The

Visual
Arts
Lesson 3
 The Visual Arts

o Art forms that create works that are primarily visual in nature.
o It also include applied arts such as industrial design, graphic
design, fashion design, interior design and decorative art.
o The current usage of the term “visual arts” incudes f ine art as
well as the applied, decorative arts and crafts.
o Before the Arts and Crafts Movement, the term ‘artist’ was
often restricted to a person working in the f ine arts and not the
handicraft, craft, or applied art media.
 Visual Arts include the following:

1. Fine Arts

o Refers to an art form practiced mainly for its aesthetic

value and its beauty rather than its functional value.
o It is rooted in drawing and design-based works such as
painting, printmaking, and sculpture.
o Other non-design-based activities regarded as f in e arts,
include photography and architecture, although the latter is
best understood as an applied art (Severney, 2013).
Acrylic Painting-https://webneel.com/
Silkscreen Print -https://www.biddlesawyersilks.com/ https://blog-guru.net/photomontage/
2. Contemporary Arts

o Visual arts that include a number of modern art forms, such

as: assemblage, collage, mixed- media, conceptual art,
installation, happenings and performance art, along with
f il m-based disciplines such as photography, video art and
animation, or any combination thereof.
o This group of activities also includes high tech disciplines
like computer graphics and giclee prints.
Ice/Snow Sculpture –The Atlantic https://www.kooness.com/ - Graffiti
Museum Tour Assemblage Glenn Martinez 2020 Land Art
3. Decorative Arts and Crafts

o The general category of visual arts encompasses a number

of decorative art disciplines and crafts, including ceramics
and studio pottery, mosaic art, mobiles, tapestry, glass art
(including stained glass) and others.
Ceramics and Pottery Stained Glass Cat Art Digital Art Peggy Collins
A Dewar and Gicquel tapestry at the Pompidou Center in Paris. MOSAIC ART BY SUE KERSHAW
Credit...Georges Meguerditchian/Center Pompidou 2013
4. Others

o Wider def initions of visual art sometimes include applied

art areas such as graphics design, fashion design, and
interior design.
o In addition, new types of body art may also fall under the
general heading of visual arts. These include tattoo art,
face painting, and body painting.
 Philosophical Perspective of Arts

Philosophical perspective points to the nature of art, including

such concepts as interpretation, representation and expression,
and form. It is closely related to aesthetics, the philosophical study
of beauty and taste.
 Some of these philosophical perspectives are:

1. Art as mimesis (Plato)

 Mimesis is derived from the Greek
word ‘mimos’ meaning imitate.
 According to Plato, all artistic creation
is a form of imitation: that which really
exists, in the “world of ideas” is a type
created by God; the concrete things
man perceives in his existence are
supernatural representations of this
ideal type.
2. Art as representation (Aristotle)
 He a l so de f in e d m i m e si s a s t h e
perfection, and imitation of nature.
 Art is not only imitation but also the
u s e o f m a t h e m a t i ca l i d e a s a n d
symmetry in the search for the perfect,
the timeless, and contrasting being
with becoming.
 Nature is full of changes, but art can
also search for what is everlasting.
3. Art for Art’s Sake (Kant)
 The beautiful, for Emmanuel Kant, is “
that w hich w ithout any conce pt is
recognized as the object of necessary
satisfaction”.
 He introduces purposiveness without a
purpose, allowing the mind of the one
w ho conte mplate s art fre e ly to an
unre stricte d play of the m e nta l
faculties(Willete,2010).
 “For judging of beautiful object as such,
taste is requisite; but for beautiful art,
for the production of such object genius
is requisite”.
The Subject of Art

The subject of art refers to any

person, object, scene or event
described or represented in a
work of art.
 There are two types of subject of art as follows:

1. Representational or Objective
• Representational art of f igurative
art represents objects or events in
the real world, usually looking
easily recognizable.
• It uses “form” and is concerned
with “what” is to be depicted in the
artwork.
Fernando Amorsolo. “Woman Cooking in the
• Eg. Painting, sculpture, graphic art, Kitchen” 1959. UP Vargas Museum Permanent Art
Collection
literature and theater arts
 2. Non-representational or Non-
objective
• These are those art without any
reference to anything outside
itself (without representation).
• It has no recognizable objects
and is abstract in the sense
that it doesn’t represent real
object.
• It use s “cont e nt ” and i s
con ce r n e d w i t h “ h ow ” t h e
https://unsplash.com/ artwork is depicted.
 Sources of Subjective Art

1. Primary Sources
o Provide f ir st-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning a
topic under investigation.
o Characterized by their content, regardless of whether they are
available in original format, in microf il m/microf iche, in digital
format, or in published format.
o Can also include autobiographies, memoirs and oral histories
recorded later.
 Sources of Subjective Art
1. Primary Sources
Some examples of primary sources include:
1. Artwork (painting, sculpture, print, performance piece, etc.)
2. Journals, Diaries, and Autobiographies
3. Correspondence or Letters
4. Interviews and Speeches
5. Photographs
6. Recordings (audio or visual)
7. Records (birth and death certificates, baptismal records, etc.
2. Secondary Sources
o Often written signif ic antly after events by
parties not directly involve but who have
special expertise, they may provide historical
context or critical perspectives.
o I nc lud es pic tures, q uotes or graphic s of
primary sources.
o Depending on the subject, newspaper and
journal articles can fall into both categories.
2. Secondary Sources
o Some examples of secondary sources include:
1. Journal, Magazine and Newspaper Articles
2. Reviews
3. Books
4. Documentaries
5. Commentaries and Criticisms
6. Textbooks
Some of these sources of art subject are:

