ART APPRECIATION

Ronel B. De Loyola
Department of Humanities and Philosophy
 Art as part of the humanities
 Humanities are records of man’s our quest for answers to the
fundamental questions we ask about our life. The content of humanities is
anything that is inherently human---experiences, values, sentiments, ideals,
goals. The humanities are thus, expressions of our feelings and thoughts.

 Disciplines that are part of the humanities:

a. Grammar e. Music
b. Rhetoric f. Philosophy
c. History g. Theology
d. Literature h. Arts
 Areas of artistic expressions:
a. Painting
b. Sculpture
c. Architecture
d. Photography
e. Dance
f. Drama
g. Cinema

 Humanities is different from Science since science is a discipline dealing with the
external world of us, as well as the facets of our being that can be subjected to
observation, measurement and experimentation. The sciences enable man to
understand and control nature and to harness its energy to make our lives more
comfortable and convenient.
 Humanities, on the other, deal with our internal world---with our
personality and experiences, matters that cannot be exactly
measured, classified or controlled. The study of humanities
cannot be as precise nor as well-structured and uniform as the
study of say, biology or physics. It is subjective; it makes much
use of perception, feeling, intuition and insight.

 The difference between the social sciences and humanities is that

the first is focusing on the types and groups of human beings,
and on the institutions and processes of society while the latter
has the interest on the individual.
 Art: Its meaning and importance
1. Art is everywhere
 Art is as old as human race itself.
 Art is everywhere vis-à-vis Art-for-art’s sake (i.e. to be found on
galleries, museums and concert halls exclusive to art critics, scholars
and the elite).
2. Art as expression and communication
 It is an outlet of our emotions.
 Personal and social values are also exhibited in arts.
 It exposes the underlying surface of the normal experiences or
appearances.
 An artist has special sensibilities.
 Joyce Cary: The artist always starts with an experience which is a kind of
discovery…It surprises him/her that is what is usually called an intuition or an
inspiration. The joy of his/her discovery is the starting point.
 John Canaday: Humans have been preoccupied with three major searches
in the adventure of exploration that is recorded in work of art. First, they
have been finding ways to make appropriate images of their gods. Second,
they have discovered the world around them. Or again, they have been
discovering themselves, pondering their own nature, trying to decipher the
mystery of what a human being is.
 An artistic discovery maybe philosophical, idealistic, political,
militant, bitter, tolerant or humorous.
 Some artists intend not to communicate but to simply express
themselves. The act of painting over the painting.
3. Art as creation
 In this context, creation translates as the combining or reordering
of already existing materials, thus a new object is formed.
 Art came from the Latin word “ars” which means skill. It is
equivalent to the Greek word “techne” where we derive technology.
It is understood as craftsmanship and proficiency in performing an
activity.
 Fine arts vis-à-vis utilitarian art, the first as mere display of beauty
compared to the latter as an art with an intended purpose or utility
(ergon).
 Art as solely not for the vision as it is for all the senses---our
sense of smell, taste, hearing and feeling.

 Medicine and agriculture are once considered as practical arts

before they are categorized as applied sciences. This is in contrast
with theoria & sophia and phronesis & buolesis (Aristotle).

 Most arts are planned.

4. Art and experience
 The artist’s experience is the departure.
 The listener, viewer or spectator’s experience is the second
experience.
 There must be a direct experience of a work of art in the case of
the viewer; reading or listening about the work is less than actually
experiencing it.
 Sensory response is a reaction of viewers perceiving an art resulting
to pleasure or displeasure akin to what they see from the actual
world.
 Emotional response is triggered by the recognition of a familiar situation
presented as the subject of the work (Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s willing
suspension of disbelief or empathy).

 Some are spectators could feel delight in their cognitive part not necessarily
the affective part.

 We should have proper access to some works since we have various

differences that precludes that possibility.
5. Art and nature
 Art as an imitation of nature.
 Art as objectification of human experience from nature.
 Nature is evanescent and is always recreating itself while art is
non-repeatable and unchanging.
 Most artists describe their experience of nature in their works.
These are characteristically permanent and limited (e.g.
photographs from EDSA shrine during 80’s).
 Art is a modified representation of real life, not exact copy.
 Art is improving our nature by securing “order”.
6. Art and beauty
• Aesthetics, came from the Greek word “aesthesis” which
means perception.
• Our notion of beauty is relative (e.g. voluptuousness and
slenderness).
• Just like the ambivalence in nature, an artistic work may
also feature a work that is not pleasant.
• Ex: Francisco Goya’s The Disaster of war, Pablo Picasso’s
Guernica.
 The Subject of Art
 Common questions toward artistic work:
a. What is it?
b. What does it show?
 The subject of art refers to any person, object, scene or event
described or represented in the work of art.
 Representational or objective arts are having subjects whilst non-
representational or non-objective arts do not have.
 Ways of representing subject
1. Realistic
 Is a representation that would normally appear in nature.
However, none of these representations truly exists since no
work of art is an accurate copy of what truly exists.
 In literature, realistic novels are considered as fiction in which
events happened or might possibly happen.
 Ex: Amorsolo’s Planting rice, Batis and Laundry women.
2. Abstraction
 Is the simplifying and/or recognizing objects and elements according
to the demands of artistic expression.
 In some abstract works, enough of a likeness has been retained to
represent real things. In others, the original objects have been
reduced to simple geometric shapes and they can be rarely identified
unless the artist has named them.
 The concern of the artist is the rendering of the essence of the
subject rather than the natural form itself.
 Ex: Arturo Luz’s Carnival forms, Vicente Manansala’s Sinigang.
3. Distortion
 It is an arrangement of proportions that differ noticeably from
natural measurements. It is also the twisting, stretching or
deforming the natural shape of the object.
 It is usually done to dramatize the shape of a figure or to create
an emotional effect.
 Ex: Relief sculptures and paintings, El Greco’s depiction of
Christ.
 The Choice of subject (Visual arts)
1. Landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes
 The first two have always been the subject of the Chinese
and Japanese brush paintings in handscrolls or wide screens
portraying mist-covered mountains dwarfing humans and
animals.
 Filipino painters have captured on canvas the countryside
as well as the sea bathed in pale moonlight or catching the
reflection of the setting sun.
 In Europe, the painting of pure landscapes without human
figures was almost unheard of until the Renaissance, when artists
began to rediscover their natural environment. Usually nature is
just a background to human figures (e.g. Monalisa).

