Art Appreciation

GHILSH APAS
What is Art?
Why study the Humanities?
Humanities and the Art

Art Humanities Man

Society
Humanities and the Art

 The term humanities generally refers to art, literature, music,

architecture, dance and the theatre – areas in which human
subjectivity is emphasized and individual expressiveness is dramatized.
 The importance of the human being and his/her feelings is the main
concern of the humanities.
 The humanities are, therefore, the records of man’s experiences,
his/her values, his/her sentiments, his/her ideals, and his/her goals. The
humanities are ultimately the expressions of man’s feelings and
thoughts.
What is Art: Introduction and Assumptions

 The word “art” comes from the ancient Latin ars which means craft or
specialized form of skill, like carpentry or smithying or surgery.
 Ars in the Ancient World only meant “using the bare hands to produce
something that will be useful to one’s day-to-day life”.
 Ars in Medieval Latin meant “any special form of book-learning, such as
grammar or logic, magic or astrology”.
 During the Renaissance Period, the word reacquired a meaning that was
inherent in its ancient form of craft were artists saw their activities merely as
craftsmanship.
What is Art: Introduction and Assumptions

 During the seventeenth century the problem and idea of aesthetics or the
study of beauty began to unfold distinctly from the notion of technical
workmanship, which was the original conception of the word “art”.
 Finally, it was during the eighteenth century when the word has evolved to
distinguish between “fine arts” and “useful arts” (i.e., art as beautiful and
craft as useful).
 Art involves personal experience of an individual accompanied by
some intensity of emotion.
 Art is a product of man’s need to express him/herself and is not limited
to the revelation of emotions alone.
Assumptions of Art

 Art is universal.
 In every country and in every generation, there is always art.
 Art has always been timeless and universal, spanning generations and
continents through and through.
 Art is not nature.
 Art is made by human, no matter how close it is to nature.
 It reflects reality and not the reality itself.
 Art is man’s expression of his/her reception of nature.
 Art is man’s way of interpreting nature.
Assumptions of Art

 Art involves experience.

 Art is the actual doing of something.
 E.g., A painter cannot claim to know how to paint if he/she has not tried
holding a brush.
Art Appreciation as a Way of Life

 People who have developed a fine sense of appreciation can

experience and see the art the same way the artist did.
 Refining one’s ability to appreciate art allows us to deeply understand
the purpose of an artwork and recognize the beauty it possesses.
 People who develop an understanding of the art serve as a rewarding
experience that will lead to a fuller and more meaningful life.
 Art is man’s way of interpreting nature.
 “Every landscape has something to offer on a cloudy day or in the
dreariest month of the year. When you are tired and lonely, and bored or in a
mood to experience something truly uplifting, look out of the window or take a
walk. Collecting the beautiful is like collecting the famous paintings or jewels of
great worth. When you start this hunt, you will make many unusual finds like a
path lined with stories and females with a wonder of shapes and designs.
Countless simple scenes and new vistas may open up to enrich your mind.
Your world will never again be drab. Life will become more rewarding. You
may write, paint or compose a song. In your heart and mind, you will create a
change that will be nothing less than a masterpiece.”
Marguerrite Gilmore
Importance and Functions of Art

 Personal functions of Art

 The arts are an outlet of our slumbering passions in which, we as an artists may
create an art out of the need for self-expression.
 Arts are powerful means to reform man, to change his/her deviant behavior into
social order and to overcome his/her feelings of loneliness, uncertainty, and
restlessness.
 Social Functions of Art
 Art could have a social function if and when it addresses a particular collective
interest as opposed to a personal interest.
 It may convey a message of protest on certain social issues and solicit action or
awareness from their audience.
Importance and Functions of Art

 Physical Functions of Art

 The physical functions of art are the easiest to spot and understand.
 The physical functions of art can be found in artworks that are crafted in order to
serve some physical purpose. (e.g., architecture, jewelry, and etc…)
 Other Functions of Art
 Art may serve as moral, educational, cultural, religious, financial, or as powerful
medium in mass communication.
Further Meanings of Art
Philosophical Perspectives on Art

1. Art as Imitation
 art is imitation or representation of reality
 Ex. Mona Lisa – likeness of a person
 Landscape painting – a view
 Novel – realistic life situation
 Movie – situation / true-to-life characters
Philosophical Perspectives on Art

