Art

Appreciation
PREPARED BY:
JOHN ROBERT L. GASBAN,
LPT
 Why study Humanities?
 For as long as man existed in this planet, he has cultivated the land,
altered the conditions of the fauna and the flora, in order to
survive.
 Alongside these necessities, man also marked his place in the world
through his works.
 Through his bare hands, man constructed infrastructures that
tended to his needs, like his house.
 He sharpened swords and spears.
 He employed fire in order to melt gold.
 The initial meaning of the word “art” has something to do with all
these crafts.
DRAWING IN THE CAVE OF LASCAUX, FRANCE
 The word “art” comes from the ancient Latin, “ars” which means a “craft
or specialized form of skill, like carpentry or smithying or surgery”
(Collingwood, 1938)
 Also, art any meant using the bare hands to produce something that will
be useful to one`s day-to-day life.
 Ars in Medieval Latin word came to mean something different. It meant
“any special form of book-learning, such as grammar or logic, magic or
astrology”
 During the 17th century when the problem and idea of aesthetics, the
study of beauty, began to unfold distinctly from the notion of technical
workmanship, which was the original conception of the word “art.”
 It was finally in 18th century when the word has evolved to distinguish
between the fine arts and the useful arts.
Assumption
of Art
Processing Questions
 If
you were an artist, what kind of artist
would you like to be?
 Why is art not nature?
 Why is art ageless and timeless?
 Why does art involve experience?
 Art is Universal
 In every country and in every generation, there is always art. Oftentimes,
people feel that what is considered artistic are only those which have been
made long time ago.
 Age is not a factor in determining art.
 A great piece of work will never be obsolete.
 They are liked and adored because they meet our needs and desires.
 Art will always be present because human beings will always express
themselves and delight in these expressions. Men will continue to use art while
art persists and never gets depleted.
 Art is Not Nature
 One important characteristics of art is that it is not nature. Art is
man`s expression of his reception of nature.
 Art is man`s way of interpreting nature. Art is not nature.
 Art is made by man, whereas nature is given around us.
 What we find in nature should not be expected to be present in art
too.
 This distinction assumes that all of us see nature, perceive its
elements in myriad ways.
 The story of the Blind Men
 In the case of the first person, whose
hand landed on the trunk, said "This
being is like a thick snake". For the
second person whose hand reached
its ear, it seemed like a kind of fan. As
for the third person, whose hand was
upon its leg, said, the elephant is a
pillar like a tree-trunk. The fourth
person who placed his hand upon its
side said, "elephant is a wall". The
fifth person who felt its tail, described
it as a rope. The sixth person felt its
tusk, stating that the elephant is
hard, and sharp like a spear.
 Art involves Experiences
 When one says that he has an experience of something, he often means that
he knows what that something is about. When one claims that he has
experienced falling in love, getting hurt and bouncing back, he in effect
claims that he knows the endless cycle of love.
 Art is always an experience.
 A painter cannot claim to know how to paint if he has not tried holding a
brush.
 A sculptor cannot produce a work of art if a chisel is foreign to him.
 Art depends on experience, and if one is to know art, he must know it not as
fact or information but as experience.
 In order to know what an artwork is, we have to sense it, see or hear it.
 Creativity,
Imagination, &
Expression
The role of Creativity in Art Making
 Creativity requires thinking outside the box.
 In art, creativity is what sets apart from one artwork to another.
 We say something is done creatively when we have not yet seen anything like
it or when it is out of the ordinary.
 A creative artist does not simply copy or imitate another artist`s work.
 He/she does not imitate nature, the lines, flaws, colors, and patterns in
recreating nature.
 He/she embraces originality, puts his own flavor into his work, and calls it his
own creative piece.
 The role of Imagination in Art Making

 It all starts in the human mind. It all begins with imagination.

 Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is
limited to all we know and understand, while imagination
embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and
understand.
 Imagination allows endless possibilities.
 In the same way that imagination produces art, art also inspires
imagination.
 The role of Expression in Art Making

