Lesson 3: The Visual Arts

Introduction

Increasing affluence during the second half of the 20th century has led to significant extra
investment in what has become a major visual arts industry. In many European countries, tertiary level
art colleges now teach a huge range of subjects to hundreds of thousands of art students. Whole
government departments, with multi-million-dollar budgets, are now devoted to the promotion of visual
arts, while even local government authorities maintain full-time "arts officers'' to coordinate activities at
local level. This structure is frequently augmented by state run agencies (e.g. Arts Councils), whose role is
to disperse the increasing number of grants, bursaries, residencies, special stipends and other types of
financial support for visual artists. In addition, governments are becoming major art patrons by buying
significant quantities of paintings, plastic art and other works, for public display. New methods of
fundraising to support public art have been developed, such as the Percent For Art scheme in Ireland.
Recent cutbacks notwithstanding, all this demonstrates the enormous scale of the visual art industry in
the 21st century. And even if many full-time artists are still poor, this is mainly because their numbers
have shot up significantly over the past few decades.

The Visual Arts

The visual arts are art forms that create works that are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics,
drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, photography, video, film making and
architecture. These definitions should not be taken too strictly as many artistic disciplines (performing
arts, conceptual art, textile arts) involve aspects of the visual arts as well as arts of other types. Also
included within the visual arts are the applied arts such as industrial design, graphic design, fashion design,
interior design and decorative art.

The current usage of the term "visual arts" includes fine art as well as the applied, decorative arts
and crafts, but this was not always the case. Before the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain and elsewhere
at the turn of the 20th century, the term 'artist was often restricted to a person working in the fine arts
(such as painting, sculpture, or printmaking) and not the handicraft, craft, or applied art media. The
distinction was emphasized by artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement who valued vernacular art forms
as much as high forms. Art schools made a distinction between the fine arts and the crafts maintaining
that a craftsperson could not be considered a practitioner of art.
Visual arts include the following:

1) Fine Arts. The term “fine art” refers to an art form practiced mainly for its aesthetic value and its
beauty rather than its functional value. Finest rooted in drawing and design-based works such as
painting printmaking and sculpture. It is often contrasted with "applied art" and "crafts" which are
both traditionally seen as utilitarian activities. Other non-design-based activities regarded as fine arts,
include photography and architecture although the latter is best understood as an applied art.
The area of fine art is constantly being extended to embrace new activities arising because of
either new technology, or artistic invention. The former is exemplified by acrylic painting, as well as
silk screen printing and giclee prints; the latter by the invention of mixed-media artworks employing
collage, decollage, photomontage, or "found-art." Because of this gradual widening process, it is
almost impossible to define or fix a meaning for fine art.

2) Contemporary Arts. The visual arts also include a number of modern art forms, such as: assemblage,
collage, mixed-media, conceptual art, installation, happenings and performance art, along with film-
based disciplines such as photography, video art and animation, or any combination thereof. This
group of activities also includes high tech disciplines like computer graphics and giclee prints.
Another modern visual art, is the new environmental or land art, which also includes transitory
forms like ice/snow sculpture, and graffiti art.
3) Decorative Arts and Crafts. In addition, the general category of visual arts encompasses a number of
decorative art disciplines and crafts, including ceramics and studio pottery, mosaic art, mobiles,
tapestry, glass art (including stained glass), and others.

4) Others. Wider definitions of visual art sometimes include applied art areas such as graphic design,
fashion design, and interior design. In addition, new types of body art may also fall under the general
heading of visual arts. These include tattoo art, face painting, and body painting.
Philosophical Perspective of Arts

Philosophical perspective points to the nature of art, including such concepts as interpretation,
representation and expression, and form. It is closely related to aesthetics, the philosophical study of
beauty and taste.

Some of these philosophical perspectives are:

