ART APPRECIATION, HUMANITIES & Aesthetics

AESTHETICS • is technically the study of beauty. It comes

Spokes of Art Appreciation from a Greek word “aesthesis” which
means “sense of perception.” Since we
1. Art EDUCATION (Art Studies/Humanities) were young, we were taught to practice our
2. Art management (Cultural Workers) senses – sight, smell, taste, hearing,
3. Art production (Creators) touch, movement – and the other two –
4. Art criticism (Critics) balance and beauty. All these eight
senses are particularly anchoring on the
Art judgment of subjectivity
•Art is everywhere as they say. It can be the
song or a musical composition of your According to Denis Dutton(2003), art has distinct
favorite singer, a painting or sculpture of a signatures to be considered beautiful. Throughout
great artists or the steps and choreography his study on art, he identified six universal
of the dancer you follow. signatures in human aesthetics:
Art Appreciation 1. Expertise or virtuosity. Humans cultivate,
The National Commission for Culture and recognize, and admire technical artistic
Arts is devoted to develop the seven arts skills
by putting national committees in: 2. Nonutilitarian pleasure. People enjoy art
1. Architecture and Allied Arts for art’s sake, and do not demand that it
2. Cinema (Film, Television and Broadcast keeps them warm or put food on the
Arts) table.
3. Dance 3. Style. Artistic objects and performances
4. Dramatic Arts satisfy rules of composition that place
5. Literary Arts (Fiction, Poetry, Essay, Play) them in a recognizable style.
6. Music 4. Criticism. People make a point of
7. Visual Arts (Painting and Sculpture) judging, appreciating, and interpreting
works of art.
Humanities 5. Imitation. With a few important
• comes from the Latin humanus, which exceptions like abstract painting, works
means human, cultured, refined. They are of art simulate experiences of the world.
the branches of learning based on the 6. Special focus. Art is set aside from
philosophy and ethical perspective of ordinary life and made a dramatic focus
humanism, which emphasizes the value of of experience
agency of human beings individually and “ART SPEAKS THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE
collectively. SELF IN US.” (Morido, 2020)
To elaborate it more, Humanities is:
1. not scientific QUALITIES OF ART
2. at least, not directly to business or Qualities or Criteria for an Art to be in the
economics “The Arts”
3. a set of tangible expressions of the human 1. Movement
quest for the good life • It shows actions, or alternatively, the path
4. an ocean of all humanity’s deeper, inward the viewer's eye follows throughout an
awareness, knowledge and sensitivity artwork. Movement is caused by using
5. a collective pooling together of the legacy elements under the rules of the principles
of a given culture’s values, ambitions and in picture to give the feeling of motion and
beliefs. to guide the viewer's eyes throughout the
Functions of Humanities artwork.
a. to make all persons become better human • Movement is the path the viewer’s eye
beings takes through the artwork, often to focal
b. to value and appreciate beautiful things areas. Such movement can be directed
c. to expand our perspective along lines edges, shape and color within
d. to know the changing image of mankind the artwork
as it journeys across time, across realities GOOD MOVEMENT SHOWS MORE DRAMA
and ideals • Using the relative size of elements against
each other can attract attention to a focal
 point. When elements are designed larger ➢ Dominance/emphasis Dominance is
than life, scale is being used to show created by contrasting size, positioning,
drama. color, style, or shape. The focal point
HOW TO CREATE MOVEMENT should dominate the design with scale
Scale and proportion can be used to create an and contrast without sacrificing the
effect of movement in a visual artwork. unity of the whole. Make it dominant so
• Scale - an element that is further into the it would be emphasize.
background is smaller in scale and lighter • Similarity
in value. • Contrast
• Proportion - the same element repeated ➢ Planning a consistent and similar
in different places within the same image design is an important aspect of a
can also demonstrate the passing of time designers work to make their focal point
or movement visible. Too much similarity is boring;
Unity and Harmony but without similarity, important
• UNITY is the concept behind the artwork. elements will not exist. And, an image
An analogy would be the way in which a without contrast is uneventful so the
conductor directs a wide variety of key is to similarity and contrast
instruments in an orchestra to produce appropriately depending on artist’s
symphony that is recognized as a single perspective.
comprehensible piece. Unity is how well Hierarchy and Pattern
different parts of an artwork build on each Hierarchy
other. “Oneness of all elements” • A good design contains elements that lead
• HARMONY is achieved in a body of work the reader through each element in order
by using similar elements throughout the of its significance. The type and images
work, and gives an uncomplicated look to a should be expressed starting from most
piece of artwork or sculpture. “Pleasing important to the least.
combination of all elements” Pattern
Balance • is showing consistency with colors or
• Balance is arranging elements so that no lines. Putting a red spiral at the bottom left
one part of a work overpowers, or seems and top right, for example, will cause the
heavier than any other part. It is also a eye to move from one spiral, to the other,
principle that deals with the visual weight of and everything in between. It is indicating
an artwork. “Equilibrium of the elements movement by the repetition of elements.
and designs being used” • Rhythm can make an artwork seem
active. Hierarchy is the ‘ranking’ of the
elements being emphasized, while Pattern
is the ‘consistent’ effort to put rhythm or
harmony in the artwork

