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Art Appreciation
Basics
NOTES:
 Money culture: symbolic reality – exists due to symbols

Definition - Formal meaning, statements found in the dictionary.

Intentional - What is wound in the dictionary
Extensional - Other words that can be used to define a certain word.
Ostensive - To give examples
Meaning - This is more personal and subjective, a perspective.
Art - The expression of application of human creative skill and imagination, producing works
to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.
Ars - The Latin word where the word Art comes from.
Artist - To be viewed as someone who creates with a link to a creator, to be like or an
instrument of God.
Kres - A word that means flesh, where the word create originates from.
Dar’san - In Hinduism, they believe that artists receive their gift from this god.
Culture - A characteristic that makes humans different from animals. Passed on from generation
to generation.
Ordinary Culture - Pass on behavior and traditions throughout generations through instinct and physical
experience. Is immediately seen. E.g. bulls butting heads.
Symbolic Culture - Pass on behavior and traditions throughout generations through the invention of things
that exist entirely in the realm of symbols. E.g. money.
Symbols - Come from our beliefs or faith.
Flag semaphore - Signaling system is an alphabet signaling system based on the waving of a pair of hand-
held flags in a particular pattern.
Sema - Means sign
Phero - Means sign-bearer
CND - An organization that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament- ^ means?
Peace Sign ☮ - Originated from flag signals meaning nuclear disarmament
Sophomore - Meaning 2nd year college.
Sophos - Means wise
Moros - Means moron

Aesthetics and a brief history of art

NOTES:
 Aesthetics as something at gives pleasure (Pleasure Meaning)
o Appeals to senses
o Individuals mare informal aesthetic choices everyday
o The aesthetic choices we make influences many parts of our lives.
o We all have personal aesthetic (preferences and tastes based on what we see, hear, taste, touch)
o Public figures make aesthetic choices to convey something about who they are.
 Andy Warhol – Silver wigs through 60s to 80s.
 Miley Cyrus – From Hannah Montana era to the wrecking ball era.

INTENTIONAL DEFINITIONS OF AESTHETICS

Pleasure - A particular taste for, or approach to what is pleasing to the senses- specially sight.
Aesthetics is something that appeals to senses.
Perceptual/Artistic Judgement - Someone’s aesthetic has to do with this.
Aesthesia - The ability to feel or perceive being awake and able to feel, where the word aesthetics
come from.
Anesthesia - Inability to feel or perceive, to be asleep or non-feeling.
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Rational - A branch of philosophy dealing with nature of art and beauty.
Noun -^ functions as this
Structure - A particular theory or conception of beauty or art.

Rational Meaning
The Philosophy of Aesthetics asks and tries to provide definitive answers to the following questions:
- What is art?
- What makes a piece of art beautiful?
- How important are personal taste when judging the quality of art?
- What are the standards of judging art?
- Why is originality so important in art? How do we define what is original or what is creative?

Judgement
- Who decides what is art?
- Who decides what makes an artwork special or good?

The Nature of Beauty

Nature of Beauty
Plato
Reality of the mind
Reality of the physical world
Reality of the Arts
- One of the most enduring and controversial themes in Western philosophy and is-
within the nature of art- one of the two fundamental issues in philosophical aesthetics.
- The father and earliest critic of Aesthetics. Stated that artworks are twice removed from reality.
- Realm of ideas
- Found in the world, is experienced by our senses.
- Manipulation of physical reality to words and arts.

Branches of Philosophy used to identify art

Epistemology - Search for the truth. “Is there truth in the artwork”. Investigation of what distinguishes
justified belief from opinion. “Does it show truth?”
Metaphysics - Is it real? Does it present something. Examination of the fundamental nature of reality.
Ethics - The concepts of right and wrong conduct. Concerned with the value. “Does it have value?”

