ART APPRECIATION (CHAPTER I)

HUMANITIES
Can be described as the study of how people process and document the human
experience. Since human have been able, we have used philosophy, literature, religion, art music,
history and language to understand and record our world.
INSIGHTS INTO EVERYTHING – through exploration of the humanities we learn how to think
creatively and critically, reason, and to ask questions.
UNDERSTANDING OUR WORLD – research into the human experience adds to our
knowledge about our world.
BRINGING CLARITY TO THE FUTURE – Humanistic knowledge continues to provide the ideal
foundation for exploring and understanding the human experience.

MEANING OF ART

1. “Art is that which brings life in harmony with the beauty of the world.” – Plato.
2. “Art is an attitude of spirit, a state of mind - one that demands for its own satisfaction and
fulfilling, a shaping of matter to new and more significant form.” - John Dewey.
3. “Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.” – Oscar Wilde.
4. “Art is not a thing – it is a way” – Elbert Hubbard.
5. ART – skill as a result of learning or practice.
6. Latin word ars, meaning ability or practical skills.

FOUR (4) COMMON ESSENTIAL OF PARTS:

1. Art has to be man-made
2. Art must be creative, not imitative
3. Art must benefit and satisfy man
4. Art is expressed through a certain medium or material by which the artist communicates himself
to his audience.

ASSUMPTIONS OF ART
These are the principles and bases of appreciating a work of art since it is in art that man
communicate one’s individuality and way of life.

1. Art is universal – art is everywhere; wherever men have lived together, art has sprung up
among them as a language charged with feelings and significance.
2. Art is Not Nature – Art is man-made. It is artificial because it is just an imitation or even an
appropriation of reality and nature.
3. Art involves experience – It demands taking part. Every art does something with some physical
material, the body or something outside the body.

FUNCTIONS OF ART

1. Personal – being used to provide comfort, happiness, and convenience to human beings. Artist
tries to express his personal feelings through the artwork.
2. Social – Art is used for public display and celebration; it is used to affect collective behavior. It
bridges connection among people. Art conveys sense of family, community, or civilization.
3. Cultural Function – Art helps preserve, share, and transmit culture of people from one
generation to another.
4. Aesthetic Function – Art becomes influential for a man to be aware of beauty of nature.
Aesthetic is when there is a real feeling of appreciation to nature’s beauty and are manifested
through appreciation and enjoyment when in contact with the artwork.
5. Spiritual Function – An artist may create a work of art to reinforce the religious or spiritual
support of a culture.

BASIC PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES OF ART

1. Art as mimesis (Plato) – According to him, art is an imitation of the real that was an imitation
of the ideal.
 2. Art as representation (Aristotle) – According to him, the aim of art is not to represent the
outward appearance of things but their inward significance.
3. Art for art’s sake (Immanuel Kant) – According to him, art has its own reason for being. It
implies that an art object is best understood as an autonomous creation to be valued only for its
success as it organizes color and line into a formally satisfying and beautiful whole.
4. Art as an escape – The ceremony of doing or creating art touches the deepest realms of the
mind and the sacred dimension of the artistic creative process.
5. Art as functional – Art serves a function. Art is meant to be used, to enrich lives to be
spiritually potent, to educate, to support or protest existing power structures, to entertain, and so
on.

CATEGORIES/CLASSIFICATIONS OF ART

1. Visual art (2D, 3D)

a. Painting – application of pigment (color) on any flat two-dimensional surfaces.
b. Sculpture – It is the carving, modelling, casting, constructing, and assembling of
materials and objects intro primarily three-dimensional works of art.
c. Architecture – It is the art and science of planning, designing, and constructing buildings
and nonbuilding structures for human shelter or use (3d).

2. Performing/Combined Arts
a. Music – is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time.
b. Dance – is the movement of the body in a rhythmic way.
c. Film – also called movie or motion picture
d. Theater – collaborative form of art that uses live performers, typically actors or
actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a
specific place, often on stage.
e. Literary - is concentrating the writing, study or content of literature.
f. Performance poetry – is poetry specifically composed for or during a performance
before an audience rather than on print mostly open to improvisation.

3. Digital Arts – art that is made with the assistance of electronic devices, or intended to be display
on a computer.
4. Applied Arts
a. Fashion Design – art of applying design, aesthetics, and natural beauty to clothing and
its accessories.
b. Furniture Design – specialized field where functions and fashion collide.
c. Interior Design – enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more
aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using space.
d. Graphic Design – an artistic process of effective communication, designers combine
words, images, and symbols/ to create a visual representation of ideas.

SUBJECT AND CONTENT OF ART (CHAPTER II)

THE SUBJECT OF ART
The matter to be described or to be portrayed by the artist.

