TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF THE PHILIPPINES

938 Aurora Boulevard, Cubao, Quezon City

COLLEGE OF ARTS
Social Sciences and Humanities Department

ART APPRECIAITON (GEC 006)

Second Semester 2023

LEOPOLDO CINCO CATCHUELA

Instructor/Lecturer

Doctor in Public Administration (c), EARIST, Manila

Master in Public Administration, EARIST, Manila
Bachelor of Laws (Juris Doctor), University of the East, Manila
A. B. Political Science, San Sebastian College - Recoletos, Manila
(Primary and Secondary Education, Trinity University of Asia, Quezon City)

It is my strong belief that our ultimate aim in life is not to be wealthy, prosperous, or problem
free. Our ultimate aim in life is to bring GLORY TO GOD! In view of this, and for our
FAITH JOURNEY, may I cordially invite you to watch, subscribe, like, comment, and share
my YOUTUBE Channel, SIGE KUYA POL. When we live to the GLORY OF GOD, we
show HIS goodness living through us instead of just ourselves. GOD LOVES YOU!

PRELIM PERIOD

Unit 1: Introduction to Art Appreciation

Art appreciation is the knowledge and understanding of the universal and timeless
qualities that identify all great art. The more you appreciate and understand the art of different
eras, movements, styles and techniques, the better you can develop, evaluate and improve
your own artwork.

The visual elements of art are line, shape, tone, color, pattern, texture and form. A
knowledge of how they are used in art will help you to understand how artworks are created.
You can learn how to analyze an artwork by breaking it down to its component parts, so that
you may appreciate the skill and imagination that the artist has used in composing it.

WHY APPRECIATING ART IS SO IMPORTANT FOR PEOPLE?

Some people might not think that art is important, and would not appreciate it or
recognize the efforts put into it to create awe-inspiring pieces of artwork. As intriguing and
inspiring art can be, it is not appreciated by some people who have lost their sense of
creativity or fascination with colors. When you think of art, you would think of the famous
works from artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni,
Raphael, Pablo Picasso, Carole Feuerman, Van Gogh, Warhol, or Claude Monet.

The Importance of Art

Art has been around for generations and decades. Their form and representation have
changed from time to time, but their importance, appreciation, and creativity are still admired.
Did you know that art was even before when men discovered fire? We may have forgotten
that art has been around since the early days of the cavemen. No doubt that art has played a
very significant role throughout our history. It has shaped our culture, our traditions, and our
way of life. However, it is also a part of our lives in many ways as everything that we do,
wear or perform is inspired by art in some way or the other.

Art revolves around us in many ways. We can take inspiration from art from nature,
colors in the sky, landscapes, flowers, animals, people, and our culture. The clothing we wear
to the movies we see, or the video games we play, the cars we drive to the pictures of
ourselves or the pictures in the books or magazines we read, everything we do is inspired
through art, and it is important to appreciate art. Appreciating art and artists is important
because art continues to be a part of our lives and our future. It is also related to the future of
many generations to come.

Art in the Early Days

Appreciating art was done in the early civilizations, as men used art to communicate
with one another and even with the world. We know that early men didn’t use art as a formal
written language, but they did use drawings to depict their everyday lives, important
information, emotions, and hopes. We can still loot at those artistic images and appreciate
them in a way. It did give us a clear understanding of their daily struggles and successes and
give us a chance to connect and empathize with learning about their culture.

Appreciating and Admiring Art

Art is not meant to be overlooked. People need to appreciate it, admire it, and be
inspired by it as it can teach us many things that we can’t even imagine. Art is meant to be
looked at for what it is, as it tells us who we are and what we can become in the eyes of the
beholder. Art can stimulate thought and reason. That is why it is known to have brought a
revolution in many cultures. It can stimulate ideas as it allows viewers to draw their own
emotions in their thoughts and pull from their personal experiences as they encounter them.

Art can be influential in a way as it naturally develops critical and innovative thinking
skills. That is why children in their early ages are inspired to draw and paint. Art also teaches
us many important qualities such a listening, observing, and responding to multiple
perspectives. That is why art should be admired and appreciated by people from all different
walks of life.

Art Concepts

1. Creativity: What does creativity mean to you?

Creativity is the driving force of all artistic processes. Understanding what it means to be
creative is fundamental to your relationship with yourself and your art-making process. A
solid grasp of this multifaceted concept called creativity in the visual arts can positively
impact your work and help you make art you love.

What is creativity in general?

Creativity is a seed – an inborn and imperishable one, which can spread in manifold
ways and can grow into extraordinary things. It’s like the tree inside the acorn – it makes
everything possible. Everything.
 Creativity is your capacity to make innovative connections and free associations that
others don’t do the way you do and to reinvent reality each time anew.

