Lesson 1

The Importance, Meaning, and Assumptions of Art

Art is a wide range of man's activity from expression down to creating tangible or intangible things.

Art is a diverse range of human activities in creating visual, auditory, or performing artifacts (artworks),
expressing the author's imaginative or technical skill, intended to be appreciated for their beauty or
emotional power. [Oxford Dictionary]

Art is the expression of man's experience, thoughts, feelings, and observations that transforms
something ordinary to extraordinary.

Art is derived from the Latin word “ars” which means ability or skills or manmade, and from the Italian
word “artis” meaning craftsmanship, mastery and inventiveness.

ASSUMPTIONS OF ART

• Art is rooted in Culture.

• Art is Universal
• Art is NOT in nature.
• Art involves Experience.

Art Appreciation is the capacity to understand art works and experience a certain enjoyment in creating
art. It deals with our encounter with the artworks and the artists and how we are affected by it.

IMPORTANCE OF ART

• A source of national memory, and civic vigor.

• Cultural understanding and communication.
• Create social commentary.
• To create questions.
 Lesson 2
Functions of Art, Philosophy and The Creative Process

What is art for?

Aristotle, a Greek philosopher once said that every particular substance in the world has an end or telos
– which eventually translated into purpose.

For a thing to attain its purpose, it has to achieve its function.

A. Functions of Art
✓ The difference between fine art and craft comes down to what question most interests
the viewer.
✓ Directly functional art deals with the art that we usually use. Such as tools, furniture,
cloth, accessories, and a lot more.
✓ Fine arts deal with our senses, emotions, and mostly a result of creative urge and
expression.
✓ DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS OF ART
i. Personal Function – The function tries to convey the artist personal feelings
through his work of art.
ii. Social Function – Connects people since art can be used for a public display and
celebration.
iii. Cultural Function – Preserve, share, and transmit culture to people from one
generation to another.
iv. Spiritual Function – Strengthens the artist work in terms of religious and
spiritual support to the culture.
v. Aesthetic Function – Uplift feelings, appreciation of beauty and enjoyment when
in touch with artworks.
B. Philosophical Perspectives on Art
✓ Art As Mimesis – According to Plato, art is an imitation of the real and an artist is an
imitator. For him, everything that we see in this world is just a copy of the original.
✓ Art As Representation – According to Aristotle, art is a representation of a possible
version of reality.
✓ Art For Art’s Sake – According to Kant, art is innately autonomous from specific interest.
C. The Creative Process
✓ The cognitive process of mind includes imagination, creativity and thinking with
innovation.
✓ Imagination is visualizing the impossible or things that are not present in our senses.
✓ Creativity uses imagination to represent new ideas and create a physical embodiment
which is beneficial and with value.
✓ Expression is making known one’s thoughts or feelings.
✓ The Idea
✓ The Material and Process
✓ Organization and Form
 Lesson 3
Subject and Content of Art

Subject of Art – is usually anything that is represented in the artwork. It may be a person, object, scene,
or event. The visual focus or the image that may be extracted from examining the artwork; the “what”.

✓ The subject is the visual focus or the image that may be extracted from examining the artworks.

TYPES OF SUBJECTS

1. Non - representational or Non-objective art does not represent anything. Artworks that have no
resemblance to any real subject or objects or anything from nature
2. Representational or Objective Arts that depict something that can easily recognized which is
real and part of this world.
3. Abstract indicates a departure from reality in depiction of imagery in art. This departure from
accurate representation can be slight, partial, or complete.

KINDS OF SUBJECT

a. Still Life – representing inanimate objects or non-living things placed on a table or another
setting to become a subject in a certain artwork.
b. Landscape – it depicts pictures of landforms. e.g. the volcano, the mountain, the hill, the valley,
the plain, the plateau, the cliff, and the like.
c. Nature – focused view or interpretation of specific natural elements.
d. Portraiture – it became popular before the invention of the camera; was enjoyed only by elite:
kings and noblemen.
e. Abstract – a non-representational work of art.

Content of Art – the meaning that is expressed and communicated by the artist or the artwork.

Three various levels of meaning:

1. Factual Meaning is the most rudimentary level of meaning. Extracted from the identifiable or
recognizable forms in the artwork.
2. Conventional Meaning pertains to the acknowledged interpretation of the artwork using motifs,
signs, and symbols.
3. Subjective Meaning it is a particular work of art that is read and consulted. Meanings that came
from the viewers or audience’s experiences and circumstances.
 Lesson 4
Methods in Presenting the Subject of Art