1.N a t u r e –
animals,
p e o p l e an d
landscapes.
Some of these sources of art subject are:
2. History – Artists are sensitive to the events taking place in the world
around them.
Some of these sources of art subject are:

3. Greek and Roman mythology –these are gods and

goddesses. Its center is on deities and heroes.
Some of these sources of art subject are:
4. The Judeo Christian tradition – religion and art, the Bible, the
Apocrypha, the rituals of the Church.
Some of these sources of art subject are:
5. Oriental Sacred Texts – The countries of the orient, especially China,
Japan and India, have all produced sacred texts of one kind or another,
and these inspired various kinds of art.
Kinds of Subject
 Artists usually draw their arts through the different kinds of
subject. These include:

1. Still life
 these are groups of inanimate
objects arranged in an indoor
setting.
 The arrangement is that like to
show par t icular hum an
interest and activities.
 2. Landscapes, seascapes and
cityscapes
 A r t i st hav e a l w ays be e n
fascinated with their physical
environment.

Antipolo by Fernando Amorsolo

a. Fav or i t e subj e ct of Chi ne s a nd
Japanese painters
b. Fernando Amorsolo is well-known
for having romanticized Philippine
landscape.
c. Vicente Manansala, Arturo Luz, and
Mauro Malang Santos are some
l o ca l p a i n t e r s w h o h a v e d o n e
cityscapes.

https://www.comuseum.com/
3. Animals
 The earliest known painting
are representation of animals
on the walls of caves.
 T h e ca r a b a o h a s b e e n a
favorite subject of Filipino
artist.
 The Maranaos have an
animal form of sarimanok as
t h e i r p r ou d e s t p r e s t i g e
symbol.
 Sometimes, animals have been used as symbols in
conventional religious art, example:

a. The dove stands for the Holy Spirit in

representation of the Holy Trinity.
b. T h e F i s h a n d l a m b a r e s y m b o l o f
resurrection.
c. The phoenix is the symbol of resurrection.
d. The peacock is the symbol of immortality
through Christ.
 4. Portraits
 Humans face is capable of showing a
variety of moods and feelings.
 A great portrait is a product of selective
process, the artist highlighting certain
features and de-emphasizing others.
 Besides the face, the subject’s hands,
which can be very expressive, his attire
and accessories for it reveals much about
the subject’s time.

Suho Self-Portrait Teaser

5. Figures
 The sculptures’ chief subject has
traditionally been the human body,
nude or clothed.
 To Greeks physical beauty was the
sym bol of m ora l a nd spi r i t ua l
perfection; thus they portrayed their
god and goddesses as possessing
perfect human shapes.
 A favorite subject among painters
is the female figure in the nude.
Aphrodite: Goddess of Love & Beauty
 6. Everyday Life
 Artist have always shown a
deep concern about life around
them.
 Genre paintings usually are
re pre se nt at ions of rice
threshers, cockf ighters, candle
vendors, street musicians, and
children at play.

Isidro Ancheta "Women Washing Clothes"

7. History and Legends
 History consists of verif ia ble facts,
legends, of unverifiable ones.
 It is difficult to tell how much of what
we know now is history and how
much is legend.
 Malakas and Maganda and Mariang
Makiling are among the legendary
subjects which have been rendered
in painting and sculpture by not a few
Filipino artists.
1964 Carlos Valino Jr. – General Del Pilar at Tirad Pass
6. Religion and Mythology
 Most of the worlds’ religions have
used the arts to aid in worship, to
instruct, to inspire feelings of
devot ion and to im pre ss and
convert non-believers.
 “Mythos” meaning story of legend.
It tries to explain the relationship
between gods and humans.
 Pallas and the Centaur
Chartres Cathedral, early 13th Century Painting by Sandro Botticelli
8. Dreams and Fantasies
 Ar t ist s, e spe cially t he
su r r e a l i st s h a v e t r i e d t o
depict dreams as well as the
grotesque terrors and
apprehensions that lurk in the
depths of the subconscious.
 No limits can be imposed on
imagination.

Fantasy by Leonard Aitken

 Different Levels of Meaning

A subj e ct m at t e r has t hre e

different levels of meaning.
These are:

1. Factual meaning – the literal

m e aning of t he narrat ive
content in the work which can
be dire ct ly appre he nde d
because the objects presented
are easily recognized.
2. Conventional Meaning –refers to
the special meaning that a certain
object has in particular culture or
group of people.

3 . S u b je ct iv e M e a n in g – a n y
personal meaning consciously or
unconsciously conveyed by the
artist using a private symbolism
which stem from his own
association of ce rtain obje cts,
actions or colors w ith past
experience.