Furthermore, creativity is a spring of possibilities for every visual artist including you,
which can fuel your artistic fire. Believe in it and follow its lead!

Can creativity be lost and found again?

Once in a while, creativity may feel like it’s completely gone. Why is that so? Because
creativity is a fluctuating capacity of the brain. This is to say, your capacity to create depends
on your physical and mental condition, which in its turn is joined to daily influences from
various social, interpersonal, and emotional dynamics, to name just a few. So, yes, creativity
can feel like it’s sometimes lost. This is absolutely normal and unquestionably human.

Without a doubt, you’re not always at the height of your creative potential, nor are you all
the time in a creative mood (in fact, nobody is), but creativity is always there. Creativity is
part of life itself in a daily motion. It swings but never vanishes. It lies dormant until you act
on it. Remember the acorn inside the oak tree?

The Role of Creativity in Art Making

Creativity requires thinking outside the box. It is often used to solve problems that
have never occurred before, conflate function and style, and simply make life a more unique
and enjoyable experience.

In art, creativity is what sets apart one artwork from another. We say something is
done creativity when we have not yet seen anything like it or when it is out of the ordinary. A
creative art does not simply copy or imitate another artist’s work. He does not imitate the
lines, flaws, colors, and patterns in recreating nature. He embraces originality, puts his own
flavor into his work, and calls it his own creative piece.

Yet, being creative nowadays can be quite challenging. What you thought was your
own unique and creative idea may not what it seems to be after extensive research and that
someone else has coincidentally devised before the idea in another part of the world. For
instance, the campaign ad “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” used by the Department of
Tourism (DOT) boomed popularity in 2011, but later on it was found out that it was allegedly
plagiarized from Switzerland’s tourism slogan, “It’s More Fun in Switzerland,” back in 1951.

In DOT’s defense, former DOT Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr., claimed that it was
“purely coincidental.” Thus, creativity should be backed with careful research on related art to
avoid such conflicts.

2. Imagination: Art as a product of Imagination, Imagination as a product of Art

Where do you think famous writers, painters, and musicians get their ideas? Where do
ideas in making creative solutions begin? It all starts in the human mind. It all begins with
imagination.

German physicist Albert Einstein who had made significant and major contributions in
science and humanity demonstrated that knowledge is actually derived from imagination. He
emphasized this idea through his words: “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 is not constrained by the walls of the norm, but goes beyond that. That is why
people rely on curiosity and imagination for advancement. Through imagination, one is able
to craft something bold, something new, and something better in the hopes of creating
something that will stimulate change. Imagination allows endless possibilities.

In an artist’s mind sits a vast gallery of artworks. An artwork does not need to be real
thing, but can be something that is imaginary. (Collingwood, 1938). Take for example a
musician who thinks of a tune in his head. The making of this tune in his head makes it an
imaginary tune, an imaginative creation, an imaginary art. (Collingwood, 1938). It remains
imaginary until he hums, sings, or writes down the notes of the tune on paper. However,
something imaginary does not necessarily mean it cannot be called art. Artists use their
imagination that gives birth to reality through creation.

In the same way that imagination produces art, art also inspires imagination. Imagine
being in an empty room surrounded by blank, white walls, and floor. Would you be inspired
to work in such a place? Often, you will find coffee shops, restaurants, and libraries with
paintings hung or sculptures and other pieces of art placed around the room to add beauty to
the surroundings. This craving and desire to be surrounded by beautiful tings dates back to our
early ancestors (Collins & Riley, 1931). Cave walls are surrounded by drawings and paintings
of animals they hunted: wild boars, reindeers, and bison. Clays were molded and stones were
carved into forms that resemble men and women; burial jars were created with intricate
designs on them. These creative pieces were made not only because they were functional to
men, but also because beauty gave them joy (Collins & Riley, 1931).

3. Art Expression: Art as Expression

There may have been times when you felt something is going on with you, you try to
explain it but you do not know how. You may only be conscious about feeling this sort of
excitement, fear, or agitation, but you know that just one word is not enough to describe the
nature of what you truly feel. Finally, you try to release yourself from this tormenting and
disabling state by doing something, which is called expressing oneself (Collingwood, 1938).
Suppose this feeling is excitement. It is frustrating to contain such feeling, so you relieve it by
expressing through shouting or leaping in excitement. An emotion will remain unknown to a
man until he expresses it.