 Throughexpression, one is able to explore his own

emotions and at the same time, create something
beautiful out of them.
 Expressing emotions is something different from describing
emotions.
 Description actually destroys the idea of expression, as it
classifies the emotion, making it ordinary and predictable.
 Expression on the other hand, individualizes the artist.
 Philosophical
Perspective on Arts
Philosophical Perspectives on Art
 Greek philosopher Aristotle claimed that every particular
substance in the world has an end, or “Telos” in Greek, which
translates into “purpose”.
 Every substance, defined as a formed matter, moves according
to a fixed path toward its aim.
 A seed is bound to become a full-grown plant.
 A baby will eventually turn into a grown man or woman.
 This Telos, according to Aristotle, is intricately linked with
function. For a thing to reach its purpose, it also has to fulfill its
function.
 Man, in Aristotle`s view of reality, is bound to achieve a life of
fulfillment and happiness, or in Greek, EUDAIMONIA – a theory
that the highest ethical goal is happiness and personal well-
being.
 However, happiness, the supposed end of man, is linked with his
function, which is being rational.
 This means that the Aristotle, plants can never be happy because
they are not rational Telos and function , as well as tables and
chairs.
 Moreover, the Telos and Function of a thing are both related to a
thing`s identity.
 Example: If table does not have a surface on which we can put
on our books or our plates and glasses, then it ceases to be a
table.
 The same goes for the human being. What makes a human
being a human being, according to some schools of thought, is
his/her capacity for thinking.
 Without this function, the human being ceases to be a human
being. The “Telos”, the function, and the “Whatness” of a thing
are all interconnected.
 In contemporary life, the connection between the end, the
function, and the “whatness” of a thing has become closer and
more interlaced, suggesting sometimes that the end is the
function and vice versa, and that they determine what kind of
thing a thing is.
 Philosophical
Perspectives on Art
Art as an Imitation
Art as a Representation
Art as a Disinterested Judgment
Art as a Communication of Emotion
 Art as an Imitation
 Socrates claimed that art is just an imitation of imitation.
 A painting is just an imitation of nature, which is also just an
imitation of reality in the World of Forms.
 In Plato`s Metaphysics – (Metaphysics is a major branch of
philosophy. It concerns existence and the nature of things that
exist. Altogether it is a theory of reality.)
 The things in this world are only copies of the original, the
eternal, and the true entities that can only be found in the
World of Forms.
 Art as an Imitation
 He believed that art imitates reality, that it
imitates the objects and events of ordinary life,
be it images of nature, or a photograph of a
ballerina. He saw art is nothing more than an
imitation of people, places, and things that
already exist.
 Art as a Representation
 If Plato considered art as a form of Imitation, Aristotle the student of Plato
agrees somehow. However, he considered art as an aid to philosophy in
revealing the truth.
 Aristotle conceived of art as representing possible versions of reality.
 In the Aristotelian worldview, art serves two particular purposes. First, art
allows for the experience of pleasure.
 Experiences are otherwise repugnant can become entertaining in art.
 Example, a horrible experience can be made an object of humor in a
comedy.
 And, art also has an ability to be instructive and teach its audience things
about life. It`s cognitive as well.
 Art as Disinterested Judgment
 Kant recognized that judgment of beauty is subjective (based
on feelings or opinions rather than facts). However, Kant
advanced the proposition that even subjective judgments are
based on some universal criterion for the said judgment.
 Kant's definition of fine art is based heavily upon his previous
deductions of how beauty is judged in the natural world.
 Therefore, a true judgment of beauty is disinterested; it is not
based on any known concept, simply a sensation of
unconstrained, completely detached pleasure.
 Art as Disinterested Judgment
Since Kant draws a distinction between
rational and aesthetic judgments, he argues
that aesthetic judgments are not based on
concepts, or things that can be known, but
on intuitions or sensations.
 Art as a Communication of
Emotion
 Leo Tolstoy – Defended the production of the sometimes truly
extravagant art, like operas, despite extreme poverty in the
world.
 For him art plays a huge role in communication to its
audience`s emotions that previously experienced.
 In the same way that language communicates information to
other people, art communicates motions.
 In listening to the music, in watching an opera, and in reading
poems, the audience is at the receiving end of the artist
communicating his feelings and emotions.
Functions of Art
Philosophical Perspectives on Art
 Greek philosopher Aristotle claimed that every particular
substance in the world has an end, or “Telos” in Greek, which
translates into “purpose”.
 Every substance, defined as a formed matter, moves according
to a fixed path toward its aim.
 A seed is bound to become a full-grown plant.
 A baby will eventually turn into a grown man or woman.
 This Telos, according to Aristotle, is intricately linked with
function. For a thing to reach its purpose, it also has to fulfill its
function.
 Man, in Aristotle`s view of reality, is bound to achieve a life of
fulfillment and happiness, or in Greek, EUDAIMONIA – a theory
that the highest ethical goal is happiness and personal well-
being.
 However, happiness, the supposed end of man, is linked with his
function, which is being rational.
 This means that the Aristotle, plants can never be happy because
they are not rational Telos and function , as well as tables and
chairs.
 Moreover, the Telos and Function of a thing are both related to a
thing`s identity.
 Example: If table does not have a surface on which we can put
on our books or our plates and glasses, then it ceases to be a
table.
 The same goes for the human being. What makes a human
being a human being, according to some schools of thought, is
his/her capacity for thinking.
 Without this function, the human being ceases to be a human
being. The “Telos”, the function, and the “Whatness” of a thing
are all interconnected.
 In contemporary life, the connection between the end, the
function, and the “whatness” of a thing has become closer and
more interlaced, suggesting sometimes that the end is the
function and vice versa, and that they determine what kind of
thing a thing is.
 Functions of Art
 When one speaks of function, one is practically talking
about the use of the object.
 An inquiry on the function of art is an inquiry on what art
is for.
 “Function is so important that it has usurped the name
of the art on the identification of individual works”
 The name of the art basically points toward the
direction of the product or its function.
 Personal Function of Art
 The personal functions of art are varied and highly subjective.
This means that its functions depend on the person – the artist
who created the art.
 An artist may create an art out of the need for self-expression.
 This is the case for an artist who needs to communicate an idea
to is audience.
 It gives personal satisfaction and serves as a means of personal
expression.
 Ex. Artistic body adornments such as bead jewelry, body
tattoos, and headdresses. – intrinsic motivation
 Social Functions of Arts
 Art may convey message of protest contestation, or whatever
message the artist intends his work to carry.
 Example: photography, as an art form, delivers this kind of
function by taking photos of subjects in conditions that people
do not normally take a look at or give attention.
 Pictures of poverty may carry emotional overtones that may
solicit action or awareness from their audience.
 It expresses or describes the beliefs and practices of a
community.
 Physical Functions of Art
 The physical functions of art can be found in artworks that are
crafted on order to serve some physical purpose.
 Architecture, jewelry-making, and even interior deign are all
forms of arts that have physical function.
 Art helps us produce things that make our lives physically
comfortable.
 Produce things that is needed for everyday lifestyle such as
tools and containers.