1) Art as mimesis (Plato). Mimesis is derived from the Greek word "mimos” meaning to imitate. Mimesis
is a critical and philosophical term that carries a wide range of meanings, which include imitation,
representation, mimicry, imitation, receptivity, nonsensuous similarity, the act of resembling, the act
of expression, and the presentation of the self.
Mimesis was an idea that governed the creation of works of art, in particular, with
correspondence to the physical world understood as a model for beauty, truth, and the good. Plato
contrasted mimesis, or imitation, with diegesis, or narrative. After Plato, the meaning of mimesis
eventually shifted toward a specifically literary function in ancient Greek society, and its use has
changed and been reinterpreted many times since.
According to Plato, all artistic creation is a form of imitation: that which really exists, in the "world
of ideas” is a type created by God; the concrete things man perceives in his existence are supernatural
representations of this ideal type. Therefore, the painter, the tragedian, and the musician are
imitators of an imitation, twice removed from the truth. Example, God created a bed; then the
carpenter created a bed; the artist in turn painted the bed in his canvass.
2) Art as representation (Aristotle). Similar to Plato's writings about mimesis, Aristotle also defined
mimesis as the perfection, and imitation of nature. Art is not only imitation but also the use of
mathematical ideas and symmetry in the search for the perfect, the timeless, and contrasting being
with becoming. Nature is full of changes, but art can also search for what is everlasting.
Aristotle's Poetics is often referred to as the counterpart to this Platonic conception of poetry.
Poetics is his treatise on the subject of mimesis. Aristotle was not against literature as such; he stated
that human beings are mimetic beings, feeling an urge to create text art that reflects and represents
reality.
Aristotle thought of drama as being "an imitation of an action" and of tragedy as "falling from a
higher to a lower estate” and so being removed to a less ideal situation in more tragic circumstances
than before. He posited the characters in tragedy as being better than the average human being, and
those of comedy as being worse.
3) Art for Art Sake (Kant). In the minds of late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century
philosophers, the role of art could be nothing less than to create beauty. The beautiful, for Emmanuel
Kant (1724-1804), is "that which without any concept is recognized as the object of necessary
satisfaction." In other words, the appropriate stance of the spectator, perceiving "beauty" is one of
indifference. This indifference does not imply, as it would in the contemporary sense today, that one
is uninvolved; it simply means acknowledging that the beauty possessed by the object is necessary
and that the agreement as to the beauty would be universal. In contradiction, taste is always ordered
upon the indifferent, but this indifference is also the key to the recognition of the universality of
beauty. The status of aesthetic judgment is not empirical but logical, based upon the powers of human
reason and rationality, which excludes internal and external purposiveness or "interest." Kant
introduces purposiveness without a purpose, allowing the mind of the one who contemplates art
freely to an unrestricted play of the mental faculties.
As Kant wrote in the Critique of Judgment, "For judging of beautiful objects as such, taste is
requisite; but for beautiful art, for the production of such objects genius is requisite." In a very famous
statement, he asserted that "Genius is the talent (or natural gift) which gives the rule to art.”

The Subject of Art

To a majority of people, the appeal of most works of art lies in the representation of familiar
objects. Their enjoyment of painting, sculpture, and literature comes not from their perception but from
the satisfaction they get out of recognizing the subject or understanding the narrative content.

The subject of art refers to any person, object, scene or event described or represented in a work
of art. There are two types of subject of art as follows:

1) Representational or Objective. Representational art or figurative art represents objects or events in

Sources of Subject Art

1) Primary sources provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under
investigation. They are created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events or conditions
being documented. Often these sources are created at the time when the events or conditions are
occurring, but primary sources can also include autobiographies, memoirs, and oral histories recorded
later. Primary sources are characterized by their content, regardless of whether they are available in
original format, in microfilm/microfiche, in digital format, or in published format.
2) Secondary sources interpret and analyze primary sources. Because they are often written significantly
after events by parties not directly involved but who have special expertise, they may provide
historical context or critical perspectives. Secondary sources routinely include pictures, quotes or
graphics of primary sources. Depending on the subject, newspaper and journal articles can fall into
both categories. For example, Paul Goldberger's architectural review of the new Citi Field and Yankee
Stadium in New York is a primary source because he is commenting directly on a current event
whereas an article surveying the history of New York City stadiums would be considered a secondary
source. However, years from now, scholars might look to the survey article as a primary example of
key evaluatory architectural principles.

Some of these sources of art subject are:

1) Nature - animals, people, landscapes. These three are the most common inspiration and subject
matter for art.
2) History - Artists are sensitive to the events taking place in the world around them. The dress, the
houses, the manner of living, the thoughts of a period are necessarily reflected in the work of the
artist.
3) Greek and Roman mythology - These are the gods and goddesses. Its center is on deities and heroes.
4) The Judaeo Christian tradition-religion and art, the Bible, the Apocrypha. the rituals of the church
5) Oriental Sacred Texts - The countries of the orient, especially China. Japan, and India, have all
produced sacred texts of one kind or another and these inspired various kinds of art. Most fruitful
have been the texts and traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism.
6) Other Works of Art - These are the subjects that can be found in those works that take their subject
directly from other works of art.

Kinds of Subject

Artists usually draw their arts through different kinds of subjects. These include:

1) Still Life - These are groups of inanimate objects arranged in an indoor setting. Example: flowers and
fruits arrangements; dishes, food, pots and pans, musical instruments and music sheets. The
arrangement is to show particular human interests and activities. The still life of Chinese and Japanese
painters usually shows flowers, fruits and leaves still in their natural setting, unplucked from the
branches. Today, focus is on the exciting arrangement and combinations of the object's shapes and
colors.
2) 2. Landscapes, Seascapes and Cityscapes - Artists have always been fascinated with their physical
environment.
a. Favorite subject of Chinese and Japanese painters
b. Fernando Amorsolo is well-known for having romanticized Philippine landscape.
c. In Europe, the paintings of pure landscapes without human figures were almost unheard of
until the Renaissance period. They only served as backgrounds prior to this Modern painter
seem to be attracted to scenes in cities. Vicente Manansala, Arturo Luz, and Mauro Malang
Santos are some local painters who have done cityscapes.

