Defining Art: Power, Expression, and Skill

Defining Art

• Art encompasses power, creativity, expression, and communication
• It can elevate the spirit and enrich life
• Art has profound effects on moods and emotions
• Conveying feelings and expressions, art is the lifeblood of humanities
• Art motivates people to create and appreciate beauty
• The term "art" comes from the Latin word "ars," signifying ability or skill

Perspectives on Art

• According to Webster's Dictionary, art involves the conscious application of skill and creative imagination in producing aesthetic objects
• Leo Tolstoy saw art as a means to unite people in feeling, essential for the well-being and advancement of individuals and humanity
• Aristotle considered art a higher form of knowledge than experience
• Jean Anouih believed art's purpose is to give shape to life
• Oscar Wilde defined art as the most intense mode of individualism
• Frank Lloyd Wright viewed art as discovering and developing nature's principles into forms suitable for human use
• Jean Couteau described art as science in the flesh
• James Adam asserted that all art is social

Core Aspects of Art

• Art is a ubiquitous phenomenon
• Creation in art is combining or reorganizing existing materials to form new objects
• Art is a process of imitation that involves personal assimilation through mind, feeling, and style
• Art is universal because it transcends cultures, races, and civilizations
• Art is timeless because it goes beyond the constraints of time
• Art is a form of expression and communication arising from the human need to express oneself using symbols
• Art enables the artist to convey experiences

Art and Experience

• Art and experience encompass the artist's expression and the onlooker's interpretation
• Major arts involve skill to create aesthetic works, while minor arts focus on styling, according to Webster

Dimensions of Art

• According to Manaois, art has 3 dimensions
• Fine or Independent arts are for aesthetic enjoyment
• Practical or Utilitarian Arts focus on developing raw materials

Categories of Art

• Performing arts include theater, play, dance and music, involving movement, speaking, and gestures
• Literary arts include short stories, novels, poetry, and dramas
• Popular arts include film, newspapers, magazines, radio, and television; characterized as gay and lively
• Abad, and Jao grouped art into Visual, Drama and theater and Dance
• Visual arts include graphic arts like drawing, painting, and photography
• Drama includes tragedy, melodrama, and comedy
• Dance encompasses ethnologic, social, ballroom, ballet, modern, and musical comedy
• Kinetic arts involve rhythmic movement
• Pure arts use one medium of expression like sound or color
• Mixed arts use two or more media, like opera

Main Categories

• Visual Arts
• Literary Arts
• Performing Arts

Historical Views of Art

• Ancient art was applied to Latin authors' writings for clarity, literary style, and moral teaching
• Medieval art focused on metaphysics, religion, spiritual cultivation, and preparation for the afterlife
• Renaissance art referred to disciplines taught in universities, providing skills and values through humanities

Expressive vs. Representational Art

• Expressive theory views art as representing the artist's inner state
• Music is viewed as expressing feelings, emotions, moods, and conflicts
• Internal art focuses on humanities, whereas external art focuses on science
• Representational theory views art as portraying visible forms of nature
• A representational artist seeks faithfulness in portraying things

Classifications of Art

• Visual arts involve primarily visual creations
• Painting involves applying paint, pigment, and color, derived from LW(pingere) meaning to paint
• Sculpture involves carving, modeling, casting, assembling, and constructing, derived from LW(sculpere) meaning to cut
• Architecture is the art of designing and constructing buildings
• Plastic arts have three-dimensional forms
• Dance involves rhythmic body movement dependent on music and non-verbal communication
• Music combines sounds of varying pitches like vocal, instrumental, opera, and musical comedy
• Theater is a play or drama recreated by actors in a dramatic form
• Film is the art of moving images, manipulating reality through image and sound
• Literary arts consist of written material like poetry, novels, poems, and drama
• Digital arts, like graphic arts, have a two-dimensional surface like painting, drawing, and photography

More Categories of Art

• Pop art is lively and includes film, newspaper, magazines, radio, and TV
• Gustatory art involves skill in food preparation
• Decorative arts are visual objects produced for aesthetic functions in houses, interior designs, offices, and cars

Subject in Art

• The subject is what is represented in the artwork, whether it's a person, object, scene, or event
• Non-objective art does not have a subject

Types of Subject

• Representational or Objective Arts portray recognizable subjects or objects that are real
• Portraiture depicts men and women and was popular before cameras
• Animals and Plants or Flora and Fauna represent animals and plants, from man's early encounters
• Still Life depicts inanimate objects
• Country Life depicts community scenes
• Landscape depicts land forms
• Seascape depicts water forms
• Cityscape depicts aerial views of cities
• Events depict occurrences like Spolarium and Blood Compact
• Religious Items depict holy figures
• Mythological, fictional, and cartoon characters represent mythological or fictional characters
• Non-Representational or Non-Objective Arts do not resemble anything real
• Abstract art departs from reality, with degrees of abstractness varying based on similarity to the real world

Methods or Presenting the Subjects

• Realism/naturalism represents things accurately
• Surrealism means super naturalism or beyond realism
• Cubism, popularized by George Brague and Pablo Picasso, emphasizes geometry
• Expressionism, introduced in Germany, emotionally expresses the real-life subject by focusing on feelings
• Impressionism was introduced through studio painting
• Symbolism uses visible signs or objects to represent absolute reality
• Pointillism is the result of science, colors, and optics from George Seurat and Paul Signac
• Futurism originated in Italy in the early 20th century, focusing on machines and motion
• Minimalism emphasizes shapes and space, focusing on decorative displays
• Fauvism flourished with Henri Matisse and Andre Derain, focusing on color
• Dadaism is considered shocking realism
• Pure Abstractionism means "drawing away from reality"