ART APPRECIATION

MODULE 1: Understanding Art

Art is the lifeblood of humanities because it conveys one’s feelings and expressions. Art is the
essential factor which motivates an individual to create and appreciate “a thing of beauty.”

 Art – (Latin word) Ars – meaning: Ability or skill

– (Italian word) Artis – meaning: Human or Skill

 Webster’s New Collegiate dictionary

 Art as: the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the
production of aesthetics objects.

 Leo Toltsoy – Russian Novelist

 Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of
beauty of God: it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man
lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man’s emotions by
external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects, above all, it is not
pleasure; but it is a means of unions among men, joining them together in the same
feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals
and humanity.

 Henry Miller – American writer

 Art teaches nothing, except the significance of life.”

 Aristotle – Greek Philosopher

 Art is higher type of knowledge than experience

 Jean Anouilh – French dramatist

 The object of art is to give life a shape

 Jean Couteau – French poet and playwright

 Art is science in the flesh

 James Adams – Historian

 All art is social,” because it is the result of a relationship between an artist and his
time.”

 Oscar Wilde – Irish poet and playwright

 Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.”

 Frank Lloyd Wright – American architect, interior designer, writer, and educator
 Art is a discovery and development of elementary principles of nature into beautiful
forms suitable for human use

 Art History
– Also called Art Histography
– Is a historical study of the visual arts, being concerned with identifying, classifying,
describing, evaluating, interpreting, and understanding the art products and historic development of
the fields of painting, sculpture, architecture, the decorative art, drawing, etc.
For example:
 The painting is 77 by 53 cm. The woman in the painting is Lisa Gherardini. Its
Italian name is La Gioconda which means happy. It is 516 years old.

Assumptions about art

1. Art is Everywhere
 Your surroundings, home, personal care, pets, clothing and body are all reflections
of how you see and express yourself. - Dr. Christiane Northrup

2. Art is not Nature

 Art is not nature because art is man-made. It is the creature of man that may reflect
a profound skillfulness and craftsmanship. Art can never be natural because nature
is evanescent, in constant transformation of change, and yet art is permanent.

3. Art is Imitating and Creating

 Creation in art is the act of combining or re-ordering already existing materials so
that new objects will be formed. An artist only copies the things in nature he believes
would express his thought and feelings. Art is a process of imitating involving
personal assimilation through mind, feeling and style. – Barrios,

4. Art Perfects Nature

 Artists only enhance things they like and eliminate the undesirable elements in
nature to convey their message of beauty and love.

5. Art is Universal
 It transcends cultures, races, and civilization. As long as human beings exist, art is
feasible, alive, and dynamic.

6. Art is Timeless
 Art is timeless because it goes beyond the time of our existence. It is present in
every corner of the world to serve basic needs of mankind, from ancient time to
modern world. Further, art is timeless because it continually evolves. Aside from
artists birthing new artworks, they also never stop innovating, recreating, reinventing,
and reviving works of art.

7. Art Defines Time

 In watching film, for example, even when you do not have the idea when it was
created, the style of directing and filming, the clothing and bearing of the characters,
musical scoring and the setting and the plot of the story would make the viewer’s
guess the period when it was produces.
 While art defines time, time also defines art. It identifies the artwork that would “click”
in a particular time for the particular audience.

Universally Accepted Ideas about Art

Art as Expression and Communication

 Art has grown out of man’s need to express himself. Expression is not limited to the
revelation of emotions alone. The personal and social values of the artist and his
penetrating psychological insight into human reality are also conveyed through arts.
 The artist uses symbols which he organizes into some comprehensible equivalent of
the experience that he is trying to convey. If the symbols are understood by his
audience, then communication has been established.
Art and Experience
  Three major kinds of experience are involved in the artistic activity. It starts as an
experience which the artist wants to communicate.
 The act of expressing this experience –that of creating that art object or form.
 When the work is done, there is the artist’s gratifying experience of having
accomplished something significant.
 On the part of the onlooker or listener, he may kindle an experience which is similar
or related to that which the artist tried to express. These include sensory, emotional,
and intellectual responses.

