LESSON 1 WHAT IS ART: INTRODUCTION AND ASSUMPTION

 The word “art” comes from the ancient Latin, ars which means “craft or specialized form
of skill.” (Collingwood, 1938)
 Ars in Medieval Latin meant “any special form of book-learning, such as grammar or
logic, magic or astrology.”
ASSUMPTIONS OF ARTS
1. Art is universal
 Timeless, spanning generations and continents through and through
 Misconception: Artistic made long time ago. Age is not a factor in determining
art.
 “Art is not good because it is old, but old because it is good.” (Dudley, et al.
1960)
 Works of Rizal and Francisco Balagtas
 Not read because they are old but they are beautifully written.
 Arts regardless of origin, time, and place are liked and enjoyed by people
continuously.
 Two Greeks epic, the lliad and the Odyssey.
 The Sanskrit pieces Mahabharata and Ramayana are also staples in this field.
2. Art is not nature
 Man’s expression of his reception in nature.
 Man’s way of interpreting nature.
 Art is made by man, whereas nature is a given around us.
 Art, not directed by presentation of reality, is a perception of reality.
 Five blind men touching an elephant.
 Art has its reason why the artist made it. What is it that he wants to show?

3. Art involves experience

 It does not full detail but just an experience. “Actual doing of something.”
 Radio DJ, Choreographer, Painter, Sculptor
 “All art depends on experience, and if one is to know art, he must know it’s not
as fact or information but as experience.”