 Traffic jams, high rises and skylines marked by uneven rooftops

and television antennae were the subjects of modern painters like
Vicente Manansala, Arturo Luz and Mauro Malang Santos.
2. Still-life
 Are group of inanimate objects arranged in an indoor setting.
Today, artists are generally not so much interested in the realistic
portrayal of objects as they are in the exciting arrangement and
combinations of shapes and colors.

 The works of Cezanne, Picasso and Kiu Kok.

3. Animals
 Have been represented from every age and place. In fact,
the earliest known paintings are sketches of animal on the
walls of caves.
 William Blake wrote about the symmetry and power of
the tiger and the meekness of the lamb. D. H. Lawrence
celebrated the regal bearing of a golden snake in his
poem, “Snake”.
 The carabao has been a favorite subject of Filipino artists. Romeo
Tabuena’s stylized carabaos have graced Philippine Christmas
cards. Napoleon Abueva’s bronze and marble sculptures have
captured the strength and beauty of the animal.
 Maranaws have an animal form called the sarimanok, this was
based from the epic Indarapatra and Sulayman.
 Dove stands for the Holy Spirit of the Trinity; the fish and the
lamb are symbols of Christ; the phoenix for the resurrection and
the peacock for the immortality through Christ.
4. Portraits
 Are done by artists since human faces are intriguing us, they are
index of one’s character.
 It is realistic likeness of a person in a sculpture, painting, drawing
or print. It need not to be a photographic likeness.
 A product of selective likeness, highlighting certain features of
his subject and de-emphasizing others. It does not have to be
beautiful, but it must be truthful.
 Besides the face, other things worth noticing in portraits are the
subject’s hands, which can be very expressive, attires they reveal
so much of the person and his/her time.
 Statues and busts of leaders and heroes were quite common
among the romans, but it was not until the Renaissance that
portrait became popular in Europe. Rulers and religious leaders
sat for their portraits or had their profiles etched on coins and
medals, and the faces and figures of donors and patrons were
incorporated.
 Portraits are also used to mark milestones in people’s lives.
Baptisms, graduations and weddings are often the occasions.
 Many artists did self-portraits.
 Ex: Jan Van Eyck’s The marriage of Jan Arnolfini.
5. Figures
 The sculptor’s chief subject has traditionally been the human
body, nude or clothed. The body’s form, structure and
flexibility offer the artist a big challenge to depict it in variety
of ways, ranging from the most idealistic to the most
abstract.
 Ex: Discus thrower, Michelangelo’s David, Botticelli’s The
birth of Venus, Goya’s Naked Maja, Ingres’s Odalisque and
Manet’s Olympia.
6. Everyday life
 Artists have shown a deep concern about life around them.
Many of them have recorded in paintings their usual ways,
performing their usual tasks.
 These are called genre paintings.
 Ex: Honore Daumier’s Third class carriage, Pieter Brueghell’s
Hunters in the snow and Of country wedding, the works of
Amorsolo, Anita Magsaysay-Ho, Jean Francois Millet and Carlos
Francisco.
7. History and legend
 History consists of verifiable facts, legends of unverifiable ones,
although many of them are often accepted as true because
tradition has held them so.
 Ex: Juan Luna’s Spoliarium and Blood compact, Felix
Resurreccion Hidalgo’s Assassination of Gov. General Fernando
Bustamante, Manila City Hall’s Second lobby murals by
Francisco, Mariang Makiling themed paintings by Francisco and
his student Jose V. Blanco and La loba negra suspectedly written
by Fr. Jose Burgos.
8. Religion and mythology
 Art has always been a handmaiden of religion.
 Some religions are allowing images of humans or animals
as representation of divinity (Christianity, Buddhism and
Hinduism), others are not (Judaism, Protestantism and
Islam).
 Serpent is commonly symbolizing evil in Europe. St.
Luke is for an ox, St. John an eagle, St. Mark a lion and
St. Matthew a winged man.
 Filipinos also used art for their folk beliefs. Solomon
Saprid has done statues of the tikbalang and some painters
rendered their own ideas about the matanda sa punso,
asuwang, tianak and mangkukulam.
9. Dreams and fantasies
 Dreams are usually vague and illogical. Artists, especially the
surrealists, have tried to depict dreams, as well as the grotesque
terrors and apprehensions that lurk in the depths of the
subconscious. A dream maybe of a lifelike situation, it can thus be
realistically represented. Unless the artist tells us, we would not know
that his work had a basis in dreams. But if the picture suggests the
strange, the irrational and the absurd, we would right away classify it
as a fantasy or a dream picture, although the artist may not have
gotten the idea from dream at all but from the workings of
imagination. No limits can be imposed on an artist’s imagination; it
can go beyond the real and the possible.