Art Appreciation Written Report

Presented by Group 1

Topics:
Art and Human Faculties
Process of Art Appreciation
Art and Perception of Reality

Submitted by:
Amparado, Jann
De Guzman, Aira
Laurel, Carl Jimmuel
Serrano, Claire Joyce
 ART APPRECIATION AND HUMAN FACULTIES
ART AND HUMAN FACULTIES

What is faculty?

Based on Merriam-Webster, faculty is an innate or acquired ability to act or do; any of

the powers of the mind formerly held by psychologists to form a basis for
the explanation of all mental phenomena.

Here are the HUMAN FACULTIES:

• Imagination

It is simply the formation of mental images. The human is able to construct images
and concepts, through this faculty, without the connection of the mind at a time when not
being perceived by physical senses.

• Will

It is the tool that allows human to focus on something. It is what motivates us to act.
Will is a shortened term of willpower. It is defined by Friedrich Nietzsche as “any internally
motivated action.” Will is what makes us do anything. Wanting something is never enough to
achieve or obtain it. Action is almost always necessary, and for action to take place, will is required
to commit the action.

• Perception

It is the faculty of the mind that makes human apprehend the information by means
of the physical senses. Humans can formulate their own conclusion about a subject either
via the physical senses or the ideas that had came up from their mind.

Humans can shift to the other point of views, and if it will be used effectively, it’s
powerful.

• Reason

It is the faculty that involves selecting certain facts or premises and using them to establish
conclusions, judgments or inferences. We can think about anything and desire it because we have
the ability to choose.

• Memory

It is the mental faculty of retaining and reviving facts, events, etc., or of recalling previous
experiences. Summing up the facts, events and other elements that were recalled may be generally
called as information.
 No one has a horrible memory; it’s just weak, so develop it.

• Intuition

It is a prior knowledge, a belief generated in immediacy or the direct perception of truth,

and is independent of any reasoning process. Most people understand intuition to be a “feeling”
about a person, place, thing, or situation that arises to the front of the mind in a moment without
consciously thinking about it. It is seen as a judgment that arises out of thin air or a mystical, extra-
sensory perception.

HUMAN FACULTIES RELATING TO ART:

ART AND IMAGINATION

Human’s imagination comes from the speculation and perception. Art from the past can
be a story to those of present day. Human imagines scenarios and throws it as art. Things such as
the elements of fables, science-fiction movies, fantasy novels, abstract painting, etc.

The artist’s imagination may be in the form of picturing or feeling what the art will be
about. And also, during art’s creation, the artist will use their imagination to feel, think and picture
possible alternatives to what they have just done, at every stage of doing.

Imagination, as affected by representation and imitation. Art can either be used to capture
a perfectly undistorted image of reality or portray the artist’s aspirations or ideals for those realities.

ART AND WILL

From a blog, it shows how Pablo Picasso uses his willpower to his works of art.

As a kid, Picasso was a bad student. An art prodigy, sure, but not very focused on anything
else. He couldn’t bring himself to do the work because all he wanted to do was paint.
On some level, both studying and painting involve a delay in short-term gratification, but
for Picasso, painting never felt like a compromise — whereas studying did — because he
loved it.
The most effective way to stick with a long-term goal is actually by harnessing the power
of our primitive mind. System 1 is quick and reactive. It’s in the driver’s seat, and it’s what
makes self-control difficult. But if you can connect your long-term goal to deeper emotions,
you can trick the old evolutionary mind to work for you. That’s what Picasso did.
If you use the reasoning ability of System 2 to emotionally frame your long-term goal, you
can overpower the other impulses that System 1 throws your way when it gets challenging.

From that, Picasso shows how his passion brought him to success. There is something from
within, an innate force that perhaps told him to go with your passion, go with arts. And that
whisper control his life, that willpower.
ART AND PERCEPTION

Perception is conditioned by a context from which observation and evaluation are

made. It is conditioned by factors, like political, social, cultural, gender and racial. Perception
affects how we put meaning to art and how we create art.

The human sensory system is a filtering system. It perceives what we do with our physical
body and that goes to the brain. The brain immediately assesses, and then determines, what to
ignore, keep or act upon. Our perceptual abilities undergo limiting, via filtering, no matter the
amount of data deluge.

Artists will often go to great extent to improve the signal (useful information) to noise
ratios (unwanted data) associated with the experiencing of their work. This explains the gallery
space for hanging paintings. The usual neutral background of galleries will improve an observer’s
ability to detect nuance in the artwork. Some artists have long understood that the human and his
environment are essential foundations that support the how we appreciate it.

Visual artist, James Turrell, created his “Skyspaces” to improve ones ability to perceive a section of sky
as framed by an enclosure with an i77 roof.

ART AND REASON

If art proposes new forms and new ideas in its material presence, it makes human think.
Art can provoke one’s senses to force a person to think deeply about an issue. It can spark debates
or discourse.

There is a difference between looking and seeing. To look is to glance back and forth,
aware of surface qualities in the things that come into our line of sight. To see is more about
comprehending. The formulated idea of human or by the absorbed idea of human, it fills the empty
spot of our understanding on that art.
ART AND MEMORY

Memory can take the form of sensations, emotions and images, and that is the reason why
people could possibly draw the feelings from the past into the form of art. There will inevitably be
tension between an object invented by a subjective mind and the objective fact or event it is meant
to depict, when preserving memory comes to art.