CND Soldiers (Application of the Philosophy to identify art)

House of Parliament - The CND soldiers first appeared here during an anti-war protest
Brian Haw - An English peace campaigner, leader of the anti-war protest
Epistemology: Questions to determine what we can know as the truth.
- What do we learn about war in this piece? (state of the world)
- What do we learn about Banksy? (the artist)
- What would it mean if the original war was not put up during an anti-war protest? (the time)
Metaphysics: Questions to determine what is rea and what exists.
- If this were a billboard instead of a work of graffiti would it be appreciated? (location)
- Would Banksy’s use of cartoonish soldiers in this work make it less realistic? (relatability)
- Is this work objective or subjective in relation to its subject, war? (seen from a certain perspective)
Values/Ethics: Question to determine what we think is good in ethics and in art.
- What value does this artwork have? (societal appreciation)
- Is this painting beautiful? Why?
- What values would be reflected if this artwork was part of your school?
- What would be the ethical implications if a majority of Filipinos agreed to hang this work in their living room?

Structural Meaning
The Structure of Art
 The interaction starts with the interaction of the Philosopher and Art.
 The Philosopher has a more general point of view; the Art Theorist makes these general
point of views into more specific point of views.
 Art theorists inform the art academic (teachers)
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Beauty - The qualities that give pleasure to the sense. Characteristic of a person, place, object or
idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning or satisfaction.
Art - The product of creative human activity in which materials are shape or selected to
convey an idea, emotion or visually interesting form.
Early Theories on Art and Beauty
Objectivism - Beauty is a matter of fact. Meaning one can be right or wrong in stating something is
beautiful, so if you find something beautiful then someone who doesn’t agree
with you is wrong.
Socrates and Plato - ^ they supported this theory. Believed that art was an imitation of nature/reality.
Selectivity - An important event in an artist’s life
Clarity - Purpose, must be intelligent and clear
Integration - Relationship to the degree of beauty present. One of the most difficult portion to interpret.
Ladder of Love - The stages in this ascent in terms of what sort of beautiful thing the lover desires and is
drawn toward. Search on what can be a proper definition of beauty.
Symposium (c.385-370 BC)- ^ is from here. Accounts from Socrates.
Plato -^ is made by him.
Diotima - An ancient Greek prophetess that told Socrates the different degrees of love and beauty.
Her ideas are the basis of Platonic love.
Ladder of Love:
1. A particular beautiful body -Simple idea of beauty. Love is a desire for something we don’t have. Aroused by the
sight of individual beauty.
2. All Beautiful Bodies - Finding similarity in beauty, sees it as a part of a set.
Platonic Doctrine - According to this, all beautiful bodies share something in common, something the lover
eventually comes to recognize.
3. Beautiful souls - The spiritual and moral beauty matters much more than physical beauty.
4. Beautiful laws and institutions - Are created by good people/ beautiful souls, conditions which foster to moral beauty.
5. Beauty of knowledge - Love turns one’s attention to all kinds of knowledge leading to philosophical
understanding. One becomes philosophical.
6. Beauty itself - This is timeless, an apparition. The very essence of beauty, subsisting of itself and by
itself in eternal oneness.
Form of the Beautiful - Described as the everlasting loveliness which neither comes or goes, which neither
flowers nor fades.
Subjectivism - We are not born with knowledge nor have an idea of beauty; we learn from experience
hence the development of the notion of what is beautiful. Personal judgement of
beauty, art is a matter of taste.
David Hume -^ this theory was supported by him, an 18th century philosopher.
Empiricism - ^this theory introduces this concept that states: all knowledge is derived from sense-experience.

The Purpose of Art (19th Century) - Art during this era focused on myths that involved death/destruction. Focuses one to
have courage and strive toward greater accomplishments.
Unhappiness - During this era, this is believed to be good for human beings.
Fredrich Nietzsche - He believed that the purpose of art was metaphysical. He fell in love with a horse and
was confined in a mental hospital. Theories were closely related to Hitler
believing there is a superior race.
Übermensch - The ideal superior man of the future who could rise above conventional Christian
morality to create and impose his own values, originally described by Nietzsche
Aesthetic theories provide different answers to these questions
1. What makes something a work of art?
2. What do we learn from it?
3. What value does this work have?

