Lesson 3

 Subject of a Work of Art

In appreciating art, there are clues that connect between the artwork and the
viewer, allowing the viewer to understand easier what he is seeing. These clues are the
three basic components of a work of art: the subject and content and it will be discussed
on the succeeding pages.

Subject of Art
It is the visual focus or the image that may be extracted from examining the
artwork. Simply put, it answers the “what” of a certain artwork. There are two types of
subject: the representational and non-representational.
Representational Art has subject that refers to objects or events occurring in the
real world. It also termed as figurative art because the figures depicted are easy to make
out and decipher.

MONA LISA by Leonardo da Vinci

Despite not knowing who Mona Lisa is, it is obvious that the painting is of a woman
that is realistically proportioned with only the upper torso shown, with the background of a
landscape and the woman showing a beguiling and mysterious smile.
Non-representational art, on the other hand, are artworks that do not refer to the
real world. It is limited to the visual elements such as shapes, lines and colors that are
employed to translate a particular feeling, emotion and idea or concept.

CONVERGENCE by
Jackson Pollock(1952)

A question that might interest your curiosity is, “Is non-representational art the
same with abstract art?” There is no clear-cut divide. They rather exist in a spectrum.
Abstraction distorts the view, simplifies or reduces the structure of a known thing, person
or place often into its simplest geometric shapes. While non-representational art does not
begin with a thing or a subject allowing its viewer to give it a personal interpretation.

Sources of Subjects of Artworks

There are different possible sources of subject that are commonly used by artists.
These serves as the inspirations
Nature is a common subject used by artist particularly by visual artists.

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LOQUATS AND A MOUNTAIN BIRD, by an

anonymous painter of the Southern Song
Dynasty (1127–1279); small album leaf paintings
like this were popular amongst the gentry and
scholar-officials of the Southern Song.

Another subject commonly used in making artworks is history. This infamous

painting of our very own Juan Luna was a satirical portrait of what was really happening
during the Spanish regime.

SPOLARIUM(1884)
by Juan Luna

Some artists are also fond of using Greek Mythology as a subject. Below is a photo
of example of such artwork.

THE COMBAT OF MARS AND MINERVA

by Joseph Benoit Suvee

Religion as a subject was frequently used specifically during the medieval ages.

LA PIETA (“the pity”) is known by many as

one of Michelangelo’s greatest works.
Sculpted from marble in the years 1498-1499.
It depicts a common religious subject matter
that many artists all over the globe had
recreated in Michelangelo’s time.

Today, contemporary artists make use of life experiences and culture as a subject
of their artworks.

UNDER THE MANGO TREE by Fernando

Amorsolo (1892-1972),Oil on canvas.
Under the Mango Tree (1952), was sold for
P46,720,000 in 2018 making it his most
expensive piece.

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FISHERMEN
by Ang Kiukok, an awarded
Filipino contemporary painter

National Artist and leader of Philippine figurative expressionism, Ang Kiukok’s oil
painting “Fishermen” got the highest bid at an auction hosted by Salcedo Auctions on March
8, 2014 in Makati. Ang Kiukok's work combined the hope and struggle of fishermen working
together for their haul, the crimson sun hovering above them, representing perpetual
energy.

THINK!

What inspires artists to create their masterpieces?

Methods of presenting Subject of Arts

There several methods of presenting art subjects in order to be understood and
appreciated by the viewer or audience. Through these methods, the artist is able to express
his ideas or concepts or convey the message he wants to extend. Each method has its own
characteristics and will be discussed below.

Realism
Through this method, an artist attempts to describe accurately what is observed
through his senses. He selects, arranges and changes details to express his ideas. Poetry
and drama were influenced by realism. Along the process of selecting and presenting his
subject, the artist cannot avoid to be influenced by his emotions and ideas. It is in novels
that realism achieved greatness. Examples of novels that were influenced with the ideas of
realism are Mga Kuko ng Liwanag by Edgardo Reyes and Dilim sa Umga by Efren Abueg.
These are novels of social commentaries which are realistically vivid and clearly
presented. Below are samples of paintings that used realism method to express an idea or
concept. Amorsolo is a well-known realist painter.

THE HARVESTERS
By Fernando Amorsolo, a famous Filipino painter

Abstraction
This method allows the artist to move away or separate. Abstract art moves away
from showing thing as they are. It is the opposite of realism. There are four types of
abstract art:

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a) distortion

A DISTORTION OF REALITY
by Henrietta Harris

The subject is in misshapen condition.

b) elongation

PORTRAIT OF LUNIA CZECHOWSKA

by Amedeo Modigliana

The subject is lengthened for protraction or

extension.

c) mangling

MURDER BY GASLIGHT
by Alfred Packer

The subject is either cut, mutilated,

lacerated, or hacked.

d) cubism

THREE MUSICIANS
By Pablo Picasso

The subjects are shown in geometrical shapes.

e) abstract expressionism

WHITE LIGHT by Jackson Pollock

This is characterized by great verve and large

canvases and a deliberate lack of refinement in
the application of paint. It uses typically strong
color, heavy impasto, uneven brush strokes and
rough textures.