3) Animals - They have been represented by artists from almost every age and places. In fact, the earliest
known paintings are representations of animals on the walls of caves. The carabao has been a favorite
subject of Filipino artists. The Maranaos have an animal form of sarimanok as their proudest prestige
symbol. Sometimes, animals have been used as symbols in conventional religious art, example:
 a. The dove stands for the Holy Spirit in representation of the Holy Trinity.
b. The fish and lamb are symbols of Christ.
c. The phoenix is the symbol of resurrection.
d. The peacock is the symbol of immortality through Christ.
4) Portraits - People have always been intrigued by the human face as an index of the owner's character.
As an instrument of expression, it is capable of showing a variety of moods and feelings. Portraits are
realistic likeness of a person in sculpture, painting, drawing or print but it needs to be a photographic
likeness. A great portrait is a product of selective process, the artist highlighting certain features and
de-emphasizing others. It does not have to be beautiful, but it has to be truthful. Besides the face,
other things worth noticing in portraits are the subject's hands, which can be very expressive, his attire
and accessories for it reveals much about the subject's time.
Statues and busts of leaders and heroes were quite common among the Romans but it was not
until the Renaissance that portrait painting became popular in Europe. Many artists did self-portraits.
Their own faces provided them unlimited opportunities for character study.

5) Figures - The sculptures' 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 a variety of ways,
ranging from the idealistic as in the classical Greek sculptures to the most abstract.
The grace and ideal proportions of the human form were captured in religious sculpture by the
ancient Greeks. To them, physical beauty was the symbol of moral and spiritual perfection; thus, they
portrayed their gods and goddesses as possessing perfect human shapes.
Early Christian and medieval artists seldom represented the nude figures. The figures used to
decorate the walls and entrances of their churches were distorted so as not to call undue attention
 and distract people from their spiritual thoughts. But Renaissance artists reawakened an interest in
the nude human figure. A favorite subject among painters is the female figure in the nude.

6) Everyday Life - Artists have always shown a deep concern about life around them. Many of them have
recorded in paintings their observation of people going about their usual ways and performing their
usual tasks. Genre paintings usually are representations of rice threshers, cockfighters, candle
vendors, street musicians, and children at play.

7) History and Legends - History consists of verifiable facts, legends, of unverifiable ones. Although many
of them are often accepted as true because tradition has held them so far. Insofar as the ancient past
is concerned, it is difficult to tell how much of what we know now is history and how much is legend.
History and legend are popular subjects of art.
While many works may not be consciously done historical records, certain information about
history can be pieced from them such as the costumes and accessories, the status symbols, the kinds
of dwellings or the means of transportation.
 Malakas and Maganda and Mariang Makiling are among the legendary subjects which have been
rendered in painting and sculpture by not a few Filipino artists.

8) Religion and Mythology - Art has been a handmaiden of religion. Most of the worlds' religions have
used the arts to aid in worship, to instruct, to inspire feelings of devotion and to impress and convert
non-believers. The Christian church commissioned craftsmen to tell the stories about Christ and the
saints in pictures, usually in mosaic, murals, and stained-glass windows in churches. It also resorted
to the presentation of tableaux and plays to preach and to teach.
The term myth comes from the Greek word "Mythos," meaning story or legend. Myth tries to
explain the relationships between gods and humans. Although the events in a myth are usually
impossible, they try to send a message that has an important social or religious meaning.
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 may be a life-like situation. Therefore, we would not know if an art is based
on a dream unless the artist explicitly mentions it. But if the picture suggests the strange, the irrational
and the absurd, we can classify it right away as a fantasy or dream although the artist may have not
gotten from the idea of a dream at all but the workings of his imagination. No limits can be imposed
on imagination.

Different Levels of Meaning

A subject matter has three different levels of meaning. These are:

1) Factual Meaning - the literal meaning or the narrative content in the work which can be directly
apprehended because the objects presented are easily recognized. Examples: stones, river, house,
etc.
2) Conventional Meaning - refers to the special meaning that a certain object has in a particular culture
or group of people. Examples: flag symbol of a nation, cross for Christianity, crescent moon for Islam.
3) Subjective Meaning - any personal meaning consciously or unconsciously conveyed by the artist using
a private symbolism which stems from his own association of certain objects, actions or colors with
past experience.