Reading the Image

By Alice G. Guillermo

1.

Our visual experience covers three kinds of images produced in society today: 1) the images of the traditional arts, 2)
the images of print and tv media, and 3) the images of contemporary and the visual arts as two-dimensional
expressions, such as drawing, painting, and photography, as three-dimensional expressions, such as sculpture, and
the audio-visual art of cinema.

A. Images in the traditional arts

Not all the production of the traditional arts bear images, for they are often articles of everyday life combining design
and function. A large number, however, especially those linked with ritual, bear images in the form of symbols and
motifs which may convey narratives of communal significance. Done in an artistic form and in a traditional medium,
they function to preserve the values and belief system of the community in the context of everyday life. This is
because, as symbols and motifs, they are related to religious beliefs and rituals. Thus, to know their meaning, one has
to study the culture of the communities which have preserved our indigenous ways of artistic expression.

The traditional arts contain their own visual vocabulary and symbolism, as in textiles, embroidery, brassware, etc.
Most of these symbols and motifs are drawn from the natural world and reflect the close relationship of human beings
and nature in the animist world view. Figures, such as sun, moon, stars, lightning, birds, frogs, lizards, the man doing
a rain dance, are symbols of social values, needs, as well as fears. These symbols and motifs are juxtaposed or
arranged in a meaningful series.

Of the different cultural communities, the T’boli of Cotabato are among the most artistic with a creativity that grows
out of the belief that it pleases the gods to see humans embellish their persons with beautiful clothes and body
ornaments which they themselves create. Their t’nalak abaca cloth done in the arduous ikat decorative dyeing
technique process shows a wide repertoire of symbolic figures. Their blouses bear richly embroidered motifs. In the
Cordilleras, Ifugao blankets may contain motifs that constitute a narrative, such as warrior, shield, star, river, and
crocodile. Animal motifs such as the pig and the carabao which have a place in ritual, are prevalent in their vessels of
carved wood. Tagbanwa sculpture in Palawan consists of stylized birds and animals with etched linear designs in the
natural light tone of the wood that contrast with the blackened surface. In Southern Philippines, the Maranao and the
Taosug have among the richest design systems found in woodcarving, textiles, and brassware, including the
sarimanok or bird with fish, the naga or serpent, the pako rabong or growing fern, and the tree of life embellished
with numerous motifs, aside from the wealth of geometric designs in mats and brassware.

Aside from the figures themselves, other elements, like color, are conveyors of meaning. A community or society has
its distinct chromatic code, color symbolism, and conventions in color usage relating to social class, age, sector, etc.
In Philippine society, there are several simultaneously existing chromatic codes and symbolic color systems: that of
the cultural communities with their love of natural dyes, that of the Christianized lowland folk, and that of the urban
centers which are influenced by Western cultural values and artistic forms. The chromatic code included the range of
hues used in a culture, the dominant hues, the preferred or recurrent color combinations, the saturation of the hues in
terms of their component colors and their intensity in terms of their degree of whites and grays. The kinds of dyes
and pigments used, their sources, whether mineral or organic, and their methods of production are important in
drawing out the chromatic code. Not to be overlooked is the fact that different colors are symbolic of community
values or are linked to a system of conventional symbolism.

In the study of the traditional indigenous arts, it is not enough to appreciate their beauty and skill of execution, for
one must also examine their conditions of production. Under what economic and social conditions are these works
produced? Are the prevailing conditions conducive to the preservation and flourishing of these arts? More often,
these involve the community’s difficult struggle to maintain its identity. Many communities are engaged in a
continuing struggle to keep their ancestral lands against loggers and land-grabbers, they have also been victims of
exploitations by dominant groups.

Indigenous artistic expressions, not only epic and song, but also weaving, pottery, basketry, and related arts, are
situated in the folk tradition of orality. As part of the traditional role of a social group, these skills are handed down
through oral forms from one generation to another. In fact, there have been accounts of mnemonic devices in song
and chant to serve as memory aids in executing difficult processes, as in weaving. The use of accessible materials in
the environment maintains an intimacy and familiarity with the different art forms. As products of the creativity of
people, they are continually reproduced and replenished provided the conditions of life make possible the continued
survival of these forms. Likewise, in cultural communities, there exists a particular relationship of artist and society
marked by a commonality of shared values and experiences. From the indigenous arts, one can also distinguish world
views and value-systems distinct from those of urban Western-influenced societies.

As distinguished from orality, literacy, on the other hand, includes recent works that follow the canons of written
literary forms. In music, they are those that have written scores and give little room for improvisation. In the visual
arts, they are painting and sculpture which are “read” as texts according to codes that have been systematized by fine-
arts schools and movements of contemporary art. These also imply the leisure for reflection and contemplation, as
well as dialogic relationship between work and viewer. In our country, orality and literacy are not in opposition, nor
does one necessarily replace the other, but these are two modes of expression existing simultaneously and
complementing each other.

