MODULE: ARTS AND HUMANITIES

Lesson 4
Categories and Presentation of Art

As stated in the previous lessons, there are many categories of art. The choice of an art form
depends on what idea, emotion, and message is to be expressed and what is the best manner of
expressing them.

Grouping the Arts

The arts are generally grouped into major and minor arts. Major arts include painting, architecture,
sculpture, literature, music and dance (or Performing Arts). Minor arts include the decorative arts, the
popular arts, the graphic arts, the plastic arts, and industrial arts.
According to Webster, the major arts involve man's skill to create works of art that are in form,
content, and execution aesthetically leasing and meaningful as in music, painting, architecture and
sculpture. They are called major arts because they appeal to the senses of sight, hearing and feeling.
They are more notable and conspicuous in effect, dignity, interest and scope than those in the minor arts.
Much more, considerable improvement in quantity or extent has been made in this area.

The aesthetic factor in the minor arts lies in the "styling". They are addressed primarily to the sense
of sight and their usefulness. The minor arts are inferior in degree, especially in the extent of aesthetic
quality.

The arts may also be grouped into the following:

 Visual Arts. These artworks are perceived by our eves which may be classified into
graphic arts and plastic arts.
o Graphic Arts. They have flat two-dimensional surface such as painting, drawing,
photography and other products of the printing industry. It covers the
commercial arts like the design of books, advertisements, signs, posters and
other displays for advertisement.
o Plastic Arts. These are visual arts which have three-dimensional forms. Under
this grouping are: architectural designs and construction of buildings and other
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structures; landscape of gardens, parks, playgrounds, and golf courses with

plants, trees, vines and ground cover; interior design for convenience and beauty
which include the furnishings, accessories, the floor, ceiling and wall paper or
paint; and the textiles for curtains and upholstery; sculpture which produces
objects and images out of stones, wood, clay, metal or ivory; crafts or the
designing and making of objects such as jewellery; ceramics, leather-works, and
weaving; industrial arts which involve specialized in making industrial designs
of automobiles and household appliances; the design of clothing apparel such as
clothes, coats, suits, ties, shoes, bags; and design for stage production. The
aesthetics factor lies in the “styling”.
 Performing Arts. These include the theatre, play, dance, and music. They involve
movement, speaking, and gestures.
 Literary Arts. These include short stories, novels, poetry, and dramas.
 Popular Arts. These include films, newspaper, magazine, radio, and television. This
group is characterized as gay and lively. They are sometimes included in or overlaps
with Literary Arts and Performing Arts.
 Gustatory Art of Cuisine or Culinary Arts. This involves the skills in food
preparation.
 Decorative Arts. They are visual objects (and sometimes do overlaps or included in
visual arts) produced for beautifying houses, offices, cars, and other structures or
objects. They are also called Applied Arts.

Values and Reasons for Art

For a variety of reasons, the arts are valuable in our lives. We create things to serve our practical
purposes. We make things that are pleasing to the eye or ear.

We commemorate certain occasions with paintings, songs, dances and dramatic plays to heighten
the importance of such events and to keep them memorable and pleasurable. We also build monuments
to remind us of the heroic deeds of great men. In all these activities, the various works of art come into
play.
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Art works are also valuable sources of inspiration and aesthetic experience. We are delighted by the
books we read and we are moved by the music we hear. We also get deep satisfaction from them. We
enjoy a masterpiece of painting or a first-rate play because they capture and hold our concentrated
attention. We are inspired to plan and construct our houses beautifully when we are stimulated by
modern architectural designs.

Through the artist's work, we also get a glimpse of the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs of the people
in their time and the forces in their environment that influenced their art work. We also value beautiful
things as a consequence of our encounter with the arts. Out of the aesthetic experiences we derive from
the arts, we may be influenced to change our ways, They may transform us into highly cultured,
dignified and respectable human beings

This explains why the arts are called the humanities. They bring out the good and the noble in us;
something one poet referred to in the following verses:
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
Lies unfathomed in ocean caves bear
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And swafts into sweetness upon the desert air.