Robin George Collingwood, an English philosopher who is best known for his work in
aesthetics, explicated in his publication, The Principles of Art (1938) that what an artist does
to an emotion is not to induce it, but express it. Through expression, he is able to explore his
own emotions and at the same time, create something beautiful out of them. Collingwood
further illustrated that expressing emotions is something different from describing emotions.
In his example, explicitly saying, “I am angry” is not an expression of an emotion, but a mere
description. There is no need in relating or referring to a specific emotion, such as anger, in
expressing one’s emotion. Description actually destroys the idea of expression, as it classifies
the emotion, making it ordinary and predictable.
 Expression, on the other hand, individualizes. An artist has the freedom to express himself
the way he wants to. Hence, there is no specific technique in expression. This makes people’s
art not a reflection of what is outside or external to them, but a reflection of their inner selves.

Categories of Art

1. Visual Arts

Creations that fall under this category are those that appeal to the sense of sight and are
mainly visual in nature. Artists produce visual arts driven by their desire to reproduce things
that they have seen in the way that they perceived them (Collins & Riley, 1931). We will not
be too strict on the definition since there are other artistic disciplines that also involve a visual
aspect, such as performance arts, theater, and applied arts, that will be discussed in detail later
on.

Visual arts is the kind of art form that the population is most likely more exposed to, but
its variations are so diverse, they range from sculptures that you see in art galleries to the last
movie you saw.

Some mediums of visual arts include paintings, drawings, letterings, printing, sculptures,
digital imaging, and more.

2. Performing or Combined Arts

Performance art is a live art and the artist’s medium is mainly the human body which he
or she uses to perform, but also employs other kind of art such as visual art, props, or sound. It
usually consists of four important elements: time, where the performance took place, the
performer’s or performer’s body, and a relationship between the audience and the
performer(s) (Moma Learning, n.d.). The fact that performance art is live makes it intangible,
which means it cannot be bought or traded as a commodity, unlike the previously discussed
art expressions.

3. Digital Arts

In today’s world defined by technology, what does the term ‘Digital Art’ mean? We take a
look at what the term actually refers to; how it differs from other contemporary art
movements; who are the notable artists that have left a mark in the field and some of today’s
most experimental digital mediums and innovative projects.

Placed under the larger category of new media art, digital art is defined as any creative
practice that uses digital technology as an essential part of the artistic process. Just like
traditional fine art, digital art offers multiple mediums and styles that artists can use to express
themselves, from digital photography, computer graphics and pixel art to more experimental
mediums such as AI-generated art and AR art, everything goes in the spectrum of digital art.
Involving techniques that are not distinctive of creative expression only, digital art is ever-
evolving and radical in the way it is produced, distributed, and viewed.

But not only does digital art employ different electronic technologies, it also results in a
digital final product, be it a vector image, an Adobe Photoshop collage, a virtual environment,
or an NFT, just to mention a few. As digital technology has become inextricably intertwined
with everyday existence and continues to advance, new artistic avenues open up and the
artist’s toolbox is today wider than ever.

A Short History of Digital Art

Although the first digital art experiences date back to the 1980s, its roots can be traced
back to the 1960s with artists such as Frieder Nake, the group EAT (Experiments in Art and
Technology), and Allan Kaprow exploring the relationship of man and machine in the artistic
realm and, especially the latter, envisioning a world of unbounded communication and
interconnectedness. Similarly, in the 1970s pioneering video artist Nam June Paik envisioned
a future of boundaryless communication and coined the iconic expression “electronic
superhighway.”

It was in the early 1980s, however, that an artist Harald Cohen with a group of
engineerings invented a paint program named AARON: a robotic machine designed to make
large drawings on the sheet of paper placed on the floor. Initially, the machine was creating
abstract drawings, then those turned more representational over time and the machine was
able to imitate shapes from nature. In the ’90s, AARON also started to implement color to the
drawings. Even though Cohen was always very careful not to claim AARON’s creativity but
rather his own, considering the machine just as a tool for his own expression, his program is
now considered as a harbinger of what we know today as Artificial Intelligence.

In the 1990s, with the introduction of the personal computer, the improvements in digital
technology, and the emergence of the internet, not only did these developments provide artists
with further creative freedom but also offered new ways to experience art with a growing
interest in the interactive nature of their creative output.

4. Applied Arts

Applied arts is incorporating elements of style and design to everyday items with the aim
of increasing their aesthetical value. Artists in this field bring beauty, charm, and comfort into
many things that are useful in everyday life (Collins & Riley, 1931). Industrial design, interior
design, fashion design, and graphic design are considered applied arts. Applied is often
compared to fine arts, where the latter is chiefly concerned on aesthetic value. Through
exploration and expression of ideas, consideration of the needs, and careful choice of
materials and techniques, artists are able to combine functionality and style.