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Symbolism
The subject might simply be an emblem or sign of an idea or quality. In poetry and
painting, symbol has a freer development. It goes beyond the ordinary sign and assumes a
new meaning originating from a personal and unique association form in the mind of the
poet or painters. An example of a poem is “Crossing the Bar” by Alfred Tennyson. Below
are the last four lines of the poem.

Crossing the Bar(Excerpts)

For tho' from out our bourne of

Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to
face
When I have crost the bar.

The last two lines are symbolic and it clearly shows the strong desire of the author
to see God when he dies.

The famous SPOLARIUM by Juan Luna is an

example of a painting that uses symbolism. It
was a satire of the suffering that Filipinos were
experiencing during the Spanish regime.

Fauvism
This method is characterized by the use of bright colors. The movement was led by
Henri Matisse. It was the first important art movement in the 1900s. Other fauvists were
Andre Derain, Raoul Drify, and George Rouault who were all from France.

THE RED ROOM

By Henri Matisse

Dadaism
It is a process movement in arts formed by group of artists and poets in 1916 in
Zurich, Switzerland. The French word “dada” means hobby horse and it was deliberately
chosen to refer to nonsensical subject. It was a form of artistic anarchy born out of disgust
for the social, political and cultural values of the time. It embraced elements of art, music,
poetry, theatre, dance and politics. It was more of a protest movement with an anti-
establishment manifesto.

THE SPIRIT OF OUR TIME, 1920, an

assemblage sculpture by Raoul Hausmann
.

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Futurism
It developed in Italy about the same time that Cubism appeared in France. It was
an Italian art movement of the early twentieth century that aimed to capture in art the
dynamism and energy of the modern world. Such paintings glorified the Mechanical energy
of the modern life, including automobile, motorcycle and railroad. It was launched by the
Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909. On February 20, 1909, he published his
Manifesto of Futurism on the front page of the Paris newspaper Le Figaro.
Futurism was exceptionally forceful in its denunciation of the past. This was
because in Italy, the weight of past culture was felt as particularly oppressive. In the
Manifesto, Marinetti asserted that ‘we will free Italy from her innumerable museums which
cover her like countless cemeteries’. What the futurists proposed instead was an art that
celebrated the modern world of industry and technology.

UNIQUE FORMS OF CONTINUITY IN SPACE

a casting sculpture by Umberto Boccioni

Surrealism
This movement in arts and literature was founded in Paris in 1924 by the French
poet Andre’ Breton. Surrealism is coined from the words super realism and was influenced
by the Freudian psychology which emphasizes the activities of the subconcsious mind.
Subjects of this kind attempts to show what is inside man’s mind as well as the appearance
of his outside world. Surrealists claim to create forms and images primarily of no reason,
but by impulse, blind feeling or even by accident. They can be violent and cruel messages
but also informative and symbolical.

THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY is a 1931

painting by artist Salvador Dalí, and one of
the most recognizable works of Surrealism

Expressionism
This method was introduced in Germany during the first decade of the twentieth
century. Its influences affected European artists from 1920 to the present. The roots of the
German Expressionist school lay in the works of Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and
James Ensor, each of whom in the period 1885–1900 evolved a highly personal painting
style. These artists used the expressive possibilities of colour and line to explore dramatic
and emotion-laden themes, to convey the qualities of fear, horror, and the grotesque, or
simply to celebrate nature with hallucinatory intensity. They broke away from the literal
representation of nature in order to express more subjective outlooks or states of mind.

THE SCREAM, tempera and casein on

cardboard by Edvard Munch, 1893; in the
National Gallery, Oslo.

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Playwrights seemed to have been influenced as well on English and Filipino like the
work of Amelia Lapena-Bonifacio in “Sepang Loca” (1958) and Paul Dumol’s “Mapait na
Baso”. These plays depicted the idea of rebirth of the individual as possible only within the
context of transformation of the entire society. The emotional expressions in
expressionistic paintings usually manifest pathos, morbidity, violence or chaos, defeat and
tragedy.

Suggested Links and Readings:

1) Introduction to Art Appreciation: A Textbook in Humanities 2nd Ed by Mariano M
Ariola
2) Art Appreciation by Bernardo Nicolas Casil, et al
3) Introduction to the Humanities by Custodiosa A. Sanchez et al
4) https://www.edvardmunch.org/the-scream.jsp
5) https://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/art/articles/2016/may/10/salvador-dalis-the-
persistence-of-memory-explained/
6) https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2003/sep/27/art
7) https://www.jackson-pollock.org/white-light.jsp

LEARNING ACTIVITY

Analyze the poem Leaf by E.E Cummings and give the meaning according to the three levels
of symbolic meaning.

LEAF by E.E. Cummings

L(a

le
af

fa
ll

s)
one
l

iness

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