SUBJECTS OR SOURCES OF ART

Subject as in concept/topic
1. NATURE (mimesis)
2. REAL LIFE / EVENTS / HISTORY
3. PEOPLE
4. ABSTRACT / IMAGINATION
Variety 5. RELIGION / MYTHOLOGY
• Variety is the quality or state of having
different forms or types, notable use of ELEMENTS of ART
contrast, emphasis, difference in size and 1. VISUAL ARTS
color. We cannot demand variety in all L – LINE
types of art but it could be a help in S – SHAPE
designing. Sp – SPACE
To achieve variety, an artist may use the ff. F – FORM (shadow, light, middleground,
• Dominance background)
• Emphasis C – COLOR (Hue (name), Value
(vividness), Tint, Shade
 T – TEXTURE (visual & tactile) 8. ARCHITECTURE
V – VALUE (quality/definition) D – DURABILITY (Firmness)
P – PERSPECTIVE F – FUNCTIONALITY
B – BEAUTY (Design)
2. MUSIC / AUDITORY ARTS
B – BEAT INTERPRETING ART: THE FOUR
D - DYNAMICS (Loudness & Softness) COORDINATES OF ART CRITICISM
F – FORM (Coda, verse, chorus, bridge)
H – HARMONY (1 or 2 tones) Arts tell stories, share meanings and open
M – MELODY (add one more tones/ LSS) discussions. Arts are measured by criticism. This
P – PITCH (highness or lowness) module is written to provoke your minds so that you
R – RHYTHM (flow or pattern) will have perspective in interpreting arts. In this
T – TEMPO (speed) lesson, the students will understand the purpose of
Ti – TIMBRE (tone color) art criticism and apply those steps into practice.

3. LITERARY ARTS POETRY FOUR COORDINATES OF ART CRITICISM

R & M – RHYME & METER AND THE APPROACHES
F – FORM (song, haiku, elegy, ode, Palencia et al (2017) offered that before
sonnet, etc.) criticizing an art, one should be knowledgeable
R – RHYTHM first of its coordinates. Every work of art, such as
L – LANGUAGE (style) a poem, a drama, a musical piece, painting and
T – TONE (attitude of the poet) sculpture, etc., has four basic coordinates:
P / V – PERSONA /VOICE a. the subject matter
Th – THEME b. the artist
c. the audience
4. FICTION / DRAMA d. the form
P – PLOT From these four coordinates of art are the bases
C – CHARACTER for the four principal approaches to art
S – SETTING appreciation and art criticism.
T – TONE (attitude of the author) These four approaches are shown in the table:
P of V – POINT OF VIEW
L – LANGUAGE / STYLE
Co – CONFLICT
Th – THEME