 Proponents:
 Plato
 The real world is found in the world of idea
 Reality is a copy of the idea
 Reality must not be pictured in a distorted way
 An imitation can never be good as the real thing
 In contemplating art, people may spend time on pale imitation, ignoring the
real thing
Philosophical Perspectives on Art

 Aristotle
 Art presents a likeness of actions and events, or of objects, or even of emotions
 Art is natural and pleasurable
 Art can give pleasure because it is “beautiful”
 Beauty lies in unity
 A good work of art has to express universal truths about human nature
 Two Effects of Recreation of Actions:
 Feelings are aroused in ways that are beneficial and satisfying
 Provides insight into human beings and the world (Can change person’s feelings and moral
character)
 Ex. music can make us feel angry at injustice; it can make us feel brave, fearful and cowardly
Philosophical Perspectives on Art

 Implications:
 Art is a mere reproduction
 Criteria: good when closer imitation of reality; and bad when poor imitation
 Underlying question: How well it imitates a reality?
 Criticisms:
 How will the art grow?
 Where is the room for creativity?
 Confinement to the original?
 Shouldn’t art be something more or different from a mere picture of reality?
 If we restrict art to presenting an accurate picture of reality, aren’t we wrongly turning the artist into
nothing more than a photocopying machine or a camera?
Philosophical Perspectives on Art

2. Art as Expression of Emotion

 This theory became the dominant view in the 19th century.
 The development of the expression theory of art was related to Romanticism.
 The Romantics were a group of philosophers, poets, artists, and thinkers who felt
that behind the ordinary world we experience is another more mysterious reality
that is vital, portentous, and the source of deeper hidden meaning.
 Many of the Romantics came to the conclusion that although reason cannot get
at this deeper, more important reality, our feelings can.
Philosophical Perspectives on Art

 Proponents:
 Leo Tolstoy
 Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain
external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people
are infected by these feelings and also experience them.
 Art expresses feelings in two ways
 First, the artist expresses his or her feelings in the work of art.
 Second, the work of art arouses or “ex-presses” the same feelings in the audience.
Philosophical Perspectives on Art

 Immanuel Kant
 There is more to reality than the world of nature that we see, hear, touch, and
perceive with our senses.
 There is a deeper reality that lies behind the natural world (phenomenon).
 The deeper underlying reality is the “noumenal” world.
 It has to be the source of morality, value, and freedom.
Philosophical Perspectives on Art

 Benedetto Croce (1866-1952) – Art as “intuitive knowledge.”

 Art is the expression of the feelings of the artist. And though the artist may not be in touch
with the “noumenal” world, he/she is still in touch with the deeper significance of life.
 Two Forms of Knowledge:
 Intuitive – knowledge got through imagination; knowledge of individual things;
produces “images”; the kind of knowledge identifiable with art or what is known as
“expressive knowledge.”
 Logical – knowledge got through intellect, knowledge of the universal and of the
relations between individual things; produces concepts.
Philosophical Perspectives on Art

 Expressing feelings is different from imitating or recreating feelings. Example, the

feeling that the play expresses may be very different from the feelings that the
actors are trying to imitate.
 Example: Guernica – a painting by Pablo Picasso (1937). The painting is about
Spanish Civil War, but the painting is not like a photo of events or incidents that
occurred during the war. Picasso could have “intuited” in a deep way the horror
of war and expressed this horror in a painting that evokes that same horror in us.
Philosophical Perspectives on Art

 Criticisms:
 What does it really mean to say that art “expresses” feelings?
 When a work of art expresses sadness, we are surely not saying that the painting indicates
the inner feeling the artist was having when he created the painting. Usually, paintings
take a long time to finish.
 We don’t really know what the artist was feeling when he created an art.
 Art does not express the feelings of the artist. It just reminds of things that we connect with
certain feelings.
 Art is not about something outside of itself. Art should just be judged on its own terms.
Philosophical Perspectives on Art