B. Images in everyday life

These images are disseminated in the print and tv media in the newspapers as cartoons, illustrations, comics, and
advertisements, on tv as sitcoms, advertisements, and MTV. They function to convey values and attitudes favorable
to certain social groups and classes; to promote products, local and foreign, and to convey the illusion through the
mass media that these products and goods are accessible to all; to promote certain social values, such as
consumerism, the idea that goods are the be-all and end-all of life; to perpetuate attitudes such as sexism or the
exploitation of women as objects of pleasure; or to convey the power and dominance of big capitalist countries. The
government and public, as well as private, institutions may use these images to instill conservative values, or to
promote public programs such as population control, ecological consciousness, etc. These values and attitudes are
conveyed, not overtly, but covertly, through subliminal inducements or “hidden persuaders” that operate semiotically.
An important part of visual literacy is to be able to decode the operation of these “hidden persuaders” in the skillful
use of images by way of their semiotic or meaning-conveying potential, in particular, in terms of their style and use of
line, color, tone, texture, and pictorial organization. The study of visual communications is based on a keen
understanding of visual resources they are harnessed to convey messages.

C. Images in the contemporary arts

Images of contemporary art are found in painting, sculpture, drawing, illustrations, cartoons, posters, murals,
photographs, and film. They are conveyed through various media: oil, acrylic, watercolor, sculptural materials, film,
mixed media, and other media, all of which have their own techniques, processes and technical approaches to image-
making. These images may be representational in a wide range of figurative styles; they can be non-representational
or abstract, or a fusion of the two. The images of the contemporary arts represent reality, express emotions in
cathartic release, convey values of particular groups, sectors, and classes, signify ways of looking at the world and life,
or make a critique of prevailing social conditions in order to bring about change.

II.

In the Philippines, painting and sculpture have passed through three stages. The first was the introduction from the
West of drawing or painting on a two-dimensional surface, along with the classical representation of the human figure
and single-point perspective as the principle of composition. This initial stage was marked by the copying of Western
models, as seen in the engravings of the 17th century and in the religious paintings from the 17th century to the early
18th century during the exclusive patronage of art by the church and colonial state. The second stage is the period of
appropriation of these forms with artistic creativity and originality developing these forms from within the local
context – a process which began with Luna, Hidalgo, and the miniaturist painters in the 19th century, continued
through the Amorsolo School in the early decades of the 20th century up to the introduction of modernism by Edades
and the subsequent development of contemporary idioms with the traditional arts in new works, a direction which is
gaining ground in the visual arts, architecture and music. This is seen in the use of indigenous materials and forms,
in the use and transformation of traditional symbols, and in the influence of traditional aesthetics on contemporary
works.

Understanding art has to do with “reading” the visual work (painting, print, sculpture, architecture, film, advertising
images) as a text conveying a complex of concepts, feelings, attitudes, moods, atmospheres, and values that derive
from world views and ideologies, public or personal, as well as evaluating it in terms of form as conveying
significations.

With respect to the form of the work, there are a number of issues to consider. Each visual art form, whether it be
painting, poster, comics, or illustration, has its own technical standards of excellence, involving the choice and use of
a medium with its particular properties and suitable techniques. For this reason, it is necessary to familiarize oneself
with the different art mediums and techniques through the observation of processes. It is essential to understand the
mediums and processes involved in art-making because these enter into the meaning of the work.
One can be a practical approach and sketch a method of analysis and criticism. This can begin by going through the
basic documentary information about a work of art:

1. Title of the work. The title may be significant or immaterial to the meaning of the work. It is a textual
element which may or may not contribute to its meaning. What is the relation if the title to the work? It can
be a simple label which identifies the subject, in which case it is merely a convenient naming device. At
times, however, it bears an ironic relationship to the work or may carry a sly or witty comment about the
work or its subject. If significant, the title adds a literary dimension to the work in the interplay of the visual
and the literary.
2. Name of artist. This brings in biographical data: to what generation does the artist belong to? who are his
peers? what were the dominant artistic trends during his active years? What is his personal background and
training? Did he keep records, diaries, or did he publish statements which may shed light on his art?
3. Medium and techniques. The documentation identifies the medium and sometimes includes the techniques.
Is the medium academic or conventional, or does it involve work but also as artistic process involving
particular materials and techniques and produced under particular social conditions pf production, both
personal and social. It is also necessary to have a knowledge of the properties and limitations of the different
kinds of mediums and their techniques. For materials and techniques are also conveyors of meaning and not
just superficial or incidental aspects of the work. Technical innovations do not or should not exist only for
themselves in the sheer interest of novelty, but should be part of the work’s total meaning. As for the use of
indigenous materials, these evoke the natural and familiar environment and preclude the sense of alienation
experienced by ordinary viewers before art works made from inaccessible specialist materials. A note must
be added regarding the ground of a painting. There are occasions in which the description of the ground
requires greater specificity than merely canvas, paper or wood panel. Different kinds of cloth, canvas, and
wood have been used as ground at different periods and as such, they aid in situating the work in a particular
time and space. It is also useful to identify the particular kind of paper used, such as the different art papers
and handmade paper produced from a wide variety of organic materials. This also goes for the pigments and
coloring substances, their compositions and origins, as well as the tools used in technical execution.