The term "applied art" refers to the application (and resulting product) of artistic design to
utilitarian objects in everyday use. Whereas works of fine art have no function other than
providing aesthetic or intellectual stimulation to the viewer, works of applied art are usually
functional objects which have been "prettified" or creatively designed with both aesthetics and
function in mind. Applied art embraces a huge range of products and items, from a teapot or
chair, to the walls and roof of a railway station or concert hall, a fountain pen or computer
mouse.

What Does Applied Art Include?

For the sake of simplicity, works of applied art comprise two different types: standard
machine-made products which have had a particular design applied to them, to make them
more attractive and easy-to-use; and individual, aesthetically pleasing but mostly functional,
craft products made by artisans or skilled workers. Artistic disciplines that are classified as
applied arts, include industrial design, fashion design, interior design, and graphic art and
design (including computer graphics), as well as most types of decorative art (eg. furniture,
carpets, tapestry, embroidery, batik, jewellery, precious metalwork, pottery, goldsmithing,
basketry, mosaic art, and glassware). Illuminated manuscripts and later book illustration are
also classified as applied arts. Architecture, too is best viewed as an applied art.

History of Applied Art

Architecture

The first applied art to be practised in a major way was architecture. From the Egyptian
Pyramids, the Ziggurats of Sumer and the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, to the
precisely organized proportions of Greek temples and the enduring engineering quality of
Roman viaducts and bridges, architects combine aesthetics with mathematics to design a
functional but pleasing structure. Since then, the demands of the modern world have included
housing and commercial projects, notably high-rise buildings and skyscrapers. For details,
see: Skyscraper Architecture (1850-present).

During this evolution, architectural styles have been influenced by numerous schools and
movements, including: Romanesque (c.775-1050), Gothic (c.1150-1280), International Gothic
(c.1300-1500), Renaissance (c.1400-1530), Mannerism (c.1530-1600), Baroque (c.1600-
1700), Rococo (c.1700-50), Neoclassicism (c.1750-1815), Greek and Gothic Revival (c.1800-
1900), Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Romanesque Revival (1849-1880), the Second Empire style
(1850-80), Chicago School of architecture (1880-1910), Art Nouveau (c.1895-1915), Early
Modernism (1900-25), Continental Avant-Garde (1900-25), Bauhaus Design School (1919-
33), Art Deco (1925-40)Totalitarian Architecture (Germany, USSR, 1928-1940), the utopian
urban building designs of Le Corbusier (1887-1965), Second Chicago School (1940-70),
International Style of modernism (1945-1970), High Tech Corporate Design (1945-2000),
Deconstructivism (1980-2000), and Blobitecture (1990-2000).

Commercial Design

Aside from architecture, applied art received its biggest boost from the growth in
commerce during the 19th century, following the Industrial Revolution. Suddenly,
competitive manufacturers and service providers needed to ensure that their products and
services "looked good" as well as functioned properly. This demand for improved aesthetics
led to the establishment of numerous design schools and courses, from which a new
generation of industrial designers emerged. Later, as the range of products multiplied, and
new printing techniques appeared, they were joined by fashion designers, graphic designers
and most recently computer graphics designers.

Decorative Arts

In addition to architecture and design, applied art also includes decorative arts. Early
examples include Chinese pottery (from 18,000 BCE), Jomon style Japanese pottery (from
14,500 BCE), as well as jade carving (from 4900 BCE), lacquerware (from 4500 BCE) and
Chinese porcelain (c.100 BCE onwards). Enamelwork is exemplified by Celtic Metalwork art
such as the silver "Gundestrup Cauldron" (c.100 BCE), the bronze "Petrie Crown" (100 BCE -
200 CE), and the gold "Broighter Collar/Torc" (1st century BCE), as well as later religious
metalwork like the Ardagh Chalice (8th/9th century CE), and the Derrynaflan Chalice.
Tapestry (see for instance the Bayeux Tapestry) and stained glass were first developed during
the Romanesque and Gothic period, while interior design, fine-furniture, textiles, glassware
and other objets d'art reached new heights during the Rococo period (18th century) at the
French court at the Palace of Versailles. For more about the mini-renaissance of applied art
during the Louis Quatorze (XIV), Regency, Louis Quinze (XV), and Louis Seize (XVI)
periods, see:

- French Decorative Arts (c.1640-1792)

- French Designers (c.1640-1792)
- French Furniture (c.1640-1792).

