UNIT I.

THE IMPORTANCE, MEANING, AND ASSUMPTIONS OF ART

Overview

This unit addresses the importance of art in our everyday life as part of a complex
society and as an integral mode of expression and communication. Art’s meaning covers its
etymological to modern sense, and how it is perceived by man variable and relative from a
person, time, and location. The assumptions discuss the principles and sources of art
appreciation and set the margin and boundary of accountability and duty to achieve what
man is capable of doing.

Learning Objectives
At the end of the unit, I am able to:
1. understand and realize the importance of arts in daily life
2. explain the meaning of arts and the different assumptions on arts
3. differentiate the philosophical perspectives of arts
4. explain the nature and the various functions of arts
5. identify the different classification of arts

Setting Up
Motive Questions
Name: _ Score:
Course/Year/Section: _ Date:

Direction: Answer the following questions concisely.

1. How do you define the ART? In your opinion, is there a universal meaning of this
term? Why?

2. What can and cannot be considered art? Justify your answer.

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Lesson Proper

THE IMPORTANCE OF ART

There is no question of the assumption that arts have never been more important to
our society, and that they should be completely incorporated into our lives, our community
and the whole of education.

Art is important because…

it is a component of
dynamic civilization

it is an essential form of
it enhances daily
expression and communication
experiences

it develops the intellect of

younger generation to build up positive character and appreciate natural aesthetics

MEANING OF ART

The word art also rooted in the 13th-

century French word art, which means “skill as a
result of learning or practice,” and the Latin word
ars, meaning “ability or practical skills”. In
Medieval Latin, ars meant “any special form of
book learning such as grammar, logic, or
astronomy (Collingwood, 1983). Because of the
prominence of aesthetics, the study of beauty, in
the 17th century, art began to unfold from its
previous connotation of craftsmanship (Caslib,
Garing, and Casaul 2018). In the 18 th century, the
divide between fine arts and useful arts came to
be
known (Collingwood, 1983). Fine arts are those forms that were commonly be found in
galleries and museums: painting, sculpture, etc. Crafts are those art forms that had everyday
use: pottery, ceramics, copperware, wallpapers, jewelry, etc.
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 You can also describe art in three different ways

Art is the skill of man to make things Art is the skill of man
Beautiful and stirring; it is
Imagination and creativity.
as an to make things
ability Beautiful and stirring
; it is
Imagination and
creativity.

Art
as a
process as a
product
Art involves activities creating
Art is the completed work or
Pictures and unforgettable works
final output

Definitions of Arts by Popular Thinkers

Plato “Art is that which brings life in harmony

with the beauty of the world”
John Dewey “ Art is an attitude of spirit, a state of mind-
one that demands its own satisfaction and
fulfilling, a shaping of matter to new and
more significant form”
Oscar Wilde “Art is the most intense mode of
individualism that the world has known”
Elbert Hubbard “Art is not a thing, it is a way”
Nietzsche “Art is essentially the affirmation, the
blessing, and the deification of existence’.

The idea of art as a piece done with extraordinary craftsmanship was challenged by
artists in the 20th-Century. Today the definition of art is continually being challenged by
artists. Art is continuously expanding as innovation by artist progresses in the 21st century.

Four Common Essentials of Art

1. Art has to be man-made

2. Art must be creative, not imitative
3. Art must benefit and satisfy a man
4. Art is expressed through a certain medium

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Art History

It is a discipline of studying arts through the lens of history. It involves dealing with
objects and works of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts. In simple
terms, the job of art historians is to study visual and tangible objects humans make and map
them in history (Pooke & Newall, 2008).

In studying art history, historians ask a series of questions. Some of them are:

 Who made this? What was his intention in making it? Where and when was
this made? What was happening around the artist at the time?
 Who or what is the subject? How is the subject represented?
 How was this made? What style was used?
 How did the artist’s audience receive the work? What did it mean for them during
that time?

The Meaning of Humanities

The study of art belongs to the discipline of humanities. Questions puzzling the
existence of man have been asked since time immemorial: What am I? Why am I what I
am? Why am I in this world? And art, answering these question boils down as records of
man’s quest for answers to the fundamental questions he asks about himself and about
life (Ortiz, Erestain, Guillermo, Montano & Pillar, 1976).

Humanities include literature, music and art. Through humanities, we learn what it
is to be human. In the 21st century, there is a focus on the study of science and
technology. Arts and humanities seem to belong to the past. The modern definition of
Humanities aims to shape our subjective energies (feelings, attitudes, aspirations) in
accordance with a particular view of the social world in which we dream, we act and
fulfill ourselves (Ortiz et al., 1976).

Art Appreciation

Art Appreciation is an attitude toward art. It allows us to understand deeply the

purpose of an artwork and recognize the beauty it possesses (Collins & Riley, 1931). Art
appreciation in the humanities is being able to look at a work of art and form a wise opinion
of the work. It is also having the knowledge, background and understanding of the universal
and timeless qualities that comprise all works of art. Art appreciation, therefore, deals with
the learning or understanding and creating artworks and enjoying them.

An artist explores an individual’s humanity: physical, emotional, psychological,

sociological and economic state - and create art out of these explorations. Thus, art becomes
the expression of the artist’s exploration of one’s humanity.

Creativity

“Creation“in art refers to the act of combining or reordering already existing

materials so that a new object is formed. Thus, creativity in art involves skill and expertness
in handling materials and organizing them into new, structurally pleasing, and significant
units (Ferrer, et al., 2018). This is an imaginative characteristic developed in the course of

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one's life to find solutions or express one's feelings. His continuing reactions to the changing
natural and social circumstances give birth to new ideas and new methods. Those, in turn,
use to resolve difficulties which in turn offer a solution to a dream, create art, or trigger
social change, the process of encounter with reality.