4. Dimensions or measurements. The dimensions as now measured in the metric system may be big, large-
scale, mural-size, average, small or miniature-size. The extreme poles of very large and very small are usually
significant to the meaning of the work. One of the smallest paintings on record is that painted on a grain of
rice. In the nineteenth century, miniature paintings of religious subjects and secular portraits enjoyed a
fashion. The historical and mythological paintings of the European academics, abstract expressionist works,
and street murals are in large scale. Some large-scale works are meant to envelop and saturate the spectator
in color fields; others seek to draw the viewer into the dynamic movements within the painting. Murals
which have an essentially public character seek to address a large open-air crowd regarding issues and
concerns of social and political importance.

The format of the work is part of its dimensions. The usual rectangular format of a painting may not hold any
significance. However, symbolism may come into play in a square or circular format. A modular sculpture
with exchangeable elements may manifest architectural concepts. Montage-like, with the influence of the
cinematic image, the painting may consist of several uneven panels in juxtaposition. Some contemporary
works may borrow the format of early Renaissance paintings, as in diptychs or triptychs or with a principal
image bordered by a predella or sections portraying a narrative sequence.

5. Date of work. The date, often the year, in which the work was completed situates the work in a period and
provides the historical context of the work. What were the predominant issues, concerns, and trends of the
period? The work is viewed in relation to works of the same period by the same artist or by other artists.
Likewise, it provides information as to what period of the artist’s development the work belongs, whether to
the early, middle or late period of his career. Finally, the date of the work situates it in art history; does it
belong to a particular trend, school or movement? What does it contribute to art history?
6. Provenance. This is indicated by the name of the present owner or collector of the work, whether it belongs
to a museum, gallery or private collection. A work, in fact, should have a record or provenance from the
present owner to former owners and to the artist.

Of course, one may not immediately find the answers to all these questions. Understanding the work of art
may involve research. Moreover, the meaning of an important work can grow with time as viewing it becomes a
process of continual discovery which is part of the pleasure that art gives.

III.
We begin the basic premise that there are two interrelated aspects in the study of art. The first is that art has its
specificity: that is, its particular language or vocabulary that has to do with the mediums, techniques, and visual
elements of art and that constitute it as a distinct area of human knowledge and signifying practice. This is not
just what is commonly called the formal aspect of art, but it is what constitutes art as a particular human activity
different from the others. The other aspect is that art, while it has its specificity, is at the same time historically
situated and shaped by social, economic, and political forces. Both these aspects need to be taken into account so
as to be able to fully understand and appreciate art. For a study of the formal elements alone will not lead to a full
understanding of the work, in the same way that the exclusive study of the social determinants risks collapsing
the artistic into the sociological. A visual work as an iconic or pictorial sign has a unique and highly nuanced
meaning, and this uniqueness and semantic richness arises from the original use of the elements and resources of
art. Needless to say, the meaning, signification, or system of significations of a work is not statemental, nor is the
understanding of a work a reductive process which reduces meaning to a summary, statement or single insight.
Meaning in art is a complex of intellectual, emotional, and sensory significations which the work conveys and to
which the viewer responds, bringing in the breadth of his cultural background, artistic exposure and training, and
human experience in a dialogic relationship with the art work. One may speak of a work’s “horizon of meaning”
(Eagleton) which implies a range of possible significations that a work may accommodate; at the same time that
it suggests semantic parameters.

The analytic study of how the various elements and material features of the work should lead to a more stable
and consensual field of meaning, away from the erratic, whimsical, purely subjective and impressionistic
readings.

Having taken note of the information provided by the basic documentation of the work, we then proceed to four
planes of analysis: the basic semiotic, the iconic, the contextual, and the axiological planes.

