What is Art?

◂ Art is a product of man and humanity.

◂ Man has the capacity to create and appreciate such creations

◂ Therefore, Art, like any other works of men, falls under the study of Humanities.

◂ Humanities is the study of human society and culture

◂ It is the study of the human understanding his human-ness in him. (essence of

humanity)

◂ It is the human man making his world and making sense of his world.

◂ “Art is everything.” But most of the times, art is the Beautiful.

◂ WHAT IS BEAUTIFUL?

◂ Human beings are being drawn toward what is good and ultimately beautiful.

◂ As one moves through life, one locates better, more beautiful objects of desire. (Scott,
2000)

ART

◂ Etymology: “ARS” (Latin): craft or specialized form of skill, like carpentry or smithying or surgery
(Collingwood, 1938)

ANCIENT: use of bare hands.

MEDIEVAL: “any special form of book-learning, such as grammar and logic, magic and astrology”
(Collingwood, 1938)

Early Renaissance: Craftsmanship

17th Century: the birth of Aesthetics

18th Century: Separation of Fine Arts and Useful Arts

◂ Art is a physical and cultural affair

◂ Arts existed not because it was made to be an art but it existed because of its cultural value then
became an art.

◂ Arts and the humanities started before the terms have been coined
ASSUMPTIONS OF ART

1. Art is UNIVERSAL
 In every country and in every generation, there is always art.
 Art ≠ Time/Longevity
o “…art is not good because it is old, but old because it is good” (Dudley et al.,
1960)
 Art is adored because they meet our needs and desires.
o Art’s utility
o ART HAS BEEN RAFTED BY ALL PEOPLE REGARDLESS OF ORIGIN, TIME PLACE,
AND THAT IT STAYED ON BECAUSE IT IS LIKED AND ENJOYED BY PEOPLE
CONTINUOUSLY.
2. Art is NOT NATURE
 In a human-centered humanities, art is not nature and nature is not art.
o Art is the a product of a “conscious” agent. Art is a product of an artist.
 Is nature an unconscious agent?
o Art is man’s expression of his perception of nature.
 How about art that involves alteration of nature?
 Maybe art is not “natural” or “innate”
o If art is not nature, then art is not everything/everywhere, but
everything/everywhere man is involved.
3. Art is EXPERIENCE
 Art does not require a full definition. Art is just experience…”actual doing of something”
(Dudley et al., 1960).
 “All art depends on experience and if one is to know art, he must know it not as fact or
information but as experience.” (Ibid.)
 ART INVOLVES USING ALL THE SENSES
 But ultimately, ART depends on the INTELLECT
o The ability to PERCEIVE and PROCESS KNOWLEDGE
o Degustibus non disputandum est (Matters of taste are not matters of dispute)
 ART MAY INVOLVE EMOTIONS
o Emotions show the experience in art.
 ART IS A SMOKE, A WEED, AN LSD. Art makes you remember and forget. Art makes you
believe and doubt. Art is a question of experience.

ART APPRECIATION as a WAY OF LIFE

 Jean Paul Sartre: the role of art as a creative work is to depict the world in a completely
different light and perspective, and the source is due to HUMAN FREEDOM.
 However, not all are able to connect to an artwork and not all are able to understand the
freedom that enabled the art.
 ART APPRECIATION LEADS TO A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE ARTWORK AND A BETTER
UNDERSTANDING OF LIFE.

CREATIVITY in ART MAKING

 CREATIVITY IS WHAT SETS APART ONE ARTWORK FROM ANOTHER.

 Creativity demands Originality.

 Creativity demands proper and careful research to avoid conflicts.

 IMAGINATION AND CURIOUSITY ENABLE YOU TO ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS.

o As art needs imagination, IMAGINATION NEEDS ART AS WELL.

o ART is needed to EXPRESS ONESELF

o An emotion will remain unknown to a man until he expresses it.

o Description actually destroys the idea of expression, as it classifies the emotion, making
it ordinary and predictable. Expression on the other hand, individualizes.

EXPRESSIONS OF ART

VISUAL ARTS

 Mainly use the sense of sight

 Driven by the artist’s desire to reproduce things that they have seen in the way that they
perceived them.

 Kind of art that the population is most likely more exposed of.

FILM

 Succession of still images in order to create an illusion of movement

 Filmmakers focuses on

o Aesthetic Value

o Cultural value

o Social value
  Beyond our scope of imagination

 Combination of perfect lighting, musical score, visual effects, directions and more.

PERFORMANCE ART

 Live art and the medium is mainly the human body

 Four important elements

○ Time

○ Place

○ Performer or his body

○ Audience

POETRY PERFORMANCE

 Expresses through words

 Uses words emotional, musical and spatial values that go beyond literal meaning to narrate,
emphasize, argue or convince.

Architecture

 Making of beautiful buildings

 Architecture is the thoughtful making of space

 Architecture is a visual art, and the buildings speak for themselves

Dance

 A series of movements that follows the rhythm of the music accompaniment.

 Dance as a form of expression

 Create own series of movements gracefully

Literary Art

 Simply becoming a writer does not make one a literary artist

 Goes beyond usual academic, journalistic and technical writing

 Use of unique style

  Fiction and non-fiction (novels, biographies and poems)

Theater

 Live performers to present accounts or imaginary events before a live audience.

