What is Art: Introduction and

Assumptions
Lesson 1
Art is something that is
perennially around us.

Life presents us
with many forms of and
opportunities for
communion with the
arts.
A bank manager
choosing what
tie to wear
together with his
shirt and shoes..
A woman shuffling
her music track
while comfortably
seated on her car
looking for her
favorite song..
Students marveling
at the intricate
designs of a
medieval cathedral
during his field trip..
Being physically
attracted to
someone..
All these manifest concern for values that
are undeniably, despite tangentially, artistic.
Despite the seemingly overflowing
instances of arts around people, one still
finds the need to see more and
experience more, whether consciously
or unconsciously.
According to Plato: Beauty, the object of
any love, truly progresses. As one moves
through life, one locates better, more
beautiful objects of desire. One can never
be totally content with what is just before
him. Human beings are drawn toward what
is good and ultimately, beautiful.
This course is about this yearning for the
beautiful, the appreciation of the all-
consuming beauty around us, and some
preliminary clarifications on assumptions
that people normally hold about art.
Ancient Latin:
The word ”art” comes from the ancient
Latin, ars which means a “craft or
specialized form of skill, like carpentry or
smithying or surgery”.
Medieval Latin:
Ars in Medieval Latin meant any special
form of book-leaning, such as grammar,
logic, magic or astrology”.
18th Century:
Art means not delicate or highly skilled arts,
but ’beautiful’ arts. This is something more
akin to what is now considered art.
Assumptions of Art
1. Art is Universal.
Literature has provided key works of art.
Greek Epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, Sanskrit
pieces Mahabharata and Ramaya, Ibong
Adarna, Florante at Laura, these stories and
tales have been passed on and has always been
timeless and universal.
 The first assumption then about the
humanities 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 continuously. Men will continue to use art
while art persists and never gets depleted.
2. Art is not nature.
One important characteristic of art is that it is
not nature. Art is man’s expression of his
reception of nature. Art is man’s way of
interpreting nature. Art is not nature. Art is made
by man. This distinction assumes that all of us
see nature and perceive it differently.
Like the story of the
blind men who one
day argue against
each other on what
an elephant looks
like.
Each of them was
holding a different
part of the elephant.
The first was
touching the body
thus, thought the
elephant was like a
wall.
Another was
touching the
beast’s ear and
was convinced
that the elephant
was like a fan.
The rest were
touching other
different parts of
the elephant and
concluded
differently based on
their perceptions.
Art is like each of
these men’s view of
the elephant. It is
based on an
individual’s subjective
experience of nature.
3. Art involves experience.
Art is experience. By experience, means the
“actual doing of something”. Art depends on
experience, and if one is to know art, he must
know it not as a fact or information but as
experience.
 An important aspect of experiencing art is its
being highly personal, individual, and subjective.
In philosophical terms, perception of art is always
a value judgement. It depends on who the
perceiver is, his tastes, his biases, and what he
has inside him.