A. The Basic Semiotic Plane.

Semiotics is the study of “signs” –here the work of art is the iconic or pictorial sign. A sign consists of a “signifier”
or its material/physical aspect and its “signified” or non-material aspect as the non-material aspect as concept
and value. Related to these is the “referent” or object as it exists in the real world. In a visual work, whether it be a
two-dimensional pictorial space or a three-dimensional body, is an embodiment of signs in which all physical or
material marks and traces, elements, figures, notations, are signifiers which bear a semantic or meaning-
conveying potential and which in relation to each other convey concepts and values which are signifieds. The
semantic potential is realized in the analysis or reading of the integral work.
The basic semiotic plane covers the elements and the general technical and physical aspects of the work with
their semantic (meaning-conveying potential). It includes:

1. the visual elements and how they are used: line, value, color, texture, shape, composition, in space,
movement. Each element has a meaning-potential which is realized, confirmed, and verified in relation to
the other elements which form the text of the work. While the elements usually reinforce one another, there
can also exist contrasting or contradictory relationships which may be part of the meaning of a work. The
elements and all material features are thus to be viewed in a highly relational manner and not isolated or
compartmentalized.

2. the choice of medium and technique. In contemporary art, medium enters more and more into the meaning
of the work. While the European academies or salons of the nineteenth century decreed the choice of
medium, today the artist exercises free choice in this respect, a choice determined less by its availability as by
its semantic potential. For instance, handmade paper with its organic allure, irregularities of texture and
uneven edges is favored by a number of artists because it bears significations conveying the uniquely
personal, human, and intimate, in contrast to mass produced standard paper. Technique, of course, goes
hand in hand with the nature of the medium. Likewise, there are techniques which valorize the values of
spontaneity and the play of chance and accident, while there are those which emphasize order and control.

3. the format of the work. The very format of the work participates in its meaning. Again, in contemporary art,
format is no longer purely conventional but becomes laden with meaning. For instance, the choice of a
square canvas is no longer arbitrary but enters into the meaning of the work as a symbolic element, the
square signifying mathematical order and precision.

4. other physical properties and marks of the work. Notations, traces, textural features, marks, whether
random or intentional, are part of the significations of the work.

The elements of visual arts derive their semantic meaning-conveying potential from two large sources: a)
human psychophysical experiences (psychological and physical/sensory) which are commonly shared; and b) the
socio-cultural conventions of a particular society and period (Matejka and Titunik: 1976). As human beings, our
sensory and physical experiences in general are intimately fused with our psychological conditions and processes.
Among our basic psychophysical experiences involve those of day and night, of warmth and cold, of weight or
gravity, relative distance, pleasure and pain, with the complex intellectual and emotional associations that go
with these. Because of these humanly shared experiences, it is possible to arrive at a general agreement if what
these elements and their usage convey in a work of art.

The semantic potential of line, for instance, does not merely lie in its orientation as horizontal, vertical, diagonal,
curvilinear, but also in its very quality, its thickness or thinness, density and porosity, regularity or irregularity,
its production by even or uneven pressure on a surface, as well as qualities determined by an instrument
producing it. A line made by a technical pen signifies a set of concepts and values different from that made by a
stick of charcoal. Likewise, the different orientations of line derive their meaning from the positions of the body.
At rest, one is horizontal, in readiness, vertical, and in action, diagonal. In dance, one creates curved lines in
space with one’s body and limbs.

Our sense of local values from light through shades of gray to dark comes from our experience of the cycle of
night and day, from early dawn through the gradual series of light changes in the course of the day until evening
to darkest night. These changes in the light and dark of our environment have always affected us psychologically;
in general, dawn ushers in bright optimism, while night creates a sense of mystery, melancholy and respite. In
our perception of color around us, warm hues that seem to advance are associated with human warmth,
congeniality, openness, and spontaneity, while cool hues which seem to recede are associated with remoteness,
self-containment, quietness, and restraint. Shapes are also linked to our physical experiences; geometric shapes,
whether two- or three-dimensional are measurable and circumscribed; organic shapes are drawn from natural
living and growing forms, while free shapes project, expand and contract in all directions. Texture is associated
with experiences of pleasure and pain, plesantness and unpleasantness, in tactile sensations of hard and soft,
smooth and rough, silky and gritty. Movement in the visual art, whether implied or actual, parallels human
experiences of movement within our bodies or in relation to things around us. Rhythm is part of the body’s
processes as an organic whole. Our sense of composition is affected by gravity and relative weights of things, as
well as our physical experience of bodies massing, crowding or in isolation and apartness; it is also determined by
our sense of the relationship between figures or objects, as well as between figures or objects and their intervals
or intervening spaces within a given field.