Art and Beauty

 A thing of beauty is one which gives us pleasure when we perceive it. The delight
that we experience is called aesthetic pleasure.
 Beauty in terms of art refers to an interaction between line, color, texture, sound,
shape, motion, and size that is pleasing to the senses.
 Sometimes beauty is not the artist’s ultimate goal. Art is often intended to appeal to
and connect with human emotion. Artists may express something so their audience
is stimulated in some way-creating feelings, religious faith, curiosity, interest,
identification with a group, thoughts, or creativity. For example, performance art
often does not aim to please the audience but instead evokes feelings, reactions,
conversations, or questions for the viewer. In these cases, aesthetics may be an
irrelevant measure of “beautiful” art.

MODULE 2: Functions of Art and Philosophy

 Philosophy, science and art differ principally according to their subject-matter and also the
means by which they reflect, transform and express it. In a certain sense, art, like
philosophy, reflects reality in its relation to man, and depicts man, his spiritual world, and
the relations between individuals in their interaction with the world.
 We live not in a primeval pure world, but in a world that is known and has been
transformed, a world where everything has, as it were, been given a "human angle", a
world permeated with our attitudes towards it, our needs, ideas, aims, ideals, joys and
sufferings, a world that is part of the vortex of our existence.

Functions of Art
 Functions of arts are an inquiry on what art is for. When it comes to functions, different
art form come with distinctive functions, some may be functional more than others.
 The value of the art lies in the practical benefits from it. One may look at the value
based on its specific purpose or for personal.

Personal Functions of Art

 Personal functions of art, is highly subjective and depends on the artist who created
the art.
 An art may be created for expressing self, for entertainment or for other purposes.

Social Functions of Art

 If an art is opposed to personal interest and for collective interest it is considered to
have a social function.
 Art may convey, message such as to support, to protest, contestation and other
messages an artist intends to carry at his work.
 Political Art is a very common example of an art with a social function.
 Art can depict social conditions such as photography of industrialization and poverty.
  Performance art like plays serves social functions as it rouses emotions for a
common situation a society has.
 Political Art is a very common example of an art with a social function.
 Art can depict social conditions such as photography of industrialization and poverty.
 Performance art like plays serves social functions as it rouses emotions for a
common situation a society has.

Physical Functions of Art

 These are artworks that are crafted in order to serve physical purpose such as jars,
plates, and jewelries.
 Architecture, jewelry-making, interior design all serves physical functions.
 Other functions of art may serve culture, history and religion.
 Music is an artwork used for different purposes such events for culture, historical
and religious gatherings.
 Sculpture, poems, spoken poetry, movies and other form of arts are used for its
specific functions.

Philosophical Perspective of Art

Art an Imitation
 In Plato’s The Republic, paints a picture of artists as imitators and art is mere
imitations. In his metaphysics or view of reality, the things in this world are only
copies of the original, the eternal, and the true entities can be found in the World of
Forms.
 Art is just an imitation of imitation. A painting is just an imitation of nature, which is
also an imitation of realty in the World of Forms.

Art as a Representation
 Aristotle, agreed with Plato, however he considered art as an aid to philosophy in
revealing the truth.
 Art represents version of reality. In Arestotelian worldview, art serves two particular
purposes: art allows for the experience of pleasure and art has an ability to be
instructive and teach its audience things about life.

Art as Disintigrated Judgement

 Emmanuel Kant, in his Critique of Judgement, considered the judgement of beauty,
the cornerstone of art, as something universal despite its subjectivity. He
recognized that judgement of beauty is subjective.

Art as a Communication of Emotion

 According to Leo Tolstoy, art plays a huge role in communication to its audience’s
emotions that the artist previously experienced Art communicates emotions.