 Follows a script

 Participation of the viewer is important

Applied Arts

 Incorporating elements of style and design to everyday items with the aim of increasing their
aesthetical value

ELEMENTS AND PRINCIPLES OF ART

Elements of Art (The building blocks or ingredients of art). LiVSForCoTeS

Line

 A mark with length and direction.

 A continuous mark made on a surface by a moving point.

 Line has width as well as length, but usually the width of the line is smaller
than the length.

 Artists create lines in many different ways. A line can be drawn on a paper
with pencil or scratched in clay with a stick.

Value

 The lightness or darkness of a color.

 Value depends on how much light a surface reflects. A surface has a dark
value if it reflects little light. It has a light value if it reflects a lot of light. Every
time you make a mark with a pencil, you are creating a line with a certain
value. The harder you press, the darker the value. A series of closely placed
lines can create areas of dark value. (Also known as crosshatching)

Shape

 An enclosed area defined and determined by other art elements; 2-

dimensional.
  A shape is a two dimensional area that is defined in some way. In other
words, it may have an outline or a boundary around it. If you draw the
outline of a square on a sheet of paper, you have created a shape. All
shapes can be classified as geometric or free form shapes.

Form

 A 3-dimensional object; or

 Something in a 2-dimensional artwork that appears to be 3-dimensional.

 For example, a triangle, which is 2-dimensional, is a shape, but a pyramid,

which is 3-dimensional, is a form.

 Forms are objects having three dimensions. Like shapes, they both have
length and width, but forms also have depth. YOU are a three dimensional
form, so is a tree or a table.

Color

 Consists of Hue (another word for color), Intensity (brightness) and Value
(lightness or darkness).

 Color is the most expressive element of art. It shares a powerful connection

with emotion. Color can be a strong clue to an artist’s symbolism, or
meaning behind an artwork.

 Color can represent many different feelings or ideas.

 Color is the element of art that is derived from reflective light. You see color
because light waves are reflected from objects to your eyes.

 Hue is a quality which gives color its name. The colors of the spectrum are
therefore called hues.

 The Primary Colors are the original colors which cannot be derived from
any color combination. They are red, blue and yellow.

 The Secondary Colors are the combination of two primary colors. They are
green, orange, and violet.

 The Tertiary Colors are the combination of both the primary and secondary
colors. They are yellow green, yellow orange, blue green, blue violet, red
orange, and red violet.
  The Complementary Color scheme is composed of one of the primary
colors and the combination of two others. For example, the
complementary color of red is green, made by mixing yellow and blue.

 Analogous colors are three neighboring colors in the color wheel one
distinct color among them.

Color Interpretation

• Cold colors – winter, spring, not aggressive in hue

• Warm colors – summer. Fall, friendly in character

• Red – excitement, danger, war, heat, anger, aggressive

• Orange – autumn, warmth, movement, can be disagreeably hot in effect

• Green – spring, summer foliage, safety, coolness, restful and pleasant

• Yellow – sun, warmth without heat

• Blue – coolness, happiness, pleasure, popular with men

• Purple – coolness, royalty

• Cool colors – dignity, formality

• Warm colors – informality, excitement

• Pink – femininity

• Black – mourning, sorrow, death

• White – purity, innocence

• Brown – humbleness, nobility

Texture

 The surface quality or "feel" of an object, its smoothness, roughness, softness,

etc. Textures may be actual or implied.

 Texture is the element of art that refers to how things feel, or look as if they
might feel, if touched. You perceive texture with two of your senses; touch
and vision. Infants learn about their environment by touching objects and
 by putting them in their mouths. Toddlers are attracted to all objects that
are within their reach. When you look at surfaces, you are able to guess
their texture because you have learned how textures feel.

Space

 The distance or area between, around, above, below, or within things.

 Foreground, Middleground and Background (creates DEPTH)

 Positive (filled with something) and Negative (empty areas).

 Space refers to both outer space and inner space. Rockets move through
outer space to explore other planets. People move through the inner
space of rooms and buildings. Space can be flat and two dimensional,
such as the space of a widow. Space can also be three dimensional, such
as the space filled with water in a swimming pool.

 Shapes and forms exist in space. Space is the element of art that refers to
the emptiness or area between, around, above, below, or within objects.
All objects take up space. You for example, are a living breathing form
moving through space.

 Shapes and forms are defined by the space around and within them. They
depend on space for their existence. This is why it is important to
understand the relationship of space to shapes and form.

The Principles of Art

(What we use to organize the Elements of Art, or the tools to make art.)

Balance

 The way the elements are arranged to create a feeling of stability in a work.

 Symmetrical Balance - The parts of an image are organized so that one side
mirrors the other.

 Asymmetrical Balance - When one side of a composition does not reflect

the design of the other.

Emphasis

 The focal point of an image, or when one area or thing stands out the most.
Contrast

 A large difference between two things to create interest and tension.

Rhythm and Movement

 A regular repetition of elements to produce the look and feel of movement.

Pattern and Repetition

 Repetition of a design.

Variety

 The use of differences and change to increase the visual interest of the
work.

Unity

 When all the elements and principles work together to create a pleasing
image.

Proportion

 The comparative relationship of one part to another with respect to size,

quantity, or degree; SCALE.