Just as important, the meaning-conveying potential of the elements also comes from their socio-cultural context
with its conventions and traditions. As to social conventions, these have to do with symbolic commonly
understood by members of a society or group. These systems include those of color, for instance, where apart
from the significations drawn from the basic psychophysical associations, they acquire socially-derived
meanings, For the various hues possess differential semantic inflections in different societies. A common
example is black which is the color of mourning in Western or Western-influenced societies, while it is white in
many Asian societies. Likewise, groups and societies have their own chromatic codes which have to do with the
range of hues with their tones and saturations that operate in their art and with prevalent or favored color
combinations. For instance, the chromatic code used by artists in urban areas is determined by the standard sets
of colors industrially produced in the West. On the other hand, the chromatic codes of the cultural communities
are determined by their lore of local dyes derived from available plants and minerals. Each cultural community
has its own particular chromatic code because it has its own lore of dyes, although there may be general
similarities between a number of communities. By bringing out the distinctiveness of each, one does not lump
indigenous artistic qualities into one homogenous category. Conventions may also include formats, as in the
Chinese horizontal or vertical hanging scroll. The different writing conventions in different societies may
influence composition in space. Also important are cultural conventions in the use of space which is linked with
world views. There is, for instance, the dialogue between figure and space in the arts of China and Japan, on one
hand, and the phenomenon of horror vacui in the arts of India and Southeast Asia. In abstract art, it is the basic
semiotic plane which alone operates, but in figurative art, one proceeds to two other planes.

According to de Saussure again, meaning is produced from the interplay of the signifiers of the work. Following
this, a number of observation arise. The first is that artistic analysis takes into account not only the elements but
also other material aspects, such as dimension, format, medium, frame, and techniques, as signifiers or
conveyors of meaning. The second is that there is developed a finer and more sensitive perception of the
elements as they are specifically and materially found in a particular work. Line, for instance, is not just seen in
its vertical, horizontal, or diagonal orientation, but is examined in its particular properties of density, porosity,
relative sharpness, etc. Third, the elements are not studied in a sequential and compartmentalized manner but in
a highly relational and interactive way in which the use of line, color, texture, composition in space confirm or
verify meanings or create semantic relationships of similarity or contrast. And fourth, the signifiers go hand in
hand with their signifieds, and thus one does not limit oneself to a description of the elements in the way they are
used but links their particularities of usage with their primary significations, as well as with their intellectual and
emotional associations within the society. In the images of art and the media, the use of the elements affects us
subliminally or unconsciously and, especially in the media are part of what have been called the “hidden
persuaders” that influence choice and behavior. However, it is art criticism that we become highly conscious of
the means and their effects and what they signify. It is also in semiotic analysis that we work within the specific
language of art. In contrast, the classical approach often overlooks the basic language of art and bears heavily on
the image, its iconography and descriptive details, as well as its iconology and its narratives.

B. The Iconic Plane of the image in itself

This is still part of the semiotic approach since it is still based on the signifier-signified relationship. But here it is
not the material elements of the work that are dealt with as in the basic semiotic plane, but this has to do with the
particular features, aspects, and qualities of the image which are the signifiers. The image is regarded as an
“iconic sign” which means, beyond its narrow association with religious images in the Byzantine style, that it is a
unique sign with a unique, particular and highly nuanced meaning, as different from a conventional sign such as
a traffic or street sign which has a single literal meaning.
The iconic plane includes the choice of the subject which may bear social and political implications. An example
in art history is the French realist artist Gustave Courbet’s choice of workers and ordinary people in his paintings,
instead of the Olympian gods and goddeses or heroes from Greek and Roman antiquity that were the staple of
classical and academic art up to the nineteenth century. We can ask the question: Is the subject meaningful in
terms of the socio-cultural context, does it reflect or have a bearing on the values and ideologies arising in a
particular place and time?

One proceeds to consider the presentation of the image and its relationship to the viewer. If the subject is a
human figure, does it subject address the viewer directly; is it self-contained or self-absorbed? What kind of
subject-viewer relationship is implied by the subject through his facial expression, body language, costume and
accessories, natural or social background? Is it a relationship of peers or one of dominance or subordination? Is it
a friendly, ironic, aggressive, or hostile relationship, and all possible nuances thereof? Most examples of
Philippine genre, for instance are based on the concept of the stage or tableau which is oriented towards a large
public audience which it is aware of and directly addresses – a mark of the social cohesiveness of rural peasant
society as well as of the extended Filipino family system in which all members of society have their kinship
appellations. John Berger in his Ways of Seeing (1982) has an engrossing study of paintings with the female nude
as subject, many of which he demonstrates as stemming from sexist attitudes reifying (reducing to object status)
or commodifying women with respect to the implied male viewer.

Also part of the iconic plane is the positioning of the figure or figures, whether frontal, in profile, three-fourths,
etc. and the significations that arise from these different presentations. Does the painting show strong central
focusing with the principal figure occupying the center space or is it decentered and the painting asymmetrical in
composition? How do these presentations contribute to different meanings? Does the subject or subjects have a
formal or a casual air? How does one describe the central figure’s stance: poised, relaxed, indifferent,
provocative, or aloof? How much importance is given to psychological insight into character? To costume and
accessories? To the setting, natural, social or domestic? What is the relative sealing of the figures from large to
small? What bearing does this have to the meaning of the work? Luna’s “Tampuhan” brings to the fore the
artist’s sensitivity to body language. How do the postures of the man and the woman convey their emotional
attitudes?

