MODULE: HUM001 – ART APPRECIATION

CHAPTER 1 - ASSUMPTIONS AND NATURE OF ARTS

A. Assess the assumptions about art and clarify the common misconception of art;
B. Evaluate personal experiences and engagements with different samples of arts; and
C. Understand the position of arts and its study in the Humanities.

ART
Defined in a countless of ways. There is no one universal definition of art, one reason, art
is subjective. Definition of art has change through time and it still continues to change as humanity
and culture also change.
Art comes from the Latin word, “ars” which means ability or skill. It also came from the
Aryan root word “AR”, meaning to put together. Two Greek verbs are derived from “ar”:”artizen”
which means to prepare, and “arkiskein” which means everything that is artificiallyy made or
composed by man. Based on its origin, we could say that art refers to the ability or skill of putting
things, ideas, concepts togerther manually or through artifiicial means.
There are other definitions of art, according to history:
A. Ancient Latin
• Ars is a craft or specialized form of skill.
B. Medieval Latin
• Ars is considered as any special form of book-learning, such as grammar or logic,
magic or astrology.
C. Renaissance Period
• The word ars required the meaning that was inherent in its ancient form of craft.
Seventeenth-Century
D. Seventeenth-Century
• In this era, the problem and idea of aesthetics, which is the study of beauty, began to
unfold distinctly from the notion of technical workmanship.
E. Eighteenth-Century
• Art evolved to distinguish fine arts from useful arts.

1
 MODULE: HUM001 – ART APPRECIATION

Art has been created by people at all times. It lives because it is liked and enjoyed. They
become much part of our daily living as we surround ourselves with beautiful things we like. Art
is involved in most of the objects we see and the music we hear every day.

ASSUMPTIONS OF ART
There are many assumptions of art just as there are many assumptions of life.
A. ART IS UNIVERSAL
Art has always been timeless and universal,
spanning . Every country and generation, there is
always art. The first assumption about the
humanties is that 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
continously.
According to article publiched by Chey in the
Arts and International Affairs journal of the
University of Edinburgh entitled,”Art is Universal,
Society is Local”, art is assumed to be “a reflection
of people and their social context.”
Social context can influence how someone perceives something. Further, Chey says that “art
unifies differences and brings awareness.” If a work of art is able to unite people from all
throughout the world, cutting across different cultures, races, socio-economic, political, and
religious background, and bring awareness to them, it is considered as universal.
Nevertheless, a work of art is universal if it is appreciated by the greates number of people
with different cultures, societies, and traditions.
B. ART IS CULTURAL
A culture of particular people is expressed in art forms. It’s called
material culture referring to tangible facets of a culture where a community
or ethnicity expresses their beliefs, sociopolitical structure, concepts of
gender and sex, and worldviews, among others. Art is a facet of culture,
ritual dances are part of performative art, motifs in clothing are art, and
traditional music is art..
It is a source of beauty, communication, reflection, pride, and
immortality for a culture. The art created in a culture-communicates
important ideas, about religion or politics or just contemporary life.
For example, the Manunggul Jar found in the Tabon Caves of
Palawan. Looking at this ancient form of art, one can see how the early Pilipino used shape and
color to depict the things that were important to them, and in turn, their culture.

2
 MODULE: HUM001 – ART APPRECIATION

Art also reflects the culture and its concerns, with this particular focus, with choices of subject, with
the materials used to create the art. A culture’s art is great source of pride for it, too, since what lasts is
the best of its people’s endeavors. A culture’s art tends to be preserved and handed down, which makes
a sort of immortality for the culture. The ancient Egyptians are no longer with us, but the works of art
they created are still with us, as are the various works of art from other cultures long gone.

