
differences of aesthetic experiences and
standards encompassing the arts, from grassroots
to those formulated by academy-trained artists.
 National Museum (NM)
tasked with the preservation,
conservation, and protection of movable
and immovable cultural properties for the
enjoyment of present and future
generations.

The National Museum (NM)

 National Historical Commission
of the Philippines (NHCP)
It was created in 1972 initially as the National
Historical Institute to integrate the diverse
functions of various historical agencies. NHCP
now, by the virtue of R.A. 10086, responsible
for the conservation and preservation of the
country’s historical legacies.

The National Historical Commission

of the Philippines (NHCP)
EXHIBITION, DISPLAY, AND DESSIMINATION OF ART

The mouseion of the Greeks laid the fundamental concept for a

“museum” as a place for education and enjoyment since its first
creation in their society long ago.

The first government museum in the Philippines was established

under the American colonial policy of public education.

Contemporary forms of art have started to explore the

possibilities of engaging audiences outside the context of a
museum or gallery.
White Cube
term that originated from the manner in which contemporary
museums exhibit their collections on plain, usually white walls
in order to focus on a work on display.

Curator
deals with setting out the physical space for the exhibition
and display of art works
Ang Panublion, Roxas City Museo IloIlo, IloIlo City

Davao City Museum Museo Cordillera, Baguio City

 BENCAB MUSEUM (Baguio City)
The museum is composed of several galleries that house the permanent collection
of Philippine National Artist Benedicto Cabrera (BenCab), his paintings, his
collections of indigenous Cordillera art and the works of Filipino masters and
contemporary artists.
Art Portal Gallery for Contemporary Art
( Davao City)
Art Portal is a platform for artist exchanges and other
creative explorations in the Davao art scene. The
space was established by Alfred Galvez.
 SUPPORT FOR THE ARTS

Section 15 of Article XIV of the 1987

Philippine Constitution establishes the role
of the Philippine government in
supporting the arts and creative practices
of the nation: “Arts and letters shall enjoy
the patronage of the State.
Private and Corporate Patronage

• Art patronage refers to the support that wealthy personalities

and corporate entities bestow on artist.
• Patron, in Latin, means father; hence a patron of the arts is
one who “begets” and protects the arts.
• Patrons are persons of power and wealth, who commission art
for their homes or as monuments after their deaths to further
their glory.
• Art is sometimes funded by private donations and corporate
sponsorship.
 The Art Market
The soaring prices of the works of Filipino artists are the result of the
entry into the scene of art buyers with varying intentions:

1. those who can finance a hobby of competing to collect market-

popular artworks
2. those who consider artworks as investments that can be sold for
higher prices in the future

3. those who want to hang on their walls sought-after paintings as visual

evidence of financial success

4. those who are motivated by a combination of two or more of the

earlier mentioned intentions.
 State Grants and Tax-Supported Art
GRANT
sum of money awarded to an
artist by a government agency or
private corporation to enable
him/her to produce art
National
Endowment Fund
for Culture and
the Arts (NEFCA)
established by Section 20 of
Republic Act. No. 7356 to support
Philippine art and culture programs
and projects, allocates a portion of
public funds for art work,
subventions to art institutions.
 State Grants and Tax-Supported Art
National
Endowment COMMISSION for
Culture and the
fund Arts (NCCA)

is an investment fund set up by

the institution in which regular grant-giving government
withdrawals from the invested agency which administers
capital are used for ongoing the NEFCA
operations and grant programs.
Somewhere a portion of
contemporary art has to exist as an
example of what the art and its
context were meant to be.
Donald Judd