During the last decade of the 19th century the decorative strain of applied art was re-
invigorated by William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement, the Celtic Art Revival
Movement, the Belgian artists group known as Les Vingt, the international Art Nouveau Style
(c.1895-1915), exquisite Fabergé Easter Eggs (c.1885-1917), the Bauhaus Design School in
Germany (1919-33) and Art Deco (c.1925-40). One of the main applications for decorative
design work was theatrical sets and costumes, such as those designed by Leon Bakst (1866-
1924) and Alexander Benois (1870-1960) for the Ballets Russes. Another application was
poster art, which became high fashion during La Belle Epoque in France. Top poster
designers included the lithographer Jules Cheret (1836-1932), the Post-Impressionist
Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), and the Czech Alfonse Mucha (1860-1939). Other figures in
the history of poster art, include Aubrey Beardsley (1872-98), the "Beggarstaff Brothers",
Theophile Steinlen (1859-1923), Eugene Grasset (1845-1917), Albert Guillaume (1873-
1942), Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947), Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940), the Italian functionalist
Leonetto Cappiello (1875-1942), Ludwig Hohlwein, Lucian Bernhard, Herbert Matter,
Fernand Leger, Amedee Ozenfant, the French-Ukrainian Adolphe Mouron Cassandre,
William Bradley and Edward Penfield.

Assumption of Art

1. Art is Universal

Art is present in every part of the globe and in every period of time. This is what is meant
by its universality. 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. This is a misconception. Age is not a factor in determining art. An art is not good
because it is old, but old because it is good.” (Dudley et al., 1960).

The first assumption then about the humanities is that art has been crafted by all people
regardless of origin, time, place, and that it stayed on because it is liked and enjoyed by
people continuously.

A great piece of work will never be obsolete. Some people say that art is art for its
intrinsic worth. In John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism (1897), enjoyment in the arts belongs to a
higher good, one that lies at the opposite end of base pleasures. 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.

2. Art is not nature

Art not being nature, not even attempting to simply mirror nature. Art is always a creation
of the artist, not nature. One important characteristic 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 a given around us.

It is in this juncture that they can be considered opposites. What we find in nature should
not be expected to be present in art too. Movies are not meant to be direct representation of
reality. They may, according to the moviemaker’s perception of reality, be a reinterpretation
or even distortion of nature.

This distinction assumes that all of us see nature, perceive its elements in myriad,
different, yet ultimately valid ways. One can only imagine the story of the five blind men who
on day argue against each other on what an elephant looks like. Each of the five blind men
was holding a different part of the elephant.

The first was touching the body and thus, thought the elephant was like a wall. Another
was touching the beast’s ear and was convinced that the elephant was like a fan. The rest were
touching other different parts of the elephant and concluded differently based on their
perceptions. Art is like each of these men’s view of the elephant.

It is based on an individual’s subjective experience of nature. It is not meant, after all, to

accurately define what the elephant is really like in nature. Artists are not expected to
duplicate nature just as even scientists with their elaborate laboratories cannot make nature.

3. Art involves experience

Without experience, there is no art. The artist has to be foremost, a perceiver who is
directly in touch with art. Getting this far without a satisfactory definition of art can be quite
weird for some. For most people, art does not require a full definition. Art is just experience.
By experience, we mean the “actual doing of something” (Dudley et al, 1960). 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 (something) endless cycle of loving. When one asserts
having experienced preparing a particular recipe, he in fact asserts knowing how the recipe is
made. Knowing a thing is different from hearing from others what the said thing is. A radio
DJ dispensing advice on love when he himself has not experienced it does not really know
what he is talking about. A choreographer who cannot execute a dance step himself is a
bogus.

Art is always an experience. Unlike fields of knowledge that involve data, art is known by
experiencing. A painter cannot claim to know 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. Dudley et al. (1960)
affirmed that “[a]ll art depends on experience, and if one is to know art, he must know it not
as fact or information but as experience.

Functions of Art

1. Aesthetics
 Aesthetics, also spelled esthetics, the philosophical study of beauty and taste. It is closely
related to the philosophy of art, which is concerned with the nature of art and the concepts in
terms of which individual works of art are interpreted and evaluated.

Aesthetics is broader in scope than the philosophy of art, which comprises one of its
branches. It deals not only with the nature and value of the arts but also with those responses
to natural objects that find expression in the language of the beautiful and the ugly. A problem
is encountered at the outset, however, for terms such as beautiful and ugly seem too vague in
their application and too subjective in their meaning to divide the world successfully into
those things that do, and those that do not, exemplify them. Almost anything might be seen as
beautiful by someone or from some point of view, and different people apply the word to
quite disparate objects for reasons that often seem to have little or nothing in common. It may
be that there is some single underlying belief that motivates all of their judgments. It may also
be, however, that the term beautiful has no sense except as the expression of an attitude,
which is in turn attached by different people to quite different states of affairs.