Basic Aesthetic Theories

Representation -The essence of art is to picture/portray reality. Good art mirrors the world.
Imitation/realism/mimesis -^ AKA
Martin Johnson Heade - American painter famous for landscape and seascape paintings
Expressionism - The essence of art is expression of the inner emotions, feelings, moods and mental state
of the artist. Good art effectively brings inner states to external objectification.
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Aristotle and Nietzsche - They both agreed that artists should be concerned with how their works will affect the audience.
Formalism -The essence of art is “significant form”, Representation, expression and other subject
matter is irrelevant. Good art uses formal elements to trigger an aesthetic
emotion in sensitive observers.
Significant Form - Lines, shapes, colors and other formal properties of the work. Basics in making art.
Communication of moral and religious ideas - The essence of art is the communication of important moral/religious values from the
artist to the observer. Good art= can infect observer of certain moral ideas.
Symbolic (Non-Verbal) Communication - The essence of art is the communication of important ideas and other knowledge
through non-verbal languages. Good art= effective non-verbal communication
Instrumentalism - The essence of art is its usefulness in helping us to comprehend and improve our overall
life experience. Good art= means to an end.
Institutionalism - Art is determined by status conferred upon it by the institutions of the art world not by
an observable property in the artwork itself.

Artworks
Flowers – Andy Warhol,
1964
Original source material,
Flowers series by Andy
The Thinker -Auguste Warhol, 1964. Two-sided
Rodin ,1904 collage; adapted from
Modern Photography
Under Rational definition of magazine, June 1964,
Aesthetics photographic spread of color
transparencies by Patricia
Caulfield. © AWF

Under originality

CND Soldiers – Banksy

,2003

Image first appeared outside

the house of Parliament
during the anti-war protest
Fountain -Marcel led by Brian Haw, an English
Duchamp, 1917 peace campaigner. At the
Under Judgement time the UK’s involvement
in the 2003 Iraq war had
been brought to light, and the
fact that millions of people,
including soldiers protested
against the invasion was
reportedly ignored.
The Third of May 1808 –
Thunderstorm at the Francisco Goya, 1814
Shore – Martin
Johnson, 1870-1871 Goya sought to
commemorate Spanish
Oil on paper mounted on resistance to Napoleon’s
canvas. Carnegie Museum of armies during the occupation
Art, Howard N. Eavenson of 1808, in the Peninsular
Memorial Fund War. The Peninsular War
was a war fought by Spain
Under Representation Aesthetic against Napoleon lasting
Theory from 1804-1814 for control
of the Iberian Peninsula.
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Untitled – Donald Judd,
1989
copper and red plexiglass.
Crystal Bridges Museum
of American Art,
Bentonville, Arkansas
Under Formalism Aesthetic Theory
The Triumph of Death-
Pieter Bruegel the
Elder, 1862
Museo del Prado, Madrid.
Shows that death comes
in many ways. Most
significant artist of Dutch
and Flemish Renaissance
painting.
Under Symbolic Communication
Aesthetic Theory
POLETEISMO – Mideo
Cruz, 2011
Mixed Media. Artist was
disowned by UST (Where
he graduated) due to the
controversy brought by
this artwork.
Under Institutionalism Aesthetic
Theory
Woman VI – Willem de
Kooning, 1953
Oil on canvas. One of the
eyes is closed for she is
winking.
Under Expressionism Aesthetic
Theory
Ecstasy of Saint Teresa –
Gian Lorenzo Bernini,
1647-1652
Marble, Cornaro Chapel,
Santa Maria della Vittoria,
Rome. The leading
sculptor of his age,
credited with creating the
Baroque style of
sculpture.
Under Communication of Moral and
Religious Ideas Aesthetic Theory
Barack Obama “Hope” –
Shepard Fairey, 2008
Shepard Fairey(orig. photo
by Mannie Garcia), Barack
Obama "Hope" Poster, 2008,
Smithsonian Institution
Central Washington, D.C.
Fairey stole the pic from
Garcia and was convicted for
tampering with evidence.
The artwork was not original,
there is no credit given to the
photographer
Under Instrumentalism Aesthetic
Theory