MODULE 3

UNIT 2 Functions and Philosophy of Art, Subject and

Content
[Week 2 -3]

INTRODUCTION
This course equips students with a broad knowledge of the practical, historical, philosophical,
and social relevance of the arts in order to hone students’ ability to articulate their understanding
of the arts. The course also develops students’ competency in researching and curating art as
well as conceptualizing, mounting, and evaluating art productions. The course aims to develop
students’ genuine appreciation for the Philippine arts providing them opportunities to explore the
diversity and richness and their rootedness in Filipino culture.: 1. Demonstrate an understanding
and appreciation of arts in general, including their function, value, and historical significance; 2.
Define and demonstrate the elements and principles of design; 3. Analyze and appraise works
of art based on aesthetic value, historical context, tradition, and social relevance; and 4. Deepen
their sensitivity to self, community, and society.

II. PRE-COMPETENCY CHECKLIST

If you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask for assistance.

 This unit requires determining students’ expectations and relevance of the course.

Read and think about the questions asked.

 Individual Sharing: What art form/artwork has changed something in your life? Why?

III. LEARNING RESOURCES

Art history

Art history, also called art historiography, historical study of the visual arts, being concerned
with identifying, classifying, describing, evaluating, interpreting, and understanding the art
products and historic development of the fields of painting, sculpture, architecture, the
decorative arts, drawing, printmaking, photography, interior design, etc.

Art historical research has two primary concerns. The first is (1) to discover who made a
particular art object (attribution), (2) to authenticate an art object, determining whether it was
indeed made by the artist to whom it is traditionally attributed, (3) to determine at what stage in a
culture’s development or in an artist’s career the object in question was made, (4) to assay the
influence of one artist on succeeding ones in the historical past, and (5) to gather biographical
data on artists and documentation (provenance) on the previous whereabouts and ownership of
particular works of art. The second primary concern of art historical research is to understand

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the stylistic and formal development of artistic traditions on a large scale and within a broad
historical perspective; this chiefly involves the enumeration and analysis of the various artistic
styles, periods, movements, and schools of the past. Art history also involves iconography (q.v.),
which is the analysis of symbols, themes, and subject matter in the visual arts, particularly the
meaning of religious symbolism in Christian art.

Art historical scholarship depends greatly on the broad experience, intuitive judgment, and
critical sensitivity of the scholar in making correct attributions. An extensive knowledge of the
historical context in which the artist lived and worked is also necessary, as well as empathy with
and understanding of a particular artist’s ideas, experiences, and insights. Attribution plays a key
role in art historical research, because when one art object can be conclusively authenticated
(by a signature, contemporary accounts, or other forms of provenance), other works of a similar
or closely related character can be grouped around it and assigned to that particular artist or
period. This and other methods have been used to build up modern scholars’ detailed
and comprehensive understanding of art products and traditions extending into the remote past.

ASSUMPTIONS OF ART

There are many assumptions of Art (defined as creativity in the Arts). Here are some
common assumptions:

1. Life is short — Art is long.

2. An Artist needs a sponsor to afford to concentrate on Art works for long periods of
time.
3. Some Arts are far more expensive than others. For example Architecture is the
most expensive by far. Sculpture is also massively expensive. Musical instruments
can be massively expensive.
4. When an Art is massively expensive, the Artist is often pressured to make
compromises. This is famously true in Architecture. Few sculptors today bother
with classic marble realism because so few sponsors are willing to fund years of
work in a gigantic studio.
5. Some Arts are far less expensive than others. Dance today can proceed with
recorded music. Poetry requires only a pen and paper (or some writing device).
6. All Art requires years of study and practice — no matter what.
7. Artists who begin in infancy, because their parents are Artists, have a major
advantage (e.g. Mozart, Nietzsche, Picasso, Judy Garland) in a given Art.

WHAT IS VISUAL ART?

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 Temptation of the Mind and Body
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. (From Wikipedia 2012)

WHAT IS PUBLIC ART?

Public art is exactly that, art in public spaces. The term “public art” may conjure images of
historic bronze statues of a soldier on horseback in a park. Today, public art can take a wide
range of forms, sizes, and scales—and can be temporary or permanent. Public art can include
murals, sculpture, memorials, integrated architectural or landscape architectural work,
community art, digital new media, and even performances and festivals! (Americans for the
Arts)

FUNCTIONS OF ART

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Physical

The physical functions of art are often the easiest to understand. Works of art that are created to
perform some service have physical functions. If you see a Fijian war club, you may assume
that, however wonderful the craftsmanship may be, it was created to perform the physical
function of smashing skulls.