In portraits, where is the gaze of the subject directed? This is important not only in defining the relationship of
subject and viewer but also in describing pictorial space. Degas’ painting “Woman with Chrysanthemums” shows
a middle-aged woman beside a large vase of flowers. More importantly, her intense and scheming look projects
an imaginary line to a figure or figures that are the objects of her gaze outside the pictorial field of the painting
into an implied open and expanded space. This work deconstructs the classical conventions of portraiture.
Is there cropping of the figure or figures? What is the significance of the kind of cropping used? Some kinds of
cropping are intended to create a random, arbitrary effect as against the deliberate and controlled. Other kinds
isolate a segment of the subject, such as the hand or the feet, in order to draw attention to its physical qualities –
when a part stands for the whole, a peasant’s bare feet can tell us about an entire life of labor and exploitations.
Some artists use cropping as device to imply the extension of the figure into the viewer’s space.

Here one also takes into account the relationship of the figures to one another, whether massed, isolated, or
juxtaposed in terms of affinity or contrast. A painting may expand or multiply its space by having not just one
integral image but several sets of images in montage form, from the same or different times and places. These
may occur in temporal sequence to constitute a narrative or may take the form of simultaneous facets or aspects
of reality. Serial images which show an image multiplied multiplied many times, as in Andy Warhol’s Marilyn
Monroe or Campbell Soup cans, convey significations arising from the blatant consumerism of the advanced
capitalist societies of the First World.
The style of figuration is an important part of the iconic plane. The figurative style is not more caprice, passing
fashion, or the artist’s personal ecriture; beyond these, it implies a particular re-presentation or interpretation of
the world, a world view, if not ideology. Classical figuration basically follows the proportion of 7 1/2 to 8 heads to
the entire figure in its pursuit of ideal form, as in a formal studio portrait with the subject enhanced by make-up,
all imperfections concealed. Realist figuration is based on the keen observation of people, nature, and society in
the concern for truth of representation, thus creating true portraits of individuals or exposing the poverty and
squalor that arise from social inequities. Impressionist figuration is fluid and informal, often catching the subject
unaware like a candid camera. Expressionist figuration follows emotional impulses and drives, thus often
involving distortion that comes from strong emotion. However, the viewer should not be too anxious to find
precise stylistic labels, for contemporary art has seen the development of highly original styles that have gone far
beyond the School of Paris. It is important to be sensitive to the meaning-conveying potential of highly
individual styles. In the basic semiotic plane which deals with the material aspects of the work and in the iconic
plane which deals with the features of the image itself, one can see that as the signifier cannot be separated from
the signified, concrete fact or material data cannot be divorced from value; in other words, fact is value-laden and
value or ideological meaning is derived from material fact.

C. The Contextual Plane

Here one proceeds from the basic semiotic and iconic planes and the knowledge and insights one has gained from
those into the social and historical context of the work of art. Resituating the work in its context will bring out
the full meaning of the work in terms of its human and social implications. The viewer draws out the dialogic
relationship of art and society. Art sources its energy and vitality from its social context and returns to it as a
cognitive force and catalyst for change. If one does not view the work in relation to its context, but chooses to
confine analysis to the internal structure of the work, one truncates its meaning by refusing to follow the
trajectories of the work into the larger reality that surrounds it. One prevents the work from reverberating in the
real world.

As has been said earlier, the meaning of a work is a complex that involves concepts, values, emotions, attitudes,
atmospheres, sensory experiences that arise from the three planes. The experience of a work cannot be reduced
or paraphrased to a statement, such as a moral lesson or message, but is a total experience involving the faculties
of the whole person – not just his eyes or his senses, but his mind and emotions as well. The work of art has its
horizon of meaning which is narrower or larger depending on the degree of visual literacy, cultural breadth, art
exposure and training, and intellectual and emotional maturity of the viewer. Art involves cognition or learning;
it is an important way of learning about people, life, and society. Does the work expand our knowledge of reality
as a whole? Is its experience liberative artistically, psychologically, humanly or socially?

A broad knowledge of history and the economic, political and cultural conditions, past and present, of a society is
called upon in the contextual plane. With this comes a knowledge of national and world art and literatures,
mythologies, philosophies, and different cultures and world views. The work of art may contain references and
allusions, direct or indirect, to historical figures and events, as well as to religious, literary, and philosophical
ideas and values which are part of the meaning of the work.