MODULE 3: Classifying the Arts

 When an individual participates in empirical studies involving the visual arts, they
most often are presented with a stream of images, shown on a computer, depicting
reproductions of artworks by respected artists but which are often known to the
viewer. While art can of course be shown in presentia actuale – e.g., in the
museum –this laboratory paradigm has become our go-to basis for assessing
interaction, and often in conjunction with some means of rating, assessing
evaluative, emotional, cognitive, and even neurophysiological response.
 Writers and philosophers have their own classification of art. To clearly comprehend the
relationship of these arts, let’s us study the categorization made by the different experts.
 According to Webster (1987), the major arts involve man’s skills to create works of art that
are in form, content, and execution, aesthetically pleasing and meaning 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. On
the other hand, 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
 According to Manaois, there are two (2) general dimensions of arts, namely, (1) fine arts or
independent arts made principally for aesthetic enjoyment through the senses, especially
visual and auditory such as painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, theater, performing
arts, and (2) practical arts or utilitarian arts intended for practical use or the development of
raw materials for functional purposes such as industrial art, civic art, commercial art, graphic
art, agricultural and fishery art.

 Estolas (1995) also grouped arts into:

1. Visual Arts.
 These artworks are perceived by our eyes which may be classified into graphic arts
and plastic arts.
o Graphic arts have flat two dimensional surfaces such as painting industry. It
covers the commercial arts like the design of books, advertisements, signs,
posters and other displays for advertisements.
o Plastic arts are visual arts which have three dimensional forms. Under this
grouping are: architectural designs and construction of buildings and other
structures; landscape of gardens, parks, playgrounds, and golf courses with
plants ,trees, vines and ground cover;

2. Performing Arts.
 These include the theater, play, dance, and music. They involve movement,
speaking and gestures.

3. Literary Arts.
 These include the short stories, novels, poetry and dramas.

4. Popular Arts.
 These include the film, newspaper, magazine, radio and television. This group is
characterized as gay and lively.

5. Gustatory Art of the Cuisine.

 This involves skills in food preparation.

6. Decorative Arts.
 They are visual objects produced for beautifying houses, offices, cars and other
structures. They are also called applied arts.
  Sanchez, Abad, and Jao (2001) grouped arts into:

1. Visual arts.
 These include graphic arts (which include drawing, painting, photography, etc. or in
which portrayals of forms and symbols are recorded on a two-dimensional surface)
and plastic arts (which comprise all fields of visual arts for which materials are
arranged in three-dimensional forms namely, structural architecture, interior
arranging, crafts, sculpture, industrial design, dress and costume design and
theatre design.
2. Literature.
 These include drama, essay, prose fiction, poetry, and miscellaneous (history,
biography, journals, diaries, and other works not formally classed as literature).
3. Music.
 These include vocal music; instrumental music; music combined with other music
like opera, operatta and musical comedy, oratorio and cantata; and other forms like
ballet music and background music for motion pictures.
4. Drama and Theater.
 These include tragedy, melodrama, comedy, miscellaneous
5. Dance.
 These include ethnologic, social or ballroom dances, ballet, modern, musical
comedy.

 Barrios classified arts into two:

According to purpose and according to media and forms.

 According to Purpose
A. Practical or useful arts are those human activities directed to produce artifacts,
tools and utensils used in doing households and everyday chores.
Examples: basket weaving agriculture, etc.

B. Liberal Arts involve the development of man’ intellectual reasoning.

Examples: Mathematics, Astronomy, Grammar

C. Fine Arts are the products of the human creative activity as they express
beauty in different ways and media for the satisfaction and relaxation of man’s
mind and spirit.
Examples: painting, sculpture, architecture

D. Major Arts are characterized by their actual and potential expressiveness and
by a purely disinterested purpose.
Examples: music, poetry, sculpture

E. Minor Arts are works connected with practical uses and purposes.
Examples: interior decoration, porcelain

 According to Media and Forms

A. Plastic Arts are developed through space and perceived by the sense of
sight.
Examples: painting, sculpture, architecture
 B. Phonetic Arts are based on sounds and words as media of expression.
Examples: music, drama, literature