C. ART IS NOT NATURE

Art is man’s expression of his reception of nature. Art is not
nature. Art is made by man, whereas nature is a given around us.
Art is based on an individual’s subjective experience of nature. It is
not meant, after all, to accurately define what a thing is like in
nature. Artists are not expected to duplicate nature; they can only
reinterpret it or even distort it.
According to Ortiz, et.al., art is not nature; art is made by
man. A work of art is man-made. And although it may resemble
nature, it can never duplicate nature.
Nature has been constant source of models for art, and great
artists have drawn their subject from nature, they have never been
able to make an exact copy of a natural thing.
Nevertheless, in may ways, people use art to improve on
nature.
D. ART INVOLVES EXPERIENCE
Art denotes a process of doing or making. Art involves molding of clay, chipping of marble, casting
of bronze, laying on of pigments, construction of buildings, singing of songs, playing of instruments,
enacting roles on the stage, going through rhythmic movements in the dance.
Based on Ortiz, et.al. research, there are three major king dos experience involved in the artistic
activity:
1. Art usually starts as an experience which the artist wants to communicate.
2. The act of expressing this experience, that of creating the art object or form, is itself
another kind of experience.
3. Finally, when the work is done, there is the artist’s gratifying experience of having
accomplished something significant.

3
 MODULE: HUM001 – ART APPRECIATION

There is still another kind of experience associated with art. This refers to what an onlooker or
listener undergoes when he perceives the work of art. The perception may kindle an
experience which is similar or related to that which the artist tried to express. To learn to
appreciate any one of the arts, we must understand what goes into its making: its elements
or components and how these are put together in a pattern of relationships, and becoming the units
which is the work of art itself.

NATURE OF ARTS
A. ARTS AS EXPRESSION
Art has grown out of man’s need to
exrpress himself. Expression in the
arts, however is not limited to the
revelation of emotions alone. The
personal and social values of the artist
and his penetrating psychological
insights into human reality are also
conveyed through the arts.
Frank Goodyear, Jr. says that real art
is the expression of the vision and
feelings of one human. This is true since artist usually gifted with a special sensitivity towards the
world around him.

Art is also an expression of feeling, belief, and character. The arts is not limited to the
revelation of feelings alone. According to Ortiz, et.al., the personal and social values of the artist
and his penetrating psychological insights into human reality are also conveyed through the
arts.

Art expresses as a result of human continually searching for meaning, making meaning
out of lived or observed experiences, and attempting to connect to other humans. Art, in the past
and in the present, even still, continuously strives to establish an understanding of the unknown, to
name the unmade, to make the ordinary, and to dignify our experience.

B. ARTS AS FORM OF CREATION

According to Ortiz, et. al., 1976, man has also been led by an innate craving for order to
create objects that are delightful to perceive. Creation – refers to the act of combining and
re-ordering already existing materials so that a new object is formed. Art is a planned activity.
An artist thinks of a design, selects his materials, and arranges them according to his design.
Creation involves constant correction and redirection, depending on the demands of the
material and the challenges it poses.
There is a richer, evaluate sense of “creation”, in which mere “making” does not
suffice for the creation of something, says Gaut and Livingston.

4
 MODULE: HUM001 – ART APPRECIATION

C. ART AND IMAGINATION

Art starts in the human mind. It all begins with imagination. Through imagination, one is able
to craft something bold, something new, and something better in the hopes of creating something
that will stimulate change. Imagination allows endless possibilities. Something imaginary does
not necessarily mean it cannot be called art. Artists use their imagination that gives birth to reality
through creation. In the same way that imagination produces art, art also inspires imagination.
Rollo May, in his book, The Courage to Create, says that creativity is the process of
bringing something “new” into being.
Also, art in any given period simultaneously reflects two things (Ortiz et al., 1976):
1. The genius of its creator. i.e., the creativity of the creator and how it reflects on their
artwork.
2. The sensibility or the characteristic values and attitudes toward important aspects of life
held by the society in which the work of art was born. i.e., social, economic, political, religious,
and scientific factors influence an artist’s artistic expression. His vision is also necessarily
influenced by his cultural traditions and by his training. Works of art have their context in time
and space.

• What makes something art? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV2cc_fFgmA)

• UP TALKS | Art as Product of Human Experience and Imago
• Bascara, Linda R. and Avillanoza, Adela T. Humanities and the Digital Arts with
Emphasis on Arts in the Philippine Setting, Manil 2007
• Zulueta, Francisco M. The Humanities. Manila 1994