Art Appreciation PDF

DR. VIRGILIO R. AGUILAR University of St. L a Salle Bacolod City HUMANITIES  Generally refers to art, literature, music, architecture, dances, and theatre – areas in which human subjectivity is emphasized and individual expressiveness is dramatized.  The records of human expe...

DR. VIRGILIO R. AGUILAR University of St. L a Salle Bacolod City HUMANITIES  Generally refers to art, literature, music, architecture, dances, and theatre – areas in which human subjectivity is emphasized and individual expressiveness is dramatized.  The records of human experiences, his/her values, sentiments, ideas and goals.  Ultimately the expressions of human feelings and thoughts.  During the renaissance, humanities was referred to the set of disciplines taught in the universities, which included grammar, rhetoric, history, literature, music and philosophy – a body of knowledge aimed to make a human person a full person, i.e., cultured, refined and well- rounded. HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES HUMANITIES SOCIAL SCIENCES Person as an Individual Types and groups of people, institutions and processes of society Internal world of the human External world of people (social person (personality, experiences, relations etc.) thoughts and feelings) Nature of study: generally Scientific, generally objective, subjective e.g., use of perception, subject to observation, feelings, intuition, insights measurement and experimentation. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT  Ancient Period:  Humanities were writings about the moral teachings by Latin writers and philosophers  Medieval Period (12th-14th Centuries)  Medieval universities/professors were interested in metaphysics and religious things (scholasticism) whose goal was the cultivation of spiritual life and preparations for the hereafter. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT  Renaissance Period (15th – 18th Centuries)  Humanities were disciplines in schools and universities which focused and asserted the intrinsic value of human life on earth, his/her essential worth and capacity for self- advancement in this world. Thus, it included Greek literatures, fine arts, music, history, theology, philosophy and rhetoric.  Modern/Contemporary  The rise of sciences (social sciences) affected or stunted the further development of humanities as a free and encompassing discipline.  People’s thoughts, feeling, expressions, mediums, were overshadowed by scientific formula and systems. ARTS: Meaning and Nature  Constitute one of the oldest and most important means of expressions developed by people.  Art has been created by people at all times, it lives because its liked and enjoyed.  It involves personal experience of an individual accompanied by some intensity of emotions.  Works of art reflect also the milieu an artist belongs and therefore is not free from the influences of his/her social, economic, political, cultural, geographic, scientific, and technological environment.  Appreciating a work of art implies an intellectual involvement with what is to be appreciated.  Art is a product of people’s needs to express himself and is not limited to the emotions alone. The Functions of Art  To find meaning in art, it must serve a utilitarian purpose and be capable of serving the purpose for which it was designed. The Social Functions of Art  Influences collective behavior or people for a cause.  Social behavior is influenced by many works of art.  Advertisements: greatly influence the social behavior of an individual especially their tastes and preferences.  Physical Functions  Many works of art were primarily made to perform certain functions to make our lives comfortable.  Music and its Function  Music which is the art of combining and regulating sounds of varying pitch to produce compositions expressive of various ideas and emotions that are pleasing are basically functional.  The two sources of music in its origin are dances and religion.  Sculpture and its Function  Sculpture which is the art of carving, molding or producing works of art in three dimensions, as in relief, or in intaglio, is more functional than painting and literature. Examples: religion and its churches, coins, icons, monuments and others. Two Schools of Thought in Arts Artists who believe solely in “arts for the sake of arts”, or arts as plain aesthetics and individual satisfaction.  Basic beliefs and values: The world/society is stable and in harmony and therefore should not be shaken.  There is need to contribute to make it desirable and convenient place to live.  Choice of subjects: natural objects (flowers, rivers, physical bodies, mountains, trees, etc)  Content: serenity, purity, stability, harmony, etc.  Forms: from indigenous to expensive materials  Style: surrealism, abstract and realism  Artists who believe in arts as medium or instrument of social change, e.g., depicting social realities and advocating for a change or reforms.  Basic beliefs and values: The world/society is changing and in conflict. There is a need to change it and make it prosperous and equitable.  Choice of subjects: social issues  Content: injustice, oppression, exploitation, etc.  Form: indigenous materials  Style: social realism, surrealism The Subject of Art  The subject of art is varied. It may refer to any person, object, scene, or even represented in a work of art.  Representational Art  Arts that have subjects e.g., painting, sculpture, graphic arts, literature, theatre and others.  Non-Representational Art  Arts that do not have subjects, e.g., music, architecture, and many functional arts.  Do not present descriptions, stories or references to identifiable objects or symbols.  They appeal directly to the senses primarily because of the satisfying organization of their expressive elements. Ways of Presenting the Subject  Realism  the objects are depicted in the way they would normally appear in nature.   Abstraction  does not show the subject at all as an objective reality but only an idea of it or the feeling about it.  