A Japanese raku bowl is a piece of art that performs a physical function in a tea ceremony.
Conversely, a fur-covered teacup from the Dada movement has no physical function.
Architecture, crafts such as welding and woodworking, interior design, and industrial design are
all types of art that serve physical functions.

Social

Art has a social function when it addresses aspects of (collective) life as opposed to one
person's point of view or experience. Viewers can often relate in some way to social art and are
sometimes even influenced by it.

For example, public art in 1930s Germany had an overwhelming symbolic theme. Did this art
exert influence on the German population? Decidedly so, as did political and patriotic posters in
Allied countries during the same time. Political art, often designed to deliver a certain message,
always carries a social function. The fur-covered Dada teacup, useless for holding tea, carried a
social function in that it protested World War I (and nearly everything else in life).

Art that depicts social conditions performs social functions and often this art comes in the form of
photography. The Realists figured this out early in the 19th century. American
photographer Dorothea Lange (1895–1965) along with many others often took pictures of
people in conditions that are difficult to see and think about.

Additionally, satire performs social functions. Spanish painter Francisco Goya (1746–1828) and
English portrait artist William Hogarth (1697–1764) both went this route with varying degrees of
success at motivating social change with their art. Sometimes the possession of specific pieces
of art in a community can elevate that community's status. A stabile by American kinetic artist
Alexander Calder (1898–1976), for example, can be a community treasure and point of pride.

Personal

The personal functions of art are often the most difficult to explain. There are many types of
personal functions and these are highly subjective. Personal functions of art are not likely to be
the same from person to person.

An artist may create a piece out of a need for self-expression or gratification. They might also or
instead want to communicate a thought or point to the viewer. Sometimes an artist is only trying
to provide an aesthetic experience, both for self and viewers. A piece might be meant to
entertain, provoke thought, or even have no particular effect at all.

Personal function is vague for a reason. From artist to artist and viewer to viewer, one's
experience with art is different. Knowing the background and behaviors of an artist helps when
interpreting the personal function of their pieces.

Art may also serve the personal function of controlling its viewers, much like social art. It can
also perform religious service or acknowledgment. Art has been used to attempt to exert magical

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control, change the seasons, and even acquire food. Some art brings order and peace, some
creates chaos. There is virtually no limit to how art can be used.

Finally, sometimes art is used to maintain a species. This can be seen in rituals of the animal
kingdom and in humans themselves. Biological functions obviously include fertility symbols (in
any culture), but there are many ways humans adorn their bodies with art in order to be
attractive to others and eventually mate.

Aesthetics definition

Aesthetics is the philosophical study of art.

In its orginal Greek derivation, the term denoted the study of sense experience generallyn and it
was not until the the mid-18th century, following a usage introduced by Baumgarten, that a
particular reference to the idea of beauty in nature and art was established. The current meanin
developped even later in the 18th and early 19th articulation of the concept of fine art.

Summarize Art & Philosophy

– Art is an imitation for Plato, the work of the artisan is to copy or imitate the idea, eternal,
immutable, for one thing. The artist proceeds by imitation but also what copy is the sensible
thing is to say an already imperfect reproduction of the Idea. Instead of approaching the truth, it
increases the distance that separates her.

– The Judgement of Taste: Kant, is the art of reflective judgment opposing the ruling factor. The
latter is used in scientific discourse and is to apply concepts (universal) prior to singular objects.
Reflective Judgement (eg, “How beautiful”) may instead assume universality. The beautiful is
disinterested (the utility and fun do not take part) it pleases universally without a concept
(universal subjective) well, it’s a finality without end (it shows in order, a plan, but does nothing
beyond itself)

– The Science of Art: Hegel criticizes Kant for having retained a subjective point of view on art.
But a science of art is possible in that art is a production of the spirit (Geist), it is not unlike the
individual consciousness. The science of art is historical, because the idea of ​art unfolds itself in
history until the modern era that marks the end of art.