METHODS OF PRESENTING THE ART SUBJECT

1. Realism – Faithful representation of reality. The representation and organization of details seem
so natural.
o Realists try to be as objective as possible. To describe as accurately and honesty as
possible what is observed through senses.
2. Impressionism – A 19th century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible
brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing
qualities. Inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience.
3. Exprressionism – To express the meaning of emotional experience rather than the physical
reality. The necessity of a spiritual rebirth for a man in an age that was first becoming influenced
by materialism.
o To come forth from within the artist, rather than from a depiction of the external visual
world and the standard for assessing the quality of work of art became the character of
the artist’s feelings rather than an analysis of the composition.
4. Symbolism – Visible sign of something invisible such as an idea or a quality. Emblem or a sign. It
transcends the everyday run-of-the-mill sign and assumes a new and fresher meaning.
5. Surrealism – Influenced by Freudian Psychology which emphasizes the activities of the
subconscious state of the mind. To show what’s inside a person’s mind as well as the appearance
of his outside world. The world of dreams and fantasy.
6. Dadaism – A protest movement in the art formed in 1916 in Zurich, Switzerland. To shock and
provoke the public with outrageous pieces of writing, poetry recitals, and art exhibitions.
7. Fauvism – 1900 first important art movement. Tried to paint pictures of comfort, joy and
pleasure using extremely bright, strident colors.
o Henri Matisse led the movement.
8. Abstract or Abstraction – When artist becomes so interested in one phase of a scene or a
situation that he does not show the subject at all as an objective reality, rather only his idea of
feelings about it.
o FORMS OF ABSTRACTION
i. Distortion – misshapen condition, twisted out. It is a form of emphasizing detail
to the point that something is no longer “correctly” depicted.
ii. Elongation – being lengthened, extension.
iii. Mangling – Cut, lacerated, mutilated, hacked, or disfigured.
iv. Cubism – stresses abstract through the use of a cone, cylinder, or sphere. To
show forms in their basic geometrical shapes.
➢ The Cubist style emphasized the flat, two-dimensional surface of the
picture plane, rejecting the traditional techniques of perspective,
foreshortening, modeling, and chiaroscuro and refuting time-honored
theories that art should imitate nature.
v. Abstract Expressionism – originated in New York City after World War II. Departs
from subject matter from studied precision and from any preconceived designs.
➢ Abstract Expressionism was influenced by the Existentialist philosophy,
which emphasized the importance of the act of creating, not of the
finished object.
 Lesson 5
Elements of Art and Composition

What are the elements?

➢ It is the structure that we pay attention to as we organize our perception of artworks.

➢ Knowledge of the art elements helps the appreciator to understand what is seen when looking
at a particular artwork.
1. Line
o Defined as a narrow mark made by a brush, or a line created where two objects or
elements meet.
o It defines the subject of paintings and helps us imply things such as movement.
o Straight lines are always associated with the ideas of steadiness and force.
o The straight lines move in one direction only. It may either be horizontal, vertical, or
diagonal.
o Curve lines with flexibility, buoyancy, and grace.
2. Shape
o A shape is an enclosed area that is made when lines meet.
o The word shape is often used volumetrically to note characteristics of a
threedimensional forms or masses.
o Shapes may be either geometric or organic.
o Geometric shapes are mathematical, like circles and squares.
o Geometric abstractions of Piet Mondrian are often viewed as mechanical, sterile,
soulless illustrations of cold logic.
o Organic shapes come from nature, like clouds and leaves.
o Organic shapes are characterized as emotional and geometric shapes as logical.
3. Color
o Color is a property of light. When light goes out, color goes with it.
o Colors may be mixed according to some master plan, that is, according to formal,
structural logic.
o Hue is the dimension of color that gives color its name. Blue, red, and yellow are the
primary hues. Secondary hues are produced: orange, green, and violet.
o Warm & cool colors are associated with objects like the sun, fire, and other sources of
heat. They are conspicuous, cheerful, and stimulating, vivacious, joyous, and exciting.
They are suggesting an effect of advancing or coming towards you. Red, orange, and
yellow are the warm hues. Green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet are the cool colors.
4. Value
o A well-rounded painting often has both of these, with highlights and shadows adding to
the overall effect of the piece.
o Value is a term that is sometimes meant to refer to tone, brightness, or shade.
o The lightness or darkness of any color area in painting is controlled by the addition of
black and white to paint pigments.
5. Texture
o Texture, or the feel of things is more than simply a matter of whether an object is rough
or smooth. It is either an actual tactile quality of a surface or the visual illusion of tactile
qualities on a flat surface.
6. Space and Time
o Space serves as an environment or background for both sculpture and architecture,
neither may be created nor experienced without an awareness and consideration of
space.
o When we experience sculpture and architecture as existent in space, we understand
them as evolving in time. This evolution in time may result from modifications of its
form.

USE OF THE ART ELEMENTS

➢ The viewer responds to and “reads” artwork using all available emotional and intellectual tools.
The elements provide a basic vocabulary for the viewer’s reading of art.
 ➢ The artist technically manipulates the elements with an end in mind—to produce an expressive
artwork; the artist seeks to communicate through the art elements, while the viewer “reads”
them to understand that communication.

FUNCTION OF COMPOSITION

1. Balance
o Balance in a work of art depends upon variables such as placement, size, spacing,
proportions, and direction of shapes in the composition.
o There are two types of balance:
i. SYMMETRICAL OR FORMAL – In pure formal symmetry identical visual units are
bilateral, equally distributed on either side of a vertical axis in mirror-like
repetition or concentric, equally distributed relative to a central point.
ii. ASYMMETRICAL OR INFORMAL – Relies upon subjective equilibrium among
parts of an artwork. This kind of balance has no dividing axis, no center point.
2. Rhythym and Repitition
o Rhythm is produced in a work of art by a repetition of elements in an observable
sequence.
o Rhythmical sequences in visual arts often occur in triad because three is the smallest
number that produces a perceptible sequence.
o Repetition produces rhythm. Repetition is the means used in a picture or sculpture to
reemphasize forms, colors, and textures in keeping with some pattern.
3. Dominance and Subordinance
o Dominance in artwork is usually a part of an overall alternating scheme in which
elements are stressed and diminished repetitively.
o Subordinance of one part of a composition allows another part to draw attention.
Failure to orchestrate emphasis invites ambiguity and indeterminate viewing of the
artist’s work.