2. Historical

Art has been used throughout history to tell stories, to help people worship their God, and
to increase personal enjoyment. Many are familiar with cave paintings of centuries ago. These
paintings help sociologists understand how ancient peoples understood the world.

Art changes as time goes on, and the main reason for that is that art is cultural, and culture
changes. It is easier for many to relate to a painting created in the last century than to ancient
tribal masks created a century ago because our culture is more similar to that of the modern
painting.

In terms of art in history, art has also changed in terms of its purpose. Prior to the late 19th
century, artists traditionally embraced realism. They wanted their art to reflect reality to the
greatest degree possible. This changed over the centuries, however, and movements like
impressionism as well as today’s modern art often attempt to convey the emotion or affective
experience just as much as the realistic one.

3. Personal

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 his audience. It can also be mere entertainment for his intended audience. Often, the
artist may not event intend to mean anything with his work.

An art may also be therapeutic. In some orphanages and home for abandoned elders, art is
used to help residents process their emotions or while away their time. Recently, the use of
adult coloring books to de-stress has been apparent too, now with a lot of designs being sold
in bookstores nationwide. These all fall under personal functions of art.

4. Physical
 The physical functions of art are the easiest to spot and understand. The physical functions
of art can be found in artworks that are crafted in order to serve some physical purpose. A
Japanese raku bowl that serves a physical function in a tea ceremony is an example.
Architecture, jewelry-making, and even interior design are all forms of arts that have physical
function.

5. Religious

Religious art is artistic imagery using religious inspiration and motifs and is often
intended to uplift the mind to the spiritual. Sacred art involves the ritual and cultic practices
and practical and operative aspects of the path of the spiritual realization within the artist's
religious tradition.

Religious symbols are used to convey concepts concerned with humanity's relationship to
the sacred or holy (e.g., the cross in Christianity) and also to the social and material world
(e.g., the dharmachakra, or wheel of the law, of Buddhism).

6. Social

Art is considered to have a social function if and when it addresses a particular collective
interest as opposed to a personal interest. Political art is a very common example of an art
with a social function. Art may convey message of protest, contestation, or whatever message
the artist intends his work to carry. Often, art can also depict social conditions. 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 to. Pictures of poverty may carry
emotional overtones that may solicit action or awareness from their audience. Moreover,
performance art like plays or satires can also rouse emotions and rally people toward a
particular end. In these and more, the social function of art is apparent.

Philosophical Perspective of Art

1. Art as imitation – Plato in his masterpiece, The Republic, particularly paints a picture
of artists as imitators and art as mere imitation.

In his description of the ideal republic, Plato advises against the inclusion of art as a
subject in the curriculum and the banning of artists in the Republic. In Plato’s
metaphysics or view of reality, the tings 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. Human
beings endeavor to reach the Forms all throughout this life, starting with formal
education in school.

From looking at “shadows in the cave,” men slowly crawl outside to behold the real
entities in the world. For example, the chair that one sits on is not a real chair. It is an
imperfect copy of the perfect “chair” in the World of Forms.

Plato was convinced that artists merely reinforce the belief in copies and discourage
men to reach for the eternal entities in the World of Forms. He was deeply suspicious
of arts and artists for two reasons: (1) they appeal to the emotion rather than to the
rational faculty of men; (2) they imitate rather than lead one to reality.
 This is a feature of both of Plato's theories. Of course he was not the first or the last
person to think that art imitates reality. The idea was still very strong in the
Renaissance, when Vasari, in his Lives of the Painters, said that "painting is just the
imitation of all the living things of nature with their colors and designs just as they are
in nature." It may still be the most commonly held theory. Most people still think that
a picture must be a picture of something, and that an artist is someone who can make a
picture that "looks just like the real thing". It wasn't until late in the nineteenth century
that the idea of art as imitation began to fade from western aesthetics, to be replaced
by theories about art as expression, art as communication, art as pure form, art as
whatever elicits an "aesthetic" response, and a number of other theories.

So art is imitation. But what does it imitate? Here is where Plato's two theories come
in. In the Republic, Plato says that art imitates the objects and events of ordinary life.
In other words, a work of art is a copy of a copy of a Form. It is even more of an
illusion than is ordinary experience. On this theory, works of art are at best
entertainment, and at worst a dangerous delusion.