C. Kinetic Arts make use of the rhythmic movement as the elements of

expression.
Example: dance

D. Pure Arts utilize only one medium of expression.

Examples: sound in music, color in painting

E. Mixed Arts use two or more media.

Example: The opera (which is a combination of music, poetry, and drama)

Artist and Artisans

 History – the term “artist” wasn’t used until the start of the Renaissance Period. All
artists were considered artisans before that time period

 ARTISTS- An artist is a person who performs any of the creative arts.

 ARTISANS- An artisan is a skilled worker who makes things by hand.

 Medium
 The word medium, which comes from the Latin word medium, denotes the means by
which an artist communicates his idea. It is the stuff out of which he creates a work of
art. These are the materials which the artist uses to translate his feelings or thought
into a beautiful reality. This may be pigment in painting, stone, wood brick, concrete
and various building materials in architecture, steel, marble, bronze, and wood in
sculpture, sound in music and words in literature. On the basis of medium, the arts are
primarily classified as: Visual and Auditory.

 Visual
 The visual or spaces are those whose mediums can be seen and which
occupy space. These are grouped into two classes. The first is the
dimensional or two-dimensional arts which include painting, drawing
printmaking, and photography. The community planning, industrial design and
the crafts like ceramics and furniture making.

The Artist and His Mediums

 The artist thinks feels and gives shape to his vision in terms of his mediums.
When an artist chooses his medium, he believes that this can best express
the idea he wants to convey. Most often an artist employs more than one
medium to give meaning to his creative production. Oftentimes, the matter of
selecting the medium depends entirely on the artist himself since this is a part
of the artistic inspiration. The distinctive character of the medium determines
the way it can be worked on and turned into a work of art. The nature of each
medium determines how a work of art may be realized.
  Technique
 Is the manner in which the artist controls his medium to achieve the desired effect. It
is the ability with which he fulfills the technical requirements of his particular work of
art. It has to do with the way he manipulates the work of art. It has to do with the way
he manipulates his medium to express his ideas. Apparently, artists differ from one
another in technique even if they use the same medium.

A. The Mediums of Visual Arts

These are mediums of some two dimensional visual arts:

 Watercolor
 as a medium is difficult to handle because it is difficult to produce warm and
rich tones. While changes may be made once the paint has been applied such
changes normally tend to make the color less luminous.
 An example is the method of gouache, an opaque watercolor painting the
major effects of which are caused by the whitepaper itself. The gouache, is
done by mixing zinc white with the regular watercolor paints to tone them
down giving the appearance of sobriety suitable for dramatic purposes.

 Fresco
 This is the painting on a moist plaster surface with colors ground in water or a
limewater mixture. The colors dry into plaster, and the picture becomes a part
of the wall. Fresco must be done quickly because it is an exacting medium.

 Tempera
 paints are mineral pigments mixed with egg yolk or egg white and ore. They
are often used as a binder due to its film forming properties and rapid drying
rate.

 Encaustic
 This is one of the early mediums used by the Egyptians for the painted portrait
on mummy cases. This is done by painting with wax colors fixed with heat.
Painting with wax produces luster and radiance in the subject making them
appear at their best in portraits

 Oil
 painting is one of the most expensive art activities today because of the
prohibitive cost of materials. In oil painting, pigments are mixed with linseed oil
and applied to the canvas. One good quality of oil paint as a medium is its
flexibility.

 Acrylic
 This medium is used popularly by contemporary painters because of the
transparency and quick drying characteristics of water color and the flexibility
of oil combined. This synthetic paint is mixed with acrylic emulsion as binder
for coating the surface of the artwork. Acrylic paints do not tend to break
easily, unlike oil paints which turn yellowish or darker over a long of period of
time.
 Mosaic
 art is a picture or decoration made of small pieces of inlaid colored stones or
glass called “tesserae” which most often are cut in into squares glued on a
surface with plaster or cement. Mosaic is usually classified as painting.

