Understanding Art Subject, Form, and Content

• Looking at art in the Philippines can be tricky, especially due to a predominantly non-museum-going public.
• A major hurdle in engaging with art is the need to extract a specific image, isolate the artist's intention, and find a particular meaning.
• Art engagement begins with perception.
• Subjectivity is essential in navigating artwork, influencing how viewers perceive details.
• Viewer's disposition, education, background, and exposure shape the interpretation of information.
• Mediation between artwork and viewer is achieved through clues, the three components being subject, form, and content.
• Subject refers to the visual focus or image.
• Content is the meaning communicated by the artist or artwork
• Form is the development and configuration of the artwork.
• Subject is "what," content is "why," and form is "how."

Representational Art vs. Non-Representational Art

• Representational art refers to objects or events in the real world and is also known as figurative art.
• Non-representational art doesn't reference the real world, and is often called non-figurative art.
• Non-representational art is stripped down to visual elements to translate feelings, emotions, or concepts.
• Abstract art may lean towards representational or non-representational, depending on its degree of departure from reality.
• Vasily Kandinsky was a proponent of non-representational who likened it to music, evoking imagery and spiritual experiences.

Sources and Kinds of Subject

• Artists source subjects from their experiences, knowledge, and surroundings.
• For non-representational art, heightened perceptiveness is required to grasp the underlying feeling, emotion, or concept.
• Nature is a common source of inspiration, explored through diverse representations throughout history.
• Vincent van Gogh saw art and nature as inseparable, finding solace and happiness in painting landscapes.
• Other artists who captured landscapes are Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, and JMW Turner.
• Fernando Amorsolo and Fabian de la Rosa gained prominence through their painted rural scenes such as women in the fields gathering harvest.
• Jan van Kessel the Elder broke nature into smaller parts with still lives and small-scale, highly detailed scientific illustrations.
• Greek and Roman mythology provide references to heroic encounters, warnings, wit, beauty, and athleticism.

Religious and Historical Influences

• The distinct relationship with a higher controlling power is an integral aspect of human life.
• The Judeo-Christian tradition, stemming from monotheism, had a huge influence on Western civilization and art.
• Michelangelo created an intricate fresco for the Sistine Chapel commissioned by Pope Julius II.
• Practicing Jews and Christians were allowed to depict their God and other important biblical figures, unlike in Islam.
• Formative years of church architecture go back to the fourth and fifth centuries, with different styles and plans developing since then.
• Gothic churches had soaring heights (ceilings), volume (flying buttresses and ribbed vaults), and light (bright stained glass windows, airy and pleasant interiors).
• India's miniature paintings are a hybrid between literature and sacred text rooted in Vedic texts.
• Historically significant events are abundant references for art production.

Art in the Philippines

• During the Spanish colonial period, art was predominantly representational, serving communication to propagate religion.
• The momentum for secular art in the nineteenth century was due to contact, the opening of the Suez Canal, growth of export economy, and the rise of the middle class.
• Increased demand for commissioned portraits from wealthy families documented their elevated status.
• Artists like Simon Flores, Justiniano Ascuncion, and Antonio Malantic became foremost portraitists.
• Patrons mostly dictated the subjects of artworks and how they are translated.

Content in Art

• Subject may be referred to as the "what"
• To properly grasp the message of the artwork, you require to see beyond what is visible.
• Understanding the content of art involves various levels of meaning.
• Factual meaning are rudimentary and extracted from identifiable forms in the artwork.
• Conventional meaning is the acknowledged interpretation using motifs, signs, symbols, and cyphers
• Subjective meaning of art stems from the viewer's circumstances that come into play.
• Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" can be read using various levels of meaning.
• An interesting overlap between the conventional and subjective meanings is the proposal from gynecologist Frank Lynn Meshberger about how the silhouette of God align with the shape of the human brain.
• The primary function of art appreciation and education is ensuring the readiness of the public to not only successfully engage with the art, but meaningfully do so.