A moment's thought will suggest a way of building a more art-friendly theory out of
Plato's philosophy. What if the artist is somehow able to make a truer copy of the
Forms than our ordinary experience offers? This theory actually appears in Plato's
short early dialogue, the Ion. Socrates is questioning a poet named Ion, who recites
Homer's poetry brilliantly but is no good at reciting anything else. Socrates is puzzled
by this; it seems to him that if Ion has an art, or skill, of reciting poetry he should be
able to apply his skilled knowledge to other poets as well. He concludes that Ion
doesn't really possess skilled knowledge. Rather, when he recites Homer, he must be
inspired by a god.

2. Art as representation – Aristotle, Plato’s most important student in philosophy,

agreed with his teacher that art is a form of imitation. However, in contrast to the
disgust that his master holds for art, Aristotle considered art as an aid to philosophy in
revealing the truth. The Kind of imitation that art does is not antithetical (directly
opposed or contrasted; mutually incompatible) to the reaching of fundamental truths in
the world.

Talking about tragedies, for example, Aristotle in the Poetics claimed that poetry is a
literary representation in general.

What is Representational Art?

Representational art refers to any type of artistic expression that depicts, or represents,
anything from the real world. Based on the representational theory, art is defined by its
relationship to human perception, rather than emotion. The representational art can be defined
as a broad subject and could depict anything from reality including a landscape, an object, or a
person.

Origin of Representational Theory

Representational theory refers to the human desire to understand and reflect one's

understanding of the world. It has been closely related to other fields like literature and
philosophy and is generally viewed as the human attempt to make meaning of their perception
of reality.
Representational art has played a role in human expression since ancient times. Cave
paintings are an early example of a human attempt to portray an image that represents
something in the real world. In ancient Greece and ancient Rome, imitation theory emerged
as a way to honor significant people or moments. Ancient Rome began emphasizing the
creation of portraying historic events as realistically as possible, while ancient Greece wanted
to portray the gods and nature in an idealized way.
Over the years, many scholars revised the theory of imitation. They claimed that art
should not just imitate something, it should be able to represent anything. As Western art
started to evolve after the fall of Rome, imitation was seen as hubris; representational art
became more common as an attempt to portray God without being viewed as sacrilegious. Art
became a way to represent something from nature, while not depicting it in a realistic or
idealized manner.
It is important to note that art continues to evolve. Western modern art emerged
roughly in the late 1800s as a rejection of traditional art. Much of modern art uses abstractions
to depict something found in nature, making it difficult to understand how it works in
representational theory. 
Nonrepresentational theory helps address this by offering a broader interpretation;
this theory states that to be art, a piece just has to be about something, anything. This is
because any subject or meaning tied to a piece makes it art.

Qualities of Representational Art

Representation art encompasses a broad range of interpretations and is not limited to just
one meaning. The qualities of representational art include:

 The representation of any event or object from reality.

 The use of varying levels of abstraction, from almost no abstraction to complete
abstraction.
 The correlation to perception, as it depicts one's understanding and perception of the
subject.

This means that according to representational theory, art can look however it wants if it
features any of these qualities. It can be aesthetically beautiful, or unsettling.

Types of Representational Art

There are four main types of representational art, which all attempt different ways to represent
something in reality.

1. Realism is an accurate, detailed, and overall honest depiction of a subject usually

found in nature or ordinary life. This type of representational art is often used to
portray a realistic portrait of someone notable (like nobility) or a historical event, but it
doesn't have to be. The subject can vary as long as it is depicted realistically. After the
French Revolution, many artists began to depict realistic paintings of rural life and
figures. By representing the working class and the French countryside, artists were
able to portray their appreciation of everyday people.
2. Impressionism is an accurate depiction of one's visual impression, usually of light and
movement. This movement became popular in the 19th century and is known for its
noticeably thin brushstrokes and angles that depict ordinary subjects, for instance, a
pond. The introduction of this movement is notable because it changed the scope of
how people portray realistic subjects.
3. Idealism represents an aesthetic idealized version of a subject. It is similar to realism
but differs in that it attempts to portray beauty and perfection. Idealism was prevalent
in ancient art as a way to pay homage to someone worthy of honor. When the
neoclassic period emerged in Europe in the 18th century, these classic ideals
reappeared, especially in art. Idealistic art is a reflection of what the artist,
commissioner, or even society, finds beautiful and pleasing when it is made. In ancient
Greece, this meant using perfect proportions and detailed muscles. Male subjects often
appeared nude to highlight their power, while women covered their bodies to preserve
modesty. During the neoclassic period, European artists often gave their subjects
flawless, fair skin and simplicity to create their idealized figure.
4. Stylization uses simplified, decorative representations of subjects. For example, in
stylized representation art, the star shape can be used to depict real stars. This uses a
general portrayal rather than a realistic portrayal. Stylized art can be found in the
earliest examples of painting. For example, many cave paintings use lines or basic
shapes to create men, as well as entire scenes. Stylization allows for the simplest of
forms to depict a subject.