The different symbolic systems which are culture-bound also come into play. Although we have been strongly
influenced by Western symbolic systems, we have to move towards a greater awareness of our many indigenous
and Asian/Southeast Asian, Malay animist and Islamic symbolic systems which must be given even greater value
for they are part of our social context. These systems may have to do with color, shape, design, as well as cultural
symbols associated with the belief-systems of the different ethnic groups. Figures may also bear rich and distinct
intellectual and emotional associations built around them in the course of the history of a group.

The contextual plane likewise situates the work in the personal and social circumstances of its production. The
work may contain allusions to personal or public events, conditions, stages, as well as influences, such as persons
and literary texts, that have been particularly meaningful to the artist. Themes and sub-themes may be derived
from biographical experiences significant to the artist and particular biographical data may play an important
part in understanding the work and its view of reality.

The work is firmly situated in a particular society and time, “in its social and historical coordinates” (Wolff:
1983). The work is viewed or studies in relation to its epoch, to the prevailing world views, ideologies, issues,
concerns, trends, and events of the day. It situates the artist with respect to the decades of his time. The work
may have allusions or references to the personalities and event of a particular period, and conveys attitudes of
espousal, approval, indifference, or rejection with respect to these. For the work of art conveys values, artistic,
religious, social or political. Art then is not value-free. All art contains values of one kind or another. Abstract
art, likewise, may express world views and values, as Mondrian’s abstraction conveyed his neo-platonism, as he
considered his paintings symbolic of the underlying harmony and order in the universe. On the contrary, the
Pollock’s gestural abstraction valorizes spontaneity and the release of kinetic energy and non-rational impulses.
Values such as spontaneity as against discipline and order, mystery and elusiveness as against clear definition,
informality as against the formal, transitoriness as against permanence – these may be found in abstract art, at
the same time that these can be viewed in the light of the events and intellectual trends of the time.

Finally, a single work of art is often more completely understood when it is viewed in the context of the artist’s
entire body of work, when it is juxtaposed and compared on the semiotic, iconic, and contextual planes with
works of artist in the same period, in different periods of his career, and then with the work of his
contemporaries. This is because the meaning of one work may become part of a larger body of work or of an
integral artistic vision. In comparative intertextuality, the work of art reveals its numerous ramifications of
meaning.

D. The Axiologixal or Evaluative Plane

The axiological plane has to do with analyzing the values of a work. After the understanding of the work is the
difficult task of evaluating it. Often, it is facile to say that evaluation involves the two aspects of form and
content. But this division is theoretically conservative because the two are conceptually separated. It is semiotic
analysis involving the basic semiotic plane, the iconic plane and the contextual plame that shows how meaning is
produced through the interrelationship of the signifiers (material features) and signifieds (concepts, values) in
the unique pictorial sign that is the work of art. At all points, meaning is anchored in material form. Again,
empirical, physical fact is value-laden and value ensues from material fact. Thus, the first consideration in
evaluation would be to what degree the material basis of the work conveys meaning or particular
intellectual/emotional contents.

The evaluation of the material basis of the work (form) reckons with standards of excellence in the use of the
medium and its related techniques. Some questions may be posed. Is the medium (which includes surface,
ground, or material block, instruments, tools, pigments calling for appropriate techniques) used with a high
degree of skill? Is the particular medium chosen in view of the semantic potential of its combined properties
which is realized in the completed work? With respect to medium, the viewer/critic rejects the traditional
hierarchies laid down by the 19th century academies in which oil on canvas and sculpture in marble were
valorized over other media. For all visual forms, whether paintings, prints, posters, illustrations, cartoons, and
comics have their standards of technical excellence to which a work may be on par or below par. Understanding
and evaluating the technical side of the work requires a familiarity with and sensitivity to the properties of
medium. Thus the viewer critic should devote time to researching on and observing art-making, even doing
exercises of his own. At the same time, one makes allowance for the transgressing of conventional processes and
norms in the quest for new creative and expressive resources.

The usual consideration of form also touches upon the principles of organization which are traditionally
identified as rhythm, harmony, balance and proportion. However, one has to bear in mind that these tenets were
laid down by the 19th century European academies established by the royal courts to preserve the hierarchic order
based on unchanging principles. In their philosophical framework the classical ideals of harmony, balance and
proportion were not only aesthetic values but also socio-political values divinely decreed as “in the nature of
things”. The problem is that these values, while they retain a continuing but limited validity, are often
erroneously absolutized as the be-all and end-all of art itself. Meaning may suffer in the interest of these values
when, in fact, the validity of their application is only relative to the semantic requirements of the work.