5. DANCE
F – FORCE (energy/grace) 1. SUBJECT MATTER AND THE MIMETIC
T – TIME APPROACH
Sp – SPACE • The subject matter can be representational
or nonpresentational. With respect to
6. THEATER ARTS subject matter, art is an imitation, depiction
S – Script / Text or representation of some aspect of nature
P – Production or life. The approach to art criticism through
P – Process (Page to Stage) subject matter is called mimetic (derived
A – Audience from the Greek ‘mimesis,’ meaning
imitation). The mimetic approach stresses
7. FILM / CINEMA ARTS the importance of subject matter or content
Th – THEME in the art.
P – PLOT 2. ARTIST (WRITER/CREATOR) AND THE
S – STORY OR SCREENPLAY EXPRESSIVE APPROACH
A – ACTING • From the point of view of the artist, art is a
C & M – COSTUME & MAKE-UP means of expression, a medium for
S – SOUND communicating an idea, an emotion or
M – MUSIC some other human experience, an
C – CINEMATOGRAPHY impression of life, a vision of beauty. The
D – DIRECTING expressive approach of art criticism
 stresses the relationship of the artwork to conveyed the artwork. a. Qualify and study
its creator. In this approach, the artist carefully the quality of the elements in the
3. AUDIENCE/READERS AND THE art b. Assess how each basic element
PRAGMATIC APPROACH contribute to the mood, meaning and
• himself becomes the major element overall beauty of the artwork
generating both the artistic product and the STEP 3. INTERPRETATION (INTERPRET THE
norms by which the work is to be judged. MEANING OF THE ART)
• One aspect of art, which is of importance to • This is a more subjective part of the
the audience, is its value, function or critique. It is expected that to use technical
significance. Aside from its aesthetic value, aspects of the art in applying supposition to
art can have other values: religious, the artist’s intended purpose for the
philosophical, moral, historical, political, artwork. Try to accomplish the following
social, scientific, commercial, sentimental, things when formulating your interpretation:
practical, etc. Pragmatic approach a. Communicate the artist’s statement.
emphasizes the value and importance of Describe what you think the artist is
art and its audience. This attach little trying to say through the work of art (or
importance to the aesthetic value and the meaning and/or your interpretation)
instead judge art according to how useful it b. Expound on the mood or the feeling that
is to the audience. is conveyed by the artwork. Describe
4. FORM AND THE FORMALIST/AESTHETIC what the artwork means to you and why
APPROACH c. Explain what you feel is the artist’s
• With respect to form, the art is a intended purpose for creating that
composition, a whole consisting of various particular work of art.
parts or elements; the selection, d. Examine why the artist made the choices
organization, and integration of these in technique, materials, and subject
elements according to certain formal matter and how they relate to the
principles and employing certain intended purpose.
techniques constitute that which we call the e. Identify the symbols in the artwork and
form of art. “Art for art’s sake,” coined by describe how they relate to the artist’s
English playwright, Oscar Wilde. This view execution and the artwork itself
seeks to liberate art from the chains of STEP 4. JUDGMENT (EVALUATE THE
morality, religion, political propaganda and ARTWORK)
social reform, and sets up art as something • This is the summation of the art criticism
worthy of appreciation for its own sake. process. After your analysis and
interpretation, this is the part where the
HOW TO CRITIQUE ARTWORKS critic needs to draw conclusions and decide
STEP 1. DESCRIPTION (DESCRIBE WHAT for the quality/value of that artwork.
YOU SEE/EXPERIENCE) a. Review your analysis and interpretation.
• This is the objective portion of the art b. State what is the value of the artwork.
critique. It involves a technical description, c. Describe the artwork’s relevance to the
basic form and elements of the art; this art community and to the humanity
includes: d. Explain where you feel the artwork has a
a. Artist’s name strong value and where you think it falls
b. Title of the artwork short.
c. Type of the artwork
d. Subject (central figure and other ART CRITICISM AND APPLICATION OF
objects you see) CRITICAL THEORIES
e. Elements (review the elements of art
because this depends on the form) FRANKFURT SCHOOL: CHALLENGING
f. First impression (outstanding and/or IDEOLOGIES
disagreeable qualities of the art) • The Frankfurt School is the name given to
STEP 2. ANALYSIS (ANALYZE THE a group of German intellectuals associated
ARTWORK) with the Institute for Social Research at the
• This is the in-depth examination of how the University of Frankfurt.
technical elements were utilized by the • The Institute was established in 1923. 
artist to create the overall impression ‘Critical Theory’ is the name given to the
 Institute’s critical mix of Marxism and
psychoanalysis.
• The academic influence of the critical
method is far reaching. Some of the key
issues and philosophical preoccupations of
the School involve the critique of modernity
and capitalist society, the definition of
social emancipation, as well as the
detection of the pathologies of society.
• Critical Theory provides a specific
interpretation of Marxist philosophy with
regards to some of its central economic
and political notions like commodification,
reification, fetishization and critique of
mass culture (Corradetti, 2020).
One good example of challenging ideologies is
of Coco Chanel’s breakthrough in fashion DECONSTRUCTION: REVERSING SIDES
industry: • Deconstruction involves close reading/
examining the text or the work of art in
order to demonstrate that any given art has
irreconcilably contradictory meaning,
rather than being a unified, logical whole.
• It was both created and has been
profoundly influenced by the French
philosopher Jacques Derrida.  Through
deconstruction, Derrida aims to erase the
boundary between binary oppositions –
and to do so in such a way that the
hierarchy implied by the oppositions is
thrown into question (Mambrol, 2015)