3. Art as Form
 Art has no purpose other than to be looked at and be appreciated of its beauty.
 Proponents:
 Clive Bell – A work of art is an artifact that possesses significant form.
 Art should not be defined in terms of its relationship to something outside the work of art,
such as “reality” or “emotion.”
 Something counts as a work of art simply because of the way that its part and its
materials are arranged and put together. For example, a painting is a work of art
because of the way its colors, its shapes, and its lines are arranged. This arrangement of
lines, colors, and shapes is what Bell calls the “Form” of a work of art.
Philosophical Perspectives on Art

 The form or arrangement of the parts of a work of art is what makes it count as a work of
art.
 The parts of the work of art must be arranged in a way that will “stir our aesthetic
emotions.” The people who are sensitive to art feel a very special emotion when they
see a beautiful work of art. When the arrangement of colors, shapes, and lines of a
painting arouse these “aesthetic emotions” in us, then the “Form” of the painting is
“Significant” and it is a work of art.
 Another word for significant is beautiful. Something is beautiful when it arouses a special
feeling in us.
Philosophical Perspectives on Art

 Saint Thomas Aquinas – Beauty is “that which pleases us when we see it.” What is good is
what all desire. But the beautiful is that which requires only to be seen or known to calm the
desire.
 It is one thing to desire to possess an object; it is another thing to see it as beautiful. When something
is beautiful, I just want to contemplate it – to see it or listen to it – not to possess it.
 A thing has beauty when its form has:
 Integrity or perfection;
 Due proportion or harmony; and
 Brightness or clarity, which is why beautiful things have a clear color.

 Something is beautiful when its form arouses a special “aesthetic” feeling in us. This feeling is
“disinterested,” not the same as a desire to possess something.
 Aesthetic feeling is aroused in us by the way in which the parts of the beautiful work of art are
arranged.
Philosophical Perspectives on Art

 Criticisms:
 Many philosophers agree with Bell that it is the form of an artwork that makes it count as a
work of art, and that a good artwork is one that arouses a special “aesthetic emotion” in
us. But most do not feel that only beautiful things can be art.
Philosophical Perspectives on Art

4. Art As What the Artworld Says It Is

 Art should be defined as whatever people in the “artworld” say is art.
 The “artworld” consists of all those people who are engaged in producing art and
in deciding whether it is good art or bad art.
 Artworld consist of:
 Artists - who produce the arts
 Galleries and Museums – who decide which arts are good enough to exhibit
 Critics – who write newspaper articles saying that these arts are good or bad
 Audiences– who decide which arts are worth enough to spend money for
Subject and Content

To appreciate art
 One must be able to extract a specific image
 Isolate the artist or maker’s intention
 Unearth a particular meaning
Subject and Content

Subject
 The visual focus or the image that may be extracted from examining an artwork.
 The art subject refers to the main idea that is represented in the artwork and
basically the essence of the piece.
 In simpler terms, the subject is seen as the “what” of the art.
Content
 The meaning or the message that is communicated by the artist.
 The content is seen as the “why” of the art and asks the question “Why was the
artwork created in the first place?”
Subject and Content

Form
 It is the development and configuration of the artwork – how the elements and the
medium or material are put together.
 In simpler terms, the form is seen as the “how” of the art.
Subject and Content

Types of Subject
 Representational
 These types of art have subjects that refer to objects or events occurring in the real
world.
 Often termed as figurative art because as the name suggests, the figures depicted are
easy to make and decipher. In fact, these are often favored because they are easier to
recognize.
 Non-Representational
 These types of art have subjects that does not make reference to the real world, whether
it is a person, place, thing, or even a particular event.
 It is stripped down to visual elements such as shapes, lines, and colors that are employed
to translate a particular feeling, emotion, and even concept.
Subject and Content

Understanding the Content of Art

 Various levels of meaning
 Factual meaning – pertains to the most rudimentary level of meaning for it may be
extracted from the identifiable or recognizable forms in the artwork.
 Conventional meaning – pertains to the acknowledged interpretation of the artwork
using motifs, signs, symbols and other cyphers as bases of its meaning.
 Subjective meaning – stems from the viewer’s or audience’s circumstances that come
into play when engaging with art.
 References

 Caslib, Bernardo Nicolas Jr., et al… Art Appreciation. Quezon City: Rex Printing
Company Inc., 2018.
 Zulueta, Francisco M. The Humanities (Revised Edition). Mandaluyong City:
National Book Store. 2003.