Art Appreciation

Orientation and Introduction to the Course

ART APPRECIATION

WHAT IS ART?
Module 1 (M1)
 Module 1 -Orientation and Introduction to Course

OVERVIEW This module gives you a basic understanding of how

art is defined and the different ways it functions in societies and
cultures. It covers the following topics :

• This Thing called Art

• The Maker and the viewer of Art

• Aesthetics (The Beautiful in Art)

• Why study the Humanities?
 Module 1 -Orientation and Introduction to Course

LEARNING OUTCOMES . Upon successful completion of this module, you

should be able to:

• Assess and articulate your personal relationship to art and

how it enhances your understanding of human existence.
 M1.THIS THING CALLED ART

Module 1 –Orientation and Introduction to Course

Section of “Bayanihan” ,by Botong Francisco

This image is in the domain of NOLISOLI

 Let us begin..
Get your journal and answer this question on the table below, On the first
column list down your most striking encounters with arts, On the the 2nd
column, explain in 1 to 2 sentences why you think each encounter is an
experience with art.

My Encounters with Arts Why?

3
Now read ahead..

next
 What They Say Art Is
Art has been defined has been defined in different ways since the time of the ancient
Greeks. Hippocrates ( c. 460-400 BCE), Greek philosopher says, “ Life is short, art
endures.” Man indeed does not live forever but the work of art that he leaves behind
lives on to communicate something to the people who view the artwork at different
spaces and time.

Albert Einstein ( 1879-1955), German matemathcian and physicist , asserts, “ True art is
characterized by an irressistaile urge in the creative artist.” Einstein, who is in the field of
science, which requires systamtic and critical thinking,here looks at art and regards it
as a creative endeavor that results from an irressistible urge. (B.Fajardo)

How would you define ‘art’? For many people art is a specific thing; a painting,
sculpture or photograph, a dance, a poem or a play. It is all of these things, and
more.  They are mediums of artistic expression. Webster’s New Collegiate dictionary
defines art as “The conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the
production of aesthetic objects.”  

Yet art is much more than a medium, or words on a page. It is the expression of our
experience. 
For the humanists like Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), a Spanish artist and father of
modern art , “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

For the English poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) ,

“ It is through art, and through art only, that we can realize our perfection; through art and art
only that we can shield ourselves from the sordid perils of existence.”

Art is uniquely human and tied directly to culture. It takes the ordinary and makes
it extraordinary. It asks questions about who we are, what we value, the meaning
of beauty and the human condition. As an expressive medium it allows us to
experience sublime joy, deep sorrow, confusion and clarity. It tests our strengths,
and resolve. It gives voice to ideas and feelings, connects us to the past, reflects
the present and anticipates the future. Along these lines, art history, combined
with anthropology and literature, are three main sources in observing, recording
and interpreting our human past. Visual art is a rich and complex subject whose
definition is in flux as the culture around it changes. Because of this, how we
define art is in essence a question of agreement. (Christopher Gildow,Tufts University)
 Module 1 - Introductions and Definitions 
The Maker and the viewer of Art

There are two important parties involved in art: the maker and the viewer.

The maker

YEO KAA

The artist at home, with her self-painted faux designer bag, photographed by Andrea Beldua.

Photos from ABSCBN , Yeokaa

The maker of art is called an artist. There are artists who are schooled, who learn
the basics of art-making and develop their artistic style. Some emerge as abstract
artists, some as conceptual artists while some stick to making art in the tradtional
Styles.

But because the maker of art is human person, she/he bringg with her/him the
ideas, ideals, feelings emotions, social conditions and everything else that
oncern the person doing art.
Read these Vincent Van Gogh quote and try to get a glimpse of what happens while the
artist is making art.