To explain further, like in the Frozen (2013

MARXISM: INQUIRY TO THE CLASH OF film), Elsa became the protagonist despite its
SOCIAL CLASS character basis from the Danish fairytale, “The
• Marxism is a difficult and contentious body Snow Queen”. Based on the original story, the
of work. But it is also more than this: it is a queen is the evil making every people in their
body of revolutionary theory with the place suffer:
purpose of changing the world. As Marx
(1976b) famously said: ‘The philosophers FEMINISM: CHALLENGING VIEWS ON GENDER
have only interpreted the world, in various • Feminism, like Marxism, is always more
ways; the point is to change it’ (Storey, than a body of academic texts and
2009). practices. It is also, and perhaps more
• The Marxist approach to culture insists that fundamentally so, a political movement
texts and practices must be analyzed in concerned with women’s oppression and
relation to their historical conditions of the ways and means to empower women –
production (and in some versions, the what the AfricanAmerican critic bell hooks
changing conditions of their consumption (Gloria Jean Watkins) (1989) described as
and reception). ‘finding a voice’.
For example, Sugar cane (painting) by Jose Diego • Feminism as an approach examines the
Maria Rivera where it portrays the class struggle social, cultural, political and psychosexual
among the people of Mexico: aspect of a particular work of art such as
literary text, painting, dance and etc.

For example, Beyonce Knowles in music industry

where she made her image as a strong
independent woman presenting in her songs like
“Run the World (Girls)”, that women are capable of CRITICAL RACE THEORY: EXAMINATION OF
ruling the world like what men do THE RACE AND COLOR
• Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a movement
that challenges the ability of conventional
legal strategies to deliver social and
economic justice and specifically calls for
legal approaches that take into
consideration race as a nexus of American
life.
• The movement champions many of the
same concerns as the civil rights
movement but places those concerns
within a broader economic and historical
context.

To elaborate, The Color Purple, a play written by

Marsha Norman based from Alice Walker’s novel
of the same title, the main character, Georgia, lives
in a cyclical world of pain and violence from the
people around her:
QUEER THEORY: LOCATING THE
LIMITATIONS OF GENDER
• Queer theory, as Paul Burston and Colin
Richardson (1995) explain, ‘provides a
discipline for exploring the relationships
between lesbians, gay men and the culture
which surrounds and (for the large part)
continues to seek to exclude us’ (1).
• Queer Theory seeks to locate Queerness
in places that had previously been thought
of as strictly for the straights’ (ibid.). In this
way, they contend, ‘Queer Theory is no
more “about” lesbians and gay men than
women’s studies is “about” women. Indeed,
part of the project of Queer is to attack the
very “naturalness” of gender and, by
POSTCOLONIALISM: THE ART AFTER
extension, the fictions supporting
COLONIAL POWER
compulsory heterosexuality’ (Storey,
• The semantic basis of the term
2009).
‘postcolonial’ might seem to suggest a
For instance, the novel, Simon vs. The Homo
concern only with the national culture after
Sapiens Agenda written by Becki Albertalli where
the departure of the imperial power.
the main character, Simon is blackmailed to reveal
his true gender identity: • We use the term ‘post-colonial’, however,
to cover all the culture affected by the
imperial process from the moment of
colonization to the present day. This is
because there is a continuity of
preoccupations throughout the historical
process initiated by European imperial
aggression. We also suggest that it is most
appropriate as the term for the new
crosscultural criticism which has emerged
in recent years and for the discourse
through which this is constituted (Storey,
2009).
To deepen, influences of European architecture in anytime, anywhere because it deals with
Southeast Asia, specifically in the Northern region the elemental feelings, fundamental truths,
of the Philippines where the houses are commonly and universal conditions.
designed based on the Spanish aesthetics: 8. FORM
• Artistic forms are skeletal structures or
conceptual frameworks designed to
support or enclose parts of the works of art.
It is the organization, arrangement, or
framework of an artwork; the manner or
style of constructing, arranging, and
coordinating the parts of a composition for
a pleasing or effective result.

ARTS ROAD TO CLASSICS

1. AESTHETIC VALUE
• The concept of “aesthetic value” refers to
that value which causes an object to be a
“work of art.” This is a quality which appeals
to our sense of beauty.
2. INTELLECTUAL VALUE
• An artwork stimulates thought. It enriches
our mental life by making us realize
fundamental truths and ourselves, about
other human beings, and about the world
around us
3. SUGGESTIVENESS
• This is the quality associated with the
emotional power of art. Great works of art
move us deeply and stir our feeling and
imagination, giving and evoking visions
above and beyond the plain of ordinary life
and experience.
4. SPIRITUAL VALUE
• Art elevates the spirit by bringing out moral
values which make us a better person. The
capacity to inspire is part of the spiritual
value of art.
5. STYLE
• This is the peculiar way in which an artist
sees his subject, forms his ideas, and
expresses them. Great artworks are
marked as much by their memorable
substance as well as by their distinctive
style. Style should suit content.
6. PERMANENCE
• A great work of art endures. It can be
viewed again and again as each encounter
gives fresh delight and new insights and
opens new worlds of meaning and
experience. Its appeal is lasting.
7. UNIVERSALITY
• Great art is timeless and timely. It is forever
relevant and appeals to one and all,