TWO KINDS OF ART AS TO SUBJECT

1. Representational or Objective Art – arts that depict objects that are commonly
recognized by most people. Ex. Still life, portrait, landscape, seascape, mythology and
religion, dreams and fantasies
2. Nonrepresentational or Nonobjective Art -arts without any reference to anything
outside itself (without representation).
SOURCES OF THE SUBJCET OF ART
 Nature – common subject of the art and most common inspiration and subject.
 History – all art is conditioned by the historical period in which it is created.
 Greek and Roman Mythology – has been a very important source of subjects in the arts.
  Religion – played an enormous role in inspiring works of visual arts, music, architecture.
It was during renaissance that the European artisans became “artist” and conscious of the
role in a way that has never been true before.
 Sacred oriental text – sacred text of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism Confucianism, etc.

THE CONTENT OF ART

Content – inextricably linked with form, which refers to the pictorial aspects of art.
It is the mass of ideas associated with each artwork and communicated through the following:
 The art’s imagery
 The symbolic meaning
 Its surroundings where it is used or displayed
 The customs, beliefs, and values of the culture that uses it
 Writings that helps explain the work

To better understand the content of art, there are three levels of meaning:
1. Factual meaning – literal statement or narrative content in the work that can be directly
apprehend because the objects presented are easily recognized.
2. Conventional meaning – refers to special meaning that the certain object or color has for
a particular culture or group of people when it is shown in an artwork.
Ex. Flag for nation, cross for Christianity, wheel for Buddhist symbol, etc.
3. Subjective meaning – refers to the individual meaning deliberately and instinctively
expressed by the artist using a personal symbolism that stems from his own alliance with
certain objects, actions, or colors, with past experiences.

KEEPING ART
1. NATIONAL PRIDE AND GLORY
2. MUSEUMS AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
3. PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION
ARTISTS AND ARTISANS (CHAPTER III)

ARTIST
- generally defined as an art practitioner, such as a painter, sculptor, choreographer, dancer,
writer, poet, musicians, and the like, who produces or creates indirectly functional arts with
aesthetic value using imagination.
- Provide us with paintings, sculptures, dances, and so on as a means to provoke our thoughts,
ideas, and emotions that are necessary to discover ourselves and our being.
ARTISAN
– is a craftsman, such as carpenter, carver, plumber, blacksmith, weaver, embroider, and the like,
who produces directly functional and/or decorative arts.
- A physical worker who make subjects with his or her hands, and who through skill, experience,
and ability can produce things of great beauty, as well as usefulness.

KEY COMPONENTS OF THE ART MARKET

 The following are the important players in the art market:
1. Curator – manager or overseer, keeper of a cultural heritage institution. Specialist charged
with an institution’s collections, selecting art to be displayed in the museum, etc.
2. Art Buyer – professional who is knowledgeable in art, who may scout talents for an
advertising agency seeking to employ an art director, or who may look for an art for a
collector or a company.
3. Art Dealer – person or a company that buys and sells works of art, often study the history of
art before starting their careers.
4. Private collection – personal owned collection of works, usually a collection of art. The
source is usually from an art collector.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

- Robert Fritz, based on his book, enumerated the steps in the creative process, and said that
creating is a skill that can be learned and developed.
Steps to follow:
1. Conceive the result you want to create
- Creation starts at the end.
- You need a vision.
2. Know what currently exist
- Be aware of what is being done with your area of art.
3. Take actions
- Make your vision to become real.
4. Develop your creativity
- Every new creation gives you fresh thoughts and knowledge of your own
creativity.
5. Learn the rhythms of the creative process
- Three fundamental stages in every creative process.
Three stages in the creative process:
1. GERMINATION (IDEA) – initial moment when you conceive a new project
in your life, it is a moment with a lot of energy coming out of the future you
envision.
2. ASSIMILATION – crucial step in the creative process, this phase you will
internalized and assimilate or incorporate the idea you want to create.
3. COMPLETION – time to finish your project, to give it the final shape before
you present it to the audience.

THREE STAGES IN ART MAKING

1. PRE- PRODUCTION or SUBJECT DEVELOPMENT
- This ends when the planning is concluded and the content starts being produced.
2. PRODUCTION or MEDIUM MANIPULATION
- method of joining diverse material inputs and unimportant inputs to make something
for consumption.
3. POST PRODUCTION or EXHIBITION
- Once an artwork is finished, it will be displayed, circulated, and performed for
audience and public to see our watch.
MEDIUM – refers to the materials that are used by an artist to create a work of art.
TECHNIQUE – refers to the artist’s ability and knowledge or technical know-how in manipulating the
medium.

GRAPHIC ORGANIZER (STORY MAP)

Apo Whang-od Ogay is a Filipina tattoo artist from Buscalan, Tinglayan, kalinga. Often
described as the “last” and oldest
mambabatok and is part of the
butbut people of the larger Kalinga
ethnic group.
She was awarded Dangal ng
haraya Award in 2018, equivalent to
National Artist.
RECOGNITION AND AWARD FOR ARTIST AND ARTISAN
1. Gawad sa Manlilikhang Bayan (GAMABA) National Living Treasures Award
- The award was institutionalized in 1992 through Republict Act No. 7335.
2. NATIONAL ARTIST
- The order of the National Artist of the Philippines is considered to be the highest
national recognition for individuals who contributed to the development of Philippine
arts.