ASSUMPTIONS OF ART

1. Art is Universal

It is not only for concert halls, museums, or galleries; not only for those who
can afford to pay; not only for critics and scholars. Art is for everyone. Art is
everywhere, wherever people have lived together, art has arisen among them as a
language full of emotions and meaning. Art has no boundaries and rises above
traditions, races and civilizations. The desire to construct this language seems to be
universal, and art as a cultural force can be widespread and strong. It's eternal as it
goes beyond the span of our own life.

2. Art is Not Nature

Art is man-made; it is the development of a man who uses his analytical

ability and artistry to process and plan. Art is synthetic since it is either an imitation
or even an infringement of truth and nature. It is the expression of concepts,
thoughts and feelings that are expressed in an intellectual and innovative way.

3. Art involves Experience

Art is a reflection of our experience. It is seeking participation. Every art has

something to do with some physical content, a body or something beyond the body;
hence, the only way to find justification and affirmation is through immersion in the
arts. We can only appreciate art if we spend time looking at it, listening to it,
touching it, and feeling its presence.

Three major experience of art (for artist):

a. Experience that an artist wants to communicate

b. Experience in creating the artwork
c. Experience after creating the artwork

Audience Experience of Art:

a. Sensory Response
b. Emotional Response
c. Intellectual Response

4. Art as Expression

Art has grown out of man’s need to express himself. The personal and social
values of the artist and his penetrating psychological insights into human reality are
also conveyed through art. It uses symbols which organize into some
comprehensible equivalent of the experience that an artist is trying to convey. Art is

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an expression of

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 a general vision of the age in which it was created. An artist becomes a kind of
historian, recording in his/her work the attitudes and way of life of his period.

5. Art as a form of Creation

As a creativity activity, art involves skill or expertness handling materials

and organizing them into new, structurally pleasing and significant units. It is a
planned activity that may be produced and executed by an individual or a team.

FUNCTIONS OF ART

Functional VS Non-Functional

Functional Art Non-Functional Art

Directly Useful Indirectly Useful
Architecture, weaving, furniture-making, Painting, Sculpture, literature,
industrial design, etc. music, theater, etc.

How does art serve us?

1. Personal

Art educates our senses and

sharpens our perception of color, forms,
textures, designs, sounds, sounds,
rhythms, and harmonies in our
environment. It offers us fresh insights
into nature and human nature so that we
gain a better understanding of ourselves
and the world around us.

2. Social

Art expression
Personal seeks to influence
through the (Adobo
mural painting collective
behavior Magazine,
of people. It is created to be seen or used
www.google.com)
primarily in public situations and expresses or
describes social or collective aspects of existence
or opposed to individual and personal kinds of
experiences. Paintings, photographs, and cartoons
have been used to express humanitarian concerns
as well as ideological and political comment. In
spreading doctrine or teaching ideas, the arts
Float Parade during Panagbenga Festival at Baguio have been used in place or as a complement of the
City (Pilipinas Popcorn, www.google.com)
written word. Traditional arts play significant
functions in the rituals of communities.
Commercial and advertising art aims to affect the buying behavior of people. Art is
used to commemorating important personages in society. It is also linked to rituals,
public celebrations such as festivals. Artworks are vital historical documents. They
describe aspects of existence at certain periods in certain places of certain
communities.

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 3. Physical

Tools and containers are objects which function to make our lives physically
comfortable. Designing functional objects involves the consideration of how it will
be used and its aesthetic look. Physical function encompasses the aesthetic function
through which art becomes influential for man to be aware of the beauty of nature.

BASIC PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES OF ART

1. Art as Mimesis (Plato) - all artistic creation is a form of imitation: that which
really exists (in the “world of ideas”) is a type created by God; the concrete
things man perceives in his existence are shadowy representations of this ideal
type.

2. Art as Representation (Aristotle) - He recognized that literature is a

representation of life, yet also believed that representations intervene between
the viewer and the real. This creates worlds of illusion leading one away from
the "real things".

3. Art for Art’s Sake (Kant) - that art needs no justification, that it need serve no
political, didactic, or other ends. Art has its own reason of being.

4. Art as an Escape - the ritual of producing or making art touches the deepest
reaches of the mind and the essential dimension of the artistic creative process.
The sacred level of art not only transforms everything into art but also
transforms the artist at the very center of his or her being.

References
Collingwood. R. G. (1983). The Principles of Art. Read Books Ltd. Worcestershire
Caslib, B. N., Garing. D., Casaul, J. A. (2018). RBS Art Appreciation. Rex Bookstore, Inc.
Sampaloc Manila
Ortiz, M.A. Erestain T. Guillermo, A. Montano, M. Pillar, S. (1976). Art Perception and
Appreciation. Univeristy of the East and JMC Press, Inc.
Pooke, G., Newall, D. (2008). Art History: The Basics. Routledge. Oxon.
Kleiner, F.S. (2011) Gardiner’s Art Through the Ages: a Global History. 13 th Edition.
Wardsworth Cengage Learning, Boston
Ortiz, M.A. Erestain, T. Guilermo A. Montano, M., Pillar, S. (1976). “The nature of Art”. Art
perception and Appreciation. University of the East and JMC Press. Inc. pp. 5-14
Ranisan, W.K., Ferrer, M.C. D., Mangahas, T. L. S., Roldan, C., Antonio, M.T. Art Appreciation:
Malabon City. Mutya Publishing House Inc
Electronic Sources:
https://frontlearners.com/blended/pluginfile.php/10364/mod_resource/content/3/index.
html