I should like to paint the portrait of an artist friend, a man who dreams great dreams, who work as
nightingale sings, because it is his nature. He’ll be a fair man. I want to put into my my picture my
appreciation, the love that I have for him. So I paint him as he is, as faithfully as I can. But the
picture is not finished yet. To finish it, I am now going to be the arbitrary colorist. I exaggerate the
fairness of the hair; I come even to orange, chromes, and pale lemon –yellow. Beyond the head,
instead of painting the ordinary wall of the mean room, I paint infinity, a plain background of the
richest, intensest blue that I can contrive, and by this simple combination of the bright head against
the rich blue background I get a mysterious effect, like a star in the depths of an azure sky ( Letter to
Theo; August 11, 1888)

The colors “orange tones and pale lemon-yellow” will make you imagine the colors on
canvas that Van Gogh is painting. But what about “the ordinary wall of the mean room?”
Who can fathom how the artist can “paint infinity?” and when blue is in “intensest?”, What
goes on in an artist’s mind when he stand in front of his canvas to paint? How can the
sculpture hold on to his original idea as he chisels out marble to free an artistic figure from the
block of marble that imprisons it? How can poets make their pens bleed with passionate
words while mearlylooking at the silent falling of dried leaves?

These are questions that puzzles art critics and scholars as they examine the creative process
that artists engage in.
In doing art, the artist
applies his/her skills in the
use of materials,
sensitivity to artistic
composition and
organization of elements,
and creativity of
expression. What ever
style the artist has,
planning is essential at
different stages of the
art-making.

Here, Julie Lluch explaining to young studio guests how she makes huge sculptural pieces
from small macquette

Please click this Useful Links to know more about Julie Lluch : https://finaleartfile.com/in-the-fullness-of-time-julie-lluch /
https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/357908/julie-lluchs-modern-sp
oliarium/

Photo from: Mimi Santos; Personal Archives

 Click the links to know m ore about the different artists and their disciplines

• Frida Kahlo: https://www.fridakahlo.org/

• Leonilo Doloricon : http://tvup.ph/?p=1760
• Diego Rivera: https://www.diegorivera.org/
• Bencab: http://www.bencabmuseum.org/national-artist/
• Ang Kiuokok: Ang Kiuokok , ang-kiukok
• Pacita Abad: Pacita
• Felix Resurrecion Hidalgo: F Hidalgo
• Agnes Arellano: Aarellano
• Phyllis Zaballero: PZ
• Piet Mondrian: Mondrian
• Sergei Rachmaninoff: Rachmaninoff
• Pablo Neruda: Neruda Poem: If you forget me
• Federico Garcia Lorca: Lorca Poems: At 5 in the Afternoon
• Nick Joaquin: Njoaquin ; https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/nick-joaquin-life-a00293-20190507-lfrm
• Ismael Bernal: Bernal
• Bob Dylan: BobD
• Victor Jara: Jara
Now pause and answer this following questions as precisely
and conscientiously as possible. Write in your journal.

• If you were an artist, what kind of artist would

you be?
 The viewer of art

Viewing JUNYEE’s “Pintados” Galleria Viewing Jeff Koons art pieces. Taken at Art Basel Hongkong ,2018
Duemila, ca. 2008
Photos from Mimi Santos Personal Archives

The viewer of art is the one who receives the meaning being communicated through an
artwork. The viewer are sometimes called, “the gazer”, “onlooker” , or ”audience.” A viewer
takes the role of an art critic who examines the artwork from historical, social, biographical,
critical or other points of view. This requires more knowledge, experience and articulation.
 In relation to the maker of art
Look into the attached excel file and look for your
partner.
• Watch The Power Of Art

After watching, discuss with your partner about the

film, write down your insights to be shared next
week in synchronous class.
We will randomly call partners next week for the
sharing.
 AESTHETICS
The Beautiful in Art

• Aesthetics is the philosophical argument about the nature of beauty. It’s an idea
central to any exploration of art.  Aesthetics deals with notions of taste, cultural
conventions – ideas of art being ‘good’ and ‘bad’ based on specific cultural
information and beliefs and the judgments we make based on our perceptions.
• As deep as visual art is embedded in the fabric of our lives, it still is the source of
controversy and irony. It thrives on common experience yet contradicts ideas of
ourselves. Art is part of the culture it’s created in, but can reflect many cultures at
once. From where you and I stand today art has become probably more complex
than ever in its use of imagery, mediums and meanings. We need a way to access
the visual information of our society, of past cultures, and cultures not known to us
to have a way to understand what we are looking at.