As has been stated, the meaning of a work is a complex of concepts, values and feelings which derive from reality
and have a bearing on it. Because of this, the evaluation of a work necessarily includes the analysis and
examination of its axiologixal content constituted by values which become fully articulated on the contextual
plane although these had already been shaping upon on the basic semiotic and iconic planes. And since values
are expressed in the work which holds a dialogic relationship with reality, the assessment of these values is a
necessary part of critical evaluation. It then becomes possible that the values of the artist and the viewer do not
quite coincide or may be even contradictory. Of course, there exists a whole range of attitudes on the part of the
viewer/critic to the work, from full espousal and enthusiastic endorsement at one pole, through degrees of
appreciation and indifference growing towards annoyance and to vigorous rejection at the opposite pole.

It becomes clear that, on one hand, the artist is not or should not be a more technician but expresses a view of life
in his work. On the other hand, the viewer/critic is also not a mere technical expert confined to the analysis of
the elements, techniques, and processes alone. The mature viewer or critic is one who must have after long
reflection and experience, arrived at the formulation of his own value system, his view of the world and humanity
which he has come to feel deeply and strongly about. As the artist enjoys artistic independence, the critic/viewer
also enjoys his measure of autonomy. For, to be sure, the critic is not an appendage of the artist or a promoter or
publicist but one who vitally contributes to the dynamic dialogue, interaction and debate in the field of art and
culture as these intersect with other human concerns, among them the political, social, and economic. The
viewer/critic, as also the artist should, places a value on the capacity of art to influence and transform society.
An underlying premise then is that the viewer of art, in particular the art critic, needs to have thought out fully
his own values or the guiding principles by which he or she lives as a total human person. The artist likewise
creates his art not as a fragmented human being or purely technical specialist, but as a total thinking and feeling
individual. If the critic simply described and appreciates the work’s technical excellence (if it is indeed worth
appreciating on this level), and stops short of making value-judgements, then he is a formalist critic who isolates
the work from its larger social environment – in which case, he divorces art from life and its concerns and
promotes the condition of art feeding upon itself. But when the critic makes evaluations of the work relative to
his own philosophy and vision of life and the world, he is only fully realizing the dialogue between the work and
the viewer, after completing the process of semiotic reading, understanding, and contextualizing the meaning of
the work.

Since art directly or indirectly conveys meaning and seeks to influence one’s ideas and values in subliminal ways,
then it is but an essential role of the viewer/critic to be able to recognize these subtle devices and assume the
prerogative to articulate and evaluate them in relation to his own world view. As the critic/viewer fully
recognizes and respects the prerogative of the artist to express his ideas and feelings, the former also reserves the
right to agree, disagree, or have reservations in relation to his own values and view of the world. It is to be
pointed out, likewise, that it is possible for a critic to truly understand and appreciate a work viewed in its socio-
cultural context of our time and place, the expression of the critic’s dissenting view is not to be construed as a
manipulative strategy or an imposition on the artist but as only bringing out the oppositional stance in the
dialogic relationship of art and viewer, art and reality.

Indeed, the responsible viewer/critic must draw from a rich fund of knowledge and humanism. The Filipino art
critic may uphold nationalist values in art reflecting national identity and the people’s interests vis-à-vis foreign
interests that seek to maintain their domination in all fields. The democratization of art may be promoted in
themes that enhance the sense of human dignity especially of those engaged in basic production and that espouse
their liberation from exploitation. Democratization can also be in the use of popular forms and mediums that
make art accessible to the larger number. There is likewise a liberative thrust in themes that espouse the cause if
traditional minoritized sectors, such as women and children, animist and non-Christian ethnic groups. The critic
may uphold the role of art as an emancipating influence rather than as pure commodity or decoration catering to
elites.

But what if, as may often be the case, interpretations of the work by different critics do not coincide or are
contradictory? Does this mean then that our critical process is unreliable? There may be a general consensus on
the basic semiotic and iconic planes or in the analysis of form, but differences may lie in the contextual and
axiological analysis. This is because in all societies riven by opposing interests such as ours it is only to be
expected that artists and viewers/critics adhere to different value systems which affect the way that they look at
art. In the long run, these differences which are basically ideological stem from the different positions, that is,
their class sympathies and affinities, that artists, critics, and people in general take in a society’s relations of
production.

Thus, after the critic/viewer has gone through the three planes, the semiotic, the iconic, and the contextual, it is
possible to determine the semantic focus and parameters of the work and from these project its horizons of
meaning, its boundaries and limitations, its semantic implications and ideological orientations, its progressive or
conservative tendencies with respect to human development. The critic thus arrives at a sharper understanding
of the work of art which, while it has a semantic core has parameters that are fluid and continually being
expanded and modified. Art projects horizons of meaning relative to both the artist and the critic/viewer in
terms of intellectual background, emotional maturity, and cultural range in the humanly enriching dialogic
experience of art.