– The powers of the imagination: Delacroix and Baudelaire asserts the primacy of the
imagination (constructive) in art. The primary subject of art is not nature but the artist himself,
the depths of his soul, emotions, etc.. Alain critique this view by stating that the imagination is an
illusion and that nothing is given, in the human psyche, an emotional disorder. Art is the
externalization, the act of ordering and discipline of the passions.

– The artist as a work of art: For Nietzsche, the aesthetic categories are metaphysical
categories. The figure of Dionysus, which is essential to tragedy, is what is terrifying to
disproportionate in nature. Nature, only an artistic vision can support and embellish, is the power
of metamorphosis, becoming, creation and destruction. The artist, one man (or superman) is the

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 one that truly manages to order the chaos of impulses that inhabit it. Aesthetics is an “Applied
Physiology”.

– Art and technology: The question of the future of art in an age where technology acquires a
dominant position is essential. Benjamin shows as well as the reproducibility of art (photography,
for example), they tend to lose their aura, their sacred nature.

– The work of art and the tool: For Heidegger the traditional conception of the natural thing, the
tool and the work of art as composed of matter and form comes from human activity in
manufacturing which a material is worked to fit a function, and thus becomes a tool. But daily
use tools mask their being, their truth because the tool is effective only in strict as it is forgotten.
The work of art is what reveals the being of the tool, membership in a human world and a
primitive nature (the Earth).

Related articles on Art and Aesthetics

 Plato and Aristotle (the-philosophy.com)

 Socrates Philosophy (the-philosophy.com)
 Kant vs Hume : Morality, Causality and Metaphysics (the-philosophy.com)
 Plato and Forms (the-philosophy.com)
 Nietzsche Quotes (the-philosophy.com)
 Hume’s Philosophy: Religion, Moral and Empiricism (the-philosophy.com)
 Is Philosophy of Art Normative? (eclectictheist.wordpress.com)
 Sentences on Conceptual Art (helicalmotion.wordpress.com)

References:
https://www.britannica.com/art/art-history
https://www.unboundvisualarts.org/what-is-visual-art/

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-assumption-of-art (Paul Trejo, MA in Humanities from Cal

State Dominguez Hills, 1989)
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-are-the-functions-of-art-182414

https://www.the-philosophy.com/art-aesthetics#Summarize_Art_Philosophy

IV EXPLORE

1] LR1: Online/Offline session: Readings about Popular Culture

[2] LR2: Online Session: Video conferencing through Zoom or Google Meet
[3] LR3: Follow video link to aid in analyzation of question in the discussion board

V. DISCUSSION BOARD

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 Answer and analyse the following.

1. Why study humanities?

2. Why do people create works of art?
3. Why is creativity necessary in art making?

VI. POST-COMPETENCY CHECKLIST

Review Questions
 Assessment with a set of questions that reinforce the ideas in this unit.
 Suggested activity: Debate
Topic: When can you say that a person is creative?

For the offline learners. You may share your thoughts in a form of a short paragraph on our
chat group on facebook messenger. Should you have no data/internet connection, I’ll send the
guided questions via text messaging and send the answer to my mobile number that I provided.

Activity: DEBATE

Rubrics :
Criteria 4 3 2 1 Grade:
1. Organization & Completely Mostly clear Clear in some Unclear and
Clarity: clear and and orderly in parts but not disorganized
orderly all parts overall throughout
Main arguments and presentation
responses are outlined
in a clear and orderly
way.
2. Use of Very strong Many good Some decent Few or no real
Argument: and persuasive arguments arguments, arguments
arguments given, with but some given, or all
Reasons are given to given only minor significant arguments given
support the resolution throughout problems problems had significant
problems
3. Use of cross- Excellent Good cross- Decent cross- Poor cross-exam
examination and cross-exam exam and exam and/or or rebuttals,
rebuttal: and defense rebuttals, with rebuttals, but failure to point
against only minor with some out problems in
Identification of Negative slip-ups significant Negative team’s
weakness in Negative team’s problems position or
team’s arguments and objections failure to defend
ability to defend itself itself against
attack.
against attack.

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4. Presentation All style Most style Few style Very few style
Style: features were features were features were features were
used used used used, none of
Tone of voice, clarity convincingly convincingly convincingly them
of expression, convincingly
precision of arguments
all contribute to
keeping audience’s
attention and
persuading them of
the team’s case.
TOTAL SCORE:

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