Forms of Art: Overview and Examples

Forms of Art

• Painting: Art form involving pigments on a flat surface, creating meaningful effects. Example: Ang Kiukok's "Fishermen" portrays fishermen's struggle and hope, with a crimson sun signifying perpetual energy.
• Sculpture: Designing and constructing 3D forms representing natural objects or imaginary shapes. Example: Guillermo Tolentino's "The Oblation," a concrete statue symbolizing a selfless offering to the University of the Philippines, depicts a man with outstretched arms facing upward.
• Architecture: Art form involving designing and constructing buildings and structures. Example: The Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mosque (Grand Mosque of Cotabato), the largest in the Philippines, funded by Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and designed by architect Felino Palafox.
• Music: Combines and regulates sounds of varying pitch to produce compositions expressing ideas and emotions. Example: "Anak," the most iconic Filipino song, is considered the biggest OPM international hit.
• Dance: Uses the human body as its medium. Example: Singkil, a dance from the Maranao people, retells the rescue of Princess Gandingan by Prince Bantugan from a diwata (spirit).
• Theater: Drama or play where actors recreate a story on a stage for an audience. Example: "Ang Huling El Bimbo" narrates a story of friendship through the songs of a popular Pinoy rock band from the '90s.
• Motion Picture: Projects a series of images rapidly on a screen creating the illusion of movement.

Functions of Art

• Directly Functional Art: Serves practical purposes like architecture, woven fabrics, and furniture, while exhibiting aesthetic qualities and fulfilling basic human needs.
• Indirectly Functional Art: Art perceived through the senses, such as painting, sculpture, music, etc., holds no practical purpose, valued for their intellectual, emotional, or aesthetic worth.
• Personal Function: Art that holds personal significance, expressing or reflecting individual feelings, experiences, or identities.
• Social Function: Integral to society, influencing every aspect of social life.
• Physical Function: Art objects that enhance physical comfort. Functional art might be a tool or container.
• Therapeutic Function: Art and music have therapeutic benefits, offering ways to manage emotions, increase self-awareness, reduce stress and anxiety, and provide new perspectives.

Subject and Content in Art

• Subject is the visual focus or image extracted from an artwork, answering "what" in art.
• Representational Art: Depicts real-world objects or events. Also termed figurative art, where figures are easily identifiable. Example: Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" (1503).
• Non-Representational Art: Does not refer to the real world. Focuses on visual elements like shapes, lines, and colors to convey feelings, emotions, and concepts. Example: Jackson Pollock's abstract painting "Number 1A" (1948).

Types of Art Subjects

• Still Life: Compilation of inanimate objects arranged together.
• History: Depiction of factual events from the past, used for remembrance or teaching.
• Religion: Art serves as a handmaid of religion.
• Mythology: Stories of deities from various cultures, depicting present-day human behaviors.
• Dreams and Fantasy: Expresses the wonders of the unconscious. Artworks aim to explain their content, including hidden meanings.
• Landscape: Depiction of natural scenery like mountains, cliffs, rivers, etc.
• Nature: Concentrated view or interpretation of specific natural elements.
• Portraiture: Image of a specific person, animal, or group.
• Abstract: Non-representational artwork, using color, shape, line, form, texture, and pattern to create a visual representation of ideas and feelings.

Content in Art

• Content is the meaning or message conveyed by the artist, answering "why" in art.
• Factual Meaning: Most basic level of meaning, derived from recognizable forms and their relationships.
• Conventional Meaning: Interpreted using motifs, symbols, signs, and other ciphers as base for meaning.
• Subjective Meaning: Meaning stemming from the viewer's individual experiences, perspectives, and values.

Elements of Art

• Line: Mark on a surface with length and direction, created by a tool (pencil, pen, brush).
• Color: Consists of hue, intensity, and value (lightness or darkness).
• Space: Distance or area between, around, above, below, or within things.
  • Positive Space: The object itself.
  • Negative Space: The space around the object.
  • Foreground, Middle Ground, Background: Creates depth.
• Texture: Surface quality or "feel" of an object. Can be actual or implied.

Artist and Artisan

• Artist: Expresses their feelings, emotions, and perceptions of the world through various materials in visual arts. Their expression can be seen in painting, drawing, sculpture, and other forms.
• Artisan: Skilled worker who makes objects by hand, ranging from furniture to jewelry. Artisan objects possess both functional and decorative value.

Art Movements

• Pointillism: Painting technique using tiny dots ("points") of pure color applied in patterns to form an image.
• Pop Art: Inspired by popular imagery and products from commercial culture.
• Post-Impressionism: A reaction against Impressionism's naturalistic depiction of light and color.
• Realism: Reaction against Romanticism, presenting both good and bad, beautiful and ugly in an unembellished manner.
• Rococo: Style characterized by elaborate ornamentation and a light, sensuous style in architecture and decorative art.
• Surrealism: Liberates thought and human experience from rationalism, championing the irrational and poetic.
• Suprematism: Abstract art movement that expressed in the simplest geometric forms, believing it superior to representational art.

Explore the diverse forms of art including painting, sculpture, architecture, and music. Discover significant examples that illustrate each art form, like Ang Kiukok's 'Fishermen' and the Grand Mosque of Cotabato. This quiz will enhance your understanding of how these forms express ideas and emotions.