A technique of simplifying and reorganizing objects and elements according to the artist’s creative expressions.  The original objects have been reduced to simple geometric shapes and they can be rarely identified unless the artist named them in his/her title. Ways of Presenting the Subject  Distortion  A technique employed by the artist to dramatize the shape of a figure in order to create an emotional effect.  Twisting, stretching, or deforming the natural form and shape of the object, e.g., caricatures.  Surrealism  A combination of realism and distortion Levels of Meaning of Subjects Subject matter may acquire different levels of meaning. Cleaver classifies them as (1) factual meaning, (2) conventional meaning and (3) subjective meaning.  The factual meaning is the literal statement or the narrative content in the work which can be directly apprehended because the objects presented are easily recognized. This meaning is often supplemented by other levels of meaning.  The conventional meaning refers to the special meaning that a certain object or color has for a particular culture or group of people. The flag is the agreed-upon symbol for a nation. The Cross is a Christian symbol of faith; the wheel is the Buddhist symbol for the teachings of Gautama Buddha.  The subjective meaning is any personal meaning consciously or unconsciously conveyed by the artists using a private symbolism which stem from his own association of certain objects, actions or colors with past experiences. This can be fully understood only when the artist himself explains what he really means, as in the case of the poems of T.S. Eliot where he provides footnotes. Otherwise, it tends to be interpreted differently by each viewer or reader who may see it in the light of his own associations.  No one can be expected to understand without effort and study the meanings of many works of art, especially those that deal with religion and mythology. To a non-Christian the dove would not have a vivid religious meaning, nor would the four arms of Shiva or the elephant head of the god Ganesh have to the non-Hindu. To fully grasp the content of works of art, one must learn as much as he can about the culture of the people that produced them and maintain an open mind.  MEDIUM  The means by which an artist communicates his/her ideas  The materials the artist uses to translate his/her feelings or thoughts into a beautiful reality. Three Classifications  VISUAL ARTS (Space Arts)  Are those mediums which can be seen or occupy space.  Two kinds:  Two Dimensional: length and width only such as paintings, drawing and photography  Three Dimensional: length, width and height such as sculpture and architecture, landscaping  AUDITORY ARTS (Time Arts)  Mediums that can be heard and are expressed in time such as music and literature  COMBINED ARTS (Performing Arts)  Mediums that can be both heard and seen and exist both in space and time such as movies, dances and other performing arts TECHNIQUE:  The manner in which the artist controls his/her medium to achieve the desire effect.  The ability by which an artist fulfills the technical requirements of his/her particular work of art. The Mediums of Visual Art Water color Oil Drawing Print making Fresco Acrylic Bistre Wood art Tempera Mosaic Crayons Engraving Pastel Stained glass Charcoal Relief Encaustic Tapestry Silverpoint Intaglio Stencil printing The Mediums of Sculpture Stone Metals Lead Granite Bronze Plaster Marble Brass Clay Jade Copper Glass Ivory Gold and silver Wood The Mediums of Music 1. Stringed instruments (guitar, violin, cello and others) 2. Woodwinds (flute, clarinet, piccolo, oboe and others) 3. Brass instruments (trumpet, horn, trombone and others) 4. Percussion instruments (chimes, drums, cymbals, xylophone, kettle drums and others) 5. Keyboard instruments ( organ, harpsichord, celesta and others) 6. Electronic musical instruments ELEMENTS AND ORGANIZATION OF ARTS ELEMENTS OF VISUAL ARTS ELEMENTS OF VISUAL ARTS ELEMENTS OF VISUAL ARTS  VALUE: Light and Dark  Relative degree of lightness and darkness in a graphic work of art or painting and indicates the degree of luminosity  White: highest value  Dark: lowest value  Medium (gray): a point of halfway  Gives the impression of solidity, distance and illusion of depth  ELEMENTS OF VISUAL ARTS  LIGHT AND SHADOW (Chiarascuro)  A means of modeling a figure in depth  A means of articulating the form  FORM  External appearance of a clearly defined area  The visual shape of an object or thing found in nature  Regular forms: square, circle, rectangular, oval, triangle and others  Some forms are natural, geometric, abstract, non- objective  ELEMENTS OF VISUAL ARTS  COLOR  Quality of an object or substance with respect to light reflected by it and usually determined visually by measurement of hue, saturation and brightness of the reflected light.  Properties of Light  Hue: particular identity of a color.  Principal hues are red, yellow and blue Classifications  Warm: red or yellow is dominant  Cool: blue is the dominant color  A hue completely neutralized losses its color and becomes gray  Value: Darkness or brightness  Intensity: darkness or brightness of a color ELEMENTS OF VISUAL ARTS  TEXTURE  The surface treatment of an artistic work in order to give variety and beauty to any work of art.  SPACE  Concerned with making all parts functional so that all parts of the work of art will contribute to make the whole a complete work of art.  Space exists as an illusion in the graphic presentation. TYPES OF CONTRASTING COLOR HARMONIES  COMPLEMENTARY HARMONY  Combination of any two opposite colors in the color chart.  Example: R-G, B-O  DOUBLE COMPLEMENTARY HARMONY  Combine any two adjacent colors with their complements  Example : BV-V and Y-YO  SPLIT COMPLEMENTARY HARMONY  Employs three colors to produce it with any color with the exception of the 3 secondary colors  Example: B-YO-RO  DOUBLE SPLIT COMPLEMENTARY HARMONY  Combination of any sets of split complementary harmony  Example : BV-Y-O and YO-B-V COLOR CHART