ART APPRECIATION: GE6 HUM 101

FUNCTIONS AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE ON

ART
Instructor: ROMA DELA FUENTE, LPT
 Aristotle claimed that every particular substance in  Artists create art to express personal
the world has an end, or telos in Greek, which feelings.
translates into purpose.

 Every substance, defined as a formed matter, moves

according to a fixed path toward its aim.

 This telos is intricately linked with function. Man is

bound to achieve a life of fulfillment and happiness or
in Greek, eudaimonia. All men move toward this final
end.

Eudaimonia- happiness and welfare, it means

finding your core purpose.

Telos- full potential or objective of a person.

FUNCTIONS OF ART SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF ART

 An inquiry on the function of art is an inquiry on
what art is for.
 The answer to the question “what is it for” is the
function of whatever “it” in the question refers to.
Ex. What is the Rizal monument for? What does Luneta
Park for? Is it pure sentimental? Or does it have a message?
 When it comes to function, different art forms with
distinctive functions. Some art forms are more
functional than the others.
 Architecture and Applied Arts are highly
functional. A building is obviously made for a specific
purpose.
(CELEBRATION OR TO AFFECT COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR)
 Art is considered to have a social function if and when
it addresses a particular collective interest to opposed
to a personal interest. ex. Political arts.
 Art may convey message of protest, contestation, or
whatever message the artist intends his work to carry.
 Photography that delivers condition of people,
pictures of poverty, performance art that can arouse
emotions, and rally people toward a particular end.
 Artists create to reinforce a shared sense of
identity of community, or civilization.

Ex. The Taj Mahal, a massive mausoleum of white marble

built in Agra was constructed in memory of the favorite
wife of the emperor Shah Jahan.

 Paintings, poems, and statues are arts that basically

points toward the direction of the product or its
function. One looks at the value of art in itself and not
because of what it can do and benefit us.

 Function is important that it has usurped the name of

the art on the identification of individual works and
designed to accomplish some definite end.

 Functions of art are classified to: personal, social

and physical.
PERSONAL FUNCTIONS OF ART
( PUBLIC DISPLAY OR EXPRESSION )
 This means that its functions depend on the
person or the artist who created the art.
 An artist may create an art out of the need for self-
expression.
PHYSICAL FUNCTIONS OF ART
 The physical functions of art can be fund in artworks
that are crafted in order to serve some
physical purpose.
 Architecture, jewelry making, interior design all
serves physical function.
 Artists create functional artworks.

 An art may also be therapeutic.

 ART APPRECIATION: GE6 HUM 101
FUNCTIONS AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE ON
ART
Instructor: ROMA DELA FUENTE, LPT
OTHER FUNCTIONS OF ART
MUSIC
 Music was used for dance and religion. The
ancient world saw music only as an instrument to
facilitate worship and invocation to gods. It was also
guarantees that marches, in case of the warriors, were
simultaneous.
 Today, music has been expanded its function.
People compose hymns of love to express
feelings and emotions.
SCULPTURE
 It is another functional art form that has long
existed for various purposes.
 It was made by man most particularly for religion.
Ex. In Roman Catholic world, the employment of
sculptures for religious purposes has remained vital,
relevant, and symbolic.
Another example, the monument of Dr. Jose Rizal and
Andres Bonifacio in Caloocan, the iconic statue Oblation by
Guillermo E. Tolentino, and coins are also manifestations
of sculpting functions.
ARCHITECTURE
 It is the most prominent functional art form
because buildings are huge, expensive, and are not
easily constructed and replaced.
 It is also in architecture where one can find the
intimate connection of function and form because
one has to seriously consider the natural conditions
and climate of the place and the social conditions of
the building.
Ex. Spanish colonies houses were designed to allow for air
to circulate inside the house.
PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE ON ART
ART AS AN IMITATION
 According to Plato’s metaphysics, the things in this
world are only copies of the original, the eternal,
and the true entities that can only be found in the
World of Forms.
Ex. When one describes beauty to another person, he refers
to an imperfect beauty that participated only in the from of
beauty in the World of Forms.
 For Plato, art is dangerous because it provides petty
replacement for the real entities that can only be
attained through reason.
ART AS A REPRESENTATION
 Aristotle agreed with Plato that art is a from of
imitation.
 However, Aristotle considered art as an aid to
philosophy in revealing truth.
 According to Aristotle, the kind of imitation that the
art does is not antithetical to the reaching of
fundamental truths in the world.
 All kinds of art including poetry, music, dance,
painting, and sculpture do not aim to represent
reality, but instead it provides a version of what might
it be or the possibilities of reality.
In Aristotelian worldview, art serves 2 particular purposes.
1. Art allows for the experience of pleasure (a
horrible experience can be made an object of
humour in a comedy.)
2. Art also has an ability to be instructive and
teach audience things about life
ART AS A DISINTERESTED JUDGEMENT
 Immanuel Kant considered the judgment of the
beauty, the cornerstone of art, as something that can
be universal despite its subjectivity.
 Kant recognized that judgment of beauty is
subjective.
 However, even subjective judgments are based on
some universal criterion for the said judgment.
 Kant mentioned that judgement of beauty, and art is
innately autonomous from specific interest by the one
who perceives art to be beautiful or more .
 When the same person says that something is
beautiful, he does not believe that the thing is
beautiful for him too.
 Making an aesthetic judgment requires us to be
disinterested. In other words, we should try to go
beyond our individual taste and preference so that we
can appreciate art from a universal standpoint.
ART AS A COMMUNICATION OF EMOTION
 ART APPRECIATION: GE6 HUM 101
FUNCTIONS AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE ON
ART
Instructor: ROMA DELA FUENTE, LPT
 According to Leo Tolstoy, art plays huge role in
communication to its audience’s emotions that the
artist previously experienced.

 In the same that language communicates information

to other people, art communicates emotions.

 As a purveyor of man’s innermost feelings and

thoughts, art is given a unique opportunity to serve as
a mechanism for social unity.

 Art is central to man’s existence because it makes

accessible feelings and emotions of people from the
past and present.

SUMMARY
Art has remained relevant in our daily lives
because most of it has played some form of function for
man. Since the dawn of civilization, art has been at the
forefront of giving color to man’s existence.