Using art, may improves the quality of life in dementia patients and eases burden for those
with chronic health conditions. For dementia patients, creating art enhances cognitive abilities and
memory, in addition to aiding symptoms of depression and anxiety. Physician Dr. Arnold Bresky
has used art therapy to help those with dementia and Alzheimer’s, citing a 70% success rate in
improving his patients’ memories.

ART AND INTUITION

“Intuition for me is that gutsy crimp in my stomach that says... no that’s not right, or
yeah, that works. It is sort of like the patron saint of art.”
– Catherine Ruane, a painter

People came up with a quick thought that leads them to write a poem, compose a lyrics,
play with that key, draw with that color etc.

Intuitive art is a process of creating art using an inner awareness that is heart centered and
does not rely on analysis or head based questions. It is a way of creating that is about connecting
into your emotions and responding to what feels right. Intuition is that image of a child reaching
for the red crayon rather than the blue without hesitation.

For Jean-Patrice Remillard, a musician, intuition in music is how someone does something
that seems to be random, but is actually done in a very effective way. Partly unpredictable, partly
guided by experience, but entirely guided by a personal vision to arrive at a specific result. This
is musical intuition.

PROCESS OF ART APPRECIATION

The following are the 4 steps of Art Appreciation:

Step 1: Description

In this step, one describes the piece of art. The key part in doing this, is observation. One
must observe with objectivity and without any judgement. Identifying useful information about
the work of art also helps when it comes to describing it. There are 3 things that we can look at in
order for us to gain useful information about the art:
 a. The name of the artist, their nationality, and date of birth (and/or death).
Knowing the background information of the artist behind a work of art is important
when it comes to appreciating art. It gives us ideas on how and why that art was
created and the inspirations behind it.
b. The name of the artwork and the year it was made.
Identifying the title of the artwork is important as often times, the title of an artwork
is representative and/or gives clues to what the meaning of the artwork is. On the
other hand, knowing the period in which the art is created gives implications about
the meaning of the art as well.
c. The medium or materials used to create the art and the actual size of the piece.
This information is important as it gives us knowledge about the technical aspect
of the art.
Given the things above, one may also opt to identify where the piece can be viewed or who
owns it as it supplies more information about the art. In this step, one can also consider to describe
the piece based on what they see as it lets them to notice the finer details of the piece.

Step 2: Analysis

In this step, one uses the elements and principles of art in analyzing the piece. Knowing
how the artist executed and applied these elements and principles, supplies us with the knowledge
about the technical aspect of the piece.

Step 3: Interpretation

In this step, one tells what they think is the meaning of the artwork and what they think is
the reason for the creation of the piece. The way one sees the artwork comes in to play in this step.
The following are questions that can be used as a guide when forming a cohesive interpretation of
an artwork:

- What do you think is the artist trying to say?

- What do you think it means?
- What feelings do you have when looking at this artwork?
- Do you think there are other things in this artwork that represent other things – symbols?

Step 4: Judgement

In this step, one evaluates whether or not they like the piece or not. Using the knowledge
and information they gained from the first three steps, they now decide if for them the piece is
good or not. They should consider to justifying their opinion to give the basis of their judgement.

There is no specific way when it comes to appreciating art. Simply admiring a work of art can
already be considered as art appreciation. Art in itself is subjective, what’s good for one may not
be good for others. However, there are standards and conventions to which art is held up to. Using
and applying art theories, elements, principles and such, in the observation and judgement of art,
we arrive with a rational basis for art appreciation.

ART AND PERCEPTION OF REALITY

Art is the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual
form, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.
Perception in art has a complex relation between the visual impulse and personal understanding,
it aims to clarify the relation of the artwork and the opinion of the audience. While reality reveals
and unveil to us the truth as well as the reality itself. Therefore, Art and perception of reality is the
way you see an artwork behind those colorful shades, curve lines, and ornaments. It is the way you
perceive the hidden meaning behind those artworks. It is when you realized that a specific art work
awakened us to the harsh truth of reality.

The Perception of Art

It is easy for us to determine whether an artwork is appealing or a little bit off. We can easily feel
which is more ‘’understandable’’. Art has language of their own, not easy to understand but if we
examine it closely, there is so much more than being a simple art. When we can’t comprehend an
art, we look for its elements, the way it is organized, what medium did the artist use or in what
way he created that artwork. Perception and our opinions are closely linked. Sometimes our
opinion becomes our perception. As we have different perception in art, our opinion varies on how
we see art beyond its real form. We must look for the feelings and emotion, the message and
meaning that is being conveyed by the artist. Dealing with the arts creates in us a capacity for
understanding not only the arts, but reality which is the mankind- our fellowmen- and a
consciousness of man and possibilities of life.

Art and Reality

‘’We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realized truth at least the truth that is
given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the
truthfulness of his lies’’ – Pablo Picasso

Most of us hold the view that an art should reflect the reality, that art should copy real life detail
by detail. But this can’t be the case since art can never be equal to real life. But the artist can
transform reality and give new meaning and form to real life’s details. He creates thing while
referring to reality. He can transform an idea of reality into an artwork and let the view of people
be touched by a mere artwork. That is how powerful an artist hand is.