That is a beautiful way of saying that art must be fully appreciated for through the arts we come to
know the changing image of man as he journeys across historical time, as he searches for the reality and
strives to achieve the ideals that create meaning for life.

Leonel Ventura sums up the value of and the reason for arts by saying that "it is not the canvass, the
hue, the oil or tempera, but the contribution of the arts to our life, its suggestions to our sensations,
feelings and imagination."

Some Basic Assumptions About the Arts

Our attitude towards the arts may be influenced by these assumptions:

1. Art has been created by various people, at all places and time. Art exists because it is liked
and enjoyed. Art does not grow old.
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2. Art is something to be seen, or heard, or

3. Art is the product of man's imagination, good taste and skill in doing things.
4. Nature is artful. Its beauty and artistry could be enhanced

The way we perceive the arts depends largely on the kind of person we are as a of result an past
training and experiences, inclination or aptitude and special interest for any of the arts. That is, we may
find that going to art exhibits or attending concerts and listening to songs and musical instruments are
pleasurable when we have previous training and special interest for the arts.

Some Guidelines in Understanding a Work of Art

Here are some guide questions to aid one's understanding of a piece of art work particularly in
the visual arts:
 What did the artist make? What is it about? (This concerns the subject)
 What did the artist want to show in his work? What is the artwork for? (This concerns
the function of the art)
 What is the artwork made of? (This refers to the materials or medium used)
 How is the material put together or organized? (This refers to the materials or medium
used)
 What is the personality or individuality of the art work? (This refers to the style and
mood or temper of the art work).
 How good is it? (This is the judgment)
 What is the meaning conveyed by the art? How does it make life more meaningful?

The aforementioned guidelines are essential to painting, architecture and understanding the works
in visual arts, particularly in sculpture. Consequently, it may result in a better appreciation of the arts.
For like ideas unused, art unappreciated is ignorance. Fully appreciated, art enables us "to see the world
in a grain of sand and the rise above the sod of clay and to mount to heaven round by round”
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Art: Imitation or creation? “Models all look stunning nowadays since they're painted or photographed and
presented in the romantic ideal rather than as a true depiction of the individual
physical qualities of the person in question.”
The work of an artist is not the – S. Baldrick
*CAD (Computer Aided Designs), CGI (Computer Generated Image), and
mechanical reproduction of a picture Compiuter-assisted VFX (Visual Effects) are new art forms brought about by
the advancement of Modern Technology.
though a camera, but a translation of
the most relevant characteristics of the
original model. It involves the process
of selection, interpretation,
arrangement, and execution. It
involves a personal assimilation
through the mind, feeling, and
technique of the artist. One camera
may reproduce the same face
hundreds of times. Hundreds of artists
cannot do the same. Photography is a
mechanical technique while art is a
human activity. Photograph represents objects as they are. Art transforms the objects and gives life and
meaning (Zulueta, 2011).

Art tends not to imitate but to express nature with clarity and meaning. When the arts become too
separated from nature, their meaning is lost. If they are too close to nature, they cease to be human and
meaningful. Modem painters and sculptors have isolated themselves from natural forms though
abstractionism and surrealism. On the other hand, writers and movie producers insist on going back to
nature and to a crude realism of life.

Art, therefore, is not a mere copying of a nature but a creative activity. Anything man conceives in
his mind or makes with his hands is a creation. Buildings, poems, or statues are not produced by nature;
man creates them, brings them into existence. To create, in the strict sense of the word, is to bring
something out of nothing, which is beyond the power of man. The creativity of the artists is a realtive
one. Artists compose or arrange things. They give order and beautiful expression to the materials they
use.
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Art Appreciation and the Standards of Taste

Art appreciation means more than aesthetic enjoyment. The latter is related to the experience
derived from the contemplation of artistic works. The former involves an ability to judge and to
appreciate art. A Connoisseur of Art (pronounced like /kaa·nuh·sur/) is one who savours and strives to
understand the details, technique, or principles of an art and is competent to act as a critical judge or
simply someone who enjoys with discrimination and appreciation of subtleties.