LESSON 3: HOW DO I

STUDY ART?: READING

ART Prepared by: Dianne Medel S. Gumawid, LPT
 CONTENT
S
01 Art Period 03 Methods in Reading Art

02 Art Criticism
ART PERIOD
is a specific length of time in history with a
prominent movement, trend, or creed in artistic
practice.
ART
MOVEMENTS
are sets of distinguishable styles and artistic
tendencies often characterized by a major trend
in techniques or approach.
ART HISTORY QUICK MAP
Prehistoric
• Cave paintings, Venus figurines
which are considered portable
sculptures
• Greek standard of beauty: the
birth of the ‘‘ Classical ’’ age
• Romans: the competitor of
Greece; created realistic
sculptures of human figure
Middle Ages
• The ‘‘ death ’’ of artistic freedom
due to canonical standards of
visual interpretation
• The rise of Gothic art especially
in Gothic Churches
• Popular art: Stained glass
windows and illuminated
manuscripts
 Renaissance
Baroque
• Revival of artistic genius
• Grandiose and ornate art
• Where ‘‘Renaissance Man’’ was
• Artistic innovation: ‘‘spotlight
derived because of man’s
effect’’ called chiaroscuro or in
intellectual achievements in the
extreme usage, it is called
arts and sciences.
tennebrism
• The time ‘‘Masters’’ e.g.,
• Artists to note: Caravaggio
Donatello, Da Vinci,
(Italy), Velazquez (Spain),
Michaelangelo, Raphael and Van
Poussin (France), and Antonio
Eyck
Gaudi (designer of ‘‘Sagrada
Familia’’ chapel in Barcelona
 19th Century
• Emergence of ‘‘isms’’
• Neoclassicism: Greek and
Roman Classics revived
• Romaticism, Realism, Art
Nouveau, Impressionism
• Photography comes into scene
• Post impressionism, early
expressionism and symbolism
20th Century Modern Art
• Art became more non-
representational
• Garish colors explored in
Fauvism
• Abstracted sculptures emerged
• Simplified forms in paintings by
Picasso and Matisse
• Art movements: Cubism,
Futurism, Constructivism,
Expressionism
• Mondrian’s purely geometric art

Art During Wars
• Dadaism: the art movement that
defies logic
• Surrealism: stepping into the
dreamworld
• American art blossoms: Jackson
Pollock became famous ‘‘Jack
the Dripper’’ and paved the way
for American Abstract
Expressionism
• Mobile Sculptures (Alexander
Calder) and Color Field (Rothko)
paintings also became prominent
20th Century to Contemporary
• Highly expeimental and radical
• Pop art defines consumer culture;
dominated mostly by works of Andy
Warhol
• Minimalism: glorifying the simplest art
elements
• Birth of conceptual art
• Photography is further developed which
paved way to art movement which is
Photorealism
• Neo-expressionism or new expressionism
is characterized by strong subject matters
• Contemporary Art; a very diverse art
scene; the rise of appropriation,
photography-derived works, graphic style
or art, experimental works, multimedia
and multi-modal art
METHODS IN READING
ART
This helps you in appreciating aspects of art in different
lenses. There are some filters that are more effective than
others, especially when we talk about context and content.
 FORMALISM AND STYLE

it gives importance to the formal qualities (art elements,

materials and design principles) as basis for the
meaning of art.
 ICONOGRAPH Contextual Approaches
Y
focuses on the subject matter primarily over form. from the term itself, context bcomes an important
factor in criticizing artworks here.
 BIOGRAPHY AND
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
considers the life and context of the artist. This approach is based on the
assumption that the artist’s life, beliefs, choices, and personality are directly
connected to the works that he or she creates.
SEMIOTICS
from the Greek word ‘‘sema’’ , which means sign. Hence, an artwork or art form
is assumed to be composed of a set of signs that may have significant cultural
and contextual meanings beyond itself.

PSYCHOANALYSIS

one is concerned about the unconscious mind in relation to the artist, the viewer,
and the cultural context it is involved in.
 AESTHETICS AND
PSYCHOANALYSIS
Individual notion of what is considered acceptable, beautiful or
atractive in works of art are in part influenced by psychological
factors
 PART FOUR
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THANK YOU