 Stained Glass
 as an artwork is common in Gothic Cathedrals and churches. This is made by
combining many small pieces of colored glass which are held together by
bands of lead.

 Tapestry
 This is a fabric consisting of a warp upon which colored threads are woven by
hand to produce a design, often pictorial and for wall hangings and furniture
covering. During the middle Ages, they were hung on the walls of palaces and
in Cathedrals on festive occasions to provide warmth.

 Drawing
 is usually done on paper, using pencil, pen and ink, or charcoal. It is the most
fundamental of all skills necessary in the arts.

These are mediums of some three-dimensional visual arts:

(Sculpture, architecture, landscape, industrial designs and crafts like furniture)

 Sculpture
 Is a branch of the visual art that operates in 3 dimensions.
 Durable sculpture processes used in carving (Removal of material), modelling
(additional material), in stone, metal, ceramics, and wood and other materials
but same modernism, shift in sculpture process led to an almost complete
freedom materials and process
a. Stone – Stone, Granite Stone, Limestone, Sandstone, Basalt,
Sepentine Marble, Breciated Marble,
b. Jade
c. Ivory
d. Metals – Aluminum, Brass, Bronze, Copper, Gold, Silver, Lead
e. Plaster
f. Clay
g. Glass
h. Wood

 Architecture
 It’s an art of designing a building and supervising its construction.
 Is producing shelter to serve as a protection of men in carrying out his
activities- work, recreation, sleep.
 To fulfill man’s need (physical need, emotional need, intellectual need,
psychological needs
a. Materials found in nature
 Stones – Stone, Granite Stone, Limestone, Sandstone, Marble
b. Materials manufactured by a man
 Ceramic Materials – Glass, Clay
 Metals – Aluminum, Bronze, Wrought Iron, Copper, Monel
Metal, Nickel Silver, Chrome Nickel
  Steel, Concrete Materials, Plastics
c. Indigenous Materials
 Sawali Coco Doir Bagasse Abaca Bamboo Palm Frond Stem
Mud Bricks

B. Auditory Arts
 Are those whose medium can be heard.

 Music
- Music is an art. Culture is reflected in art. The more music a man knows, the
more cultured he becomes. It dealt with sounds.
a. Vocal Music
b. Instrumental Music
1. String Instrument – that makes sound by vibrating the strings on it.
2. Wind Instrument – is a musical instrument in which a column of air
is set into vibration by the player blowing into a mouthpiece set at
the end of the resonator
3. Percussion Instrument – the percussion section of an orchestra
most commonly contains instruments such as timpani, snare drum,
bass drum, cymbals, triangle and tambourine.

C. Combined Arts
 Are arts which can be seen and heard at the same time
 Managers, curators, buyers, collectors, art dealers
O Definition
1. Manager
 A gallery manager chooses and presents art for sale.
2. Curator
 A curator is in charge of a collection of exhibits in a museum or art gallery.
3. Buyer
 An art buyer is an individual who discovers and purchase art works for a
client to suit in accordance with their taste.
4. Collector
 A collector is a person who loves certain pieces of art/paintings and collect
art not necessary to sell later but the chance is there.
5. Art Dealer
 An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art with
aim of making a profit.

 Roles
1. Manager
 Managing both the creative and business sides of running an art gallery,
as well as organizing and exhibitions, private sales and loaning out art.
2. Curator
 Responsible for assembling, cataloging, managing, presenting and
displaying artworks, cultural collections and artifacts.
3. Buyer
 Is responsible for previewing auction offerings, overseeing the packaging
and transportation for the purchased pieces, and working with the Art
Director of the client’s company or the client to understand what they
want.
4. Collector
  Provides money for art galleries to continue
5. Art Dealer
 An art dealer typically seeks out various artists to represent, and builds
relationships with collectors and museums whose interests are likely to
match the work of the represented artists.