3. Art as communication of emotions - In his essay “What is Art?” Leo Tolstoy, the
author of War and Peace, defines art as a way to communicate emotion with the
ultimate goal of uniting humanity.

How can we define art? What is authentic art and what is good art? Leo Tolstoy
answered these questions in “What is Art?” (1897), his most comprehensive essay on
the theory of art. Tolstoy’s theory has a lot of charming aspects. He believes that art is
a means of communicating emotion, with the aim of promoting mutual understanding.
By gaining awareness of each other’s feelings we can successfully practice empathy
and ultimately unite to further mankind’s collective well-being.

Furthermore, Tolstoy firmly denies that pleasure is art’s sole purpose. Instead, he
supports a moral-based art able to appeal to everyone and not just the privileged few.
Although he takes a clear stance in favor of Christianity as a valid foundation for
morality, his definition of religious perception is flexible. As a result, it is possible to
easily replace it with all sorts of different ideological schemes.

Leo Tolstoy (Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy) was born in 1828 in his family estate of
Yasnaya Polyana, some 200km from Moscow. His family belonged in the Russian aristocracy
and thus Leo inherited the title of count. In 1851 he joined the tsarist army to pay off his
accumulated debt but quickly regretted this decision. Eventually, he left the army right after
the end of the Crimean War in 1856. After traveling Europe and witnessing the suffering and
cruelty of the world, Tolstoy was transformed. From a privileged aristocrat, he became a
Christian anarchist arguing against the State and propagating non-violence. This was the
doctrine that inspired Gandhi and was expressed as non-resistance to evil. This means that evil
cannot be fought with evil means and one should neither accept nor resist it.

Tolstoy’s writing made him famous around the world and he is justly considered among the
four giants of Russian Literature next to Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and Turgenev. His most
 famous novels are War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). However, he also wrote
multiple philosophical and theological texts as well as theatrical plays and short stories. Upon
completing his masterpiece Anna Karenina, Tolstoy fell into a state of insufferable existential
despair. Charmed by the faith of the common people, he turned to Christianity. Eventually, he
dismissed the Russian Church and every other Church as corrupted and looked for his own
answers. His theological explorations led to the formulation of his own version of Christianity,
which deeply influenced his social vision. He died in 1910 at the age of 82 after suffering
from pneumonia.

4. Art for art’s sake - Taken from the French, the term "l'art pour l'art," (Art for Art's
Sake) expresses the idea that art has an inherent value independent of its subject-
matter, or of any social, political, or ethical significance. By contrast, art should be
judged purely on its own terms: according to whether or not it is beautiful, capable of
inducing ecstasy or revery in the viewer through its formal qualities (its use of line,
color, pattern, and so on). The concept became a rallying cry across nineteenth-century
Britain and France, partly as a reaction against the stifling moralism of much academic
art and wider society, with the writer Oscar Wilde perhaps its most famous champion.
Although the phrase has been little used since the early twentieth century, its legacy
lived on in many twentieth-century ideas concerning the autonomy of art, notably in
various strains of formalism.

The idea of Art for Art's sake has its origins in nineteenth-century France, where it
became associated with Parisian artists, writers, and critics, including Théophile
Gautier and Charles Baudelaire. These figures and others put forward the idea that art
should stand apart from all thematic, moral, and social concerns - a significant break
from the post-Renaissance artistic tradition represented by contemporary academic
painting, which favored historical and mythical scenes, and held that art should have a
clear ethical message often connected to religion or state power.

Although Art for Art's Sake withdrew from all political and ideological concerns, it
was nonetheless radical in rejecting the moralizing standards of its day. Artists such as
Aubrey Beardsley delighted in shocking polite taste through images which had sexual
or grotesque overtones. In this regard, Art for Art's Sake was often implicitly radical,
and its program of seeking scandal informed the more politically charged activities of
subsequent movements such as Dada and Futurism.

Although the term Art for Art's Sake fell out of favor by the end of the nineteenth
century, the idea it stood for - that art had a value which stood apart from subject-
matter, purely connected to formal qualities such as line, color, and tone - remained
highly significant. Some such notion is at the basis of all abstraction, for example. Art
for Art Sake can thus be seen to have predicted the work of artists such as Wassily
Kandinsky, for example, as well as the work of the Abstract Expressionists.

The Elements and Principles of Arts

ELEMENTS OF ART: The visual components of color, form, line, shape, space, texture,
and value.

Line An element of art defined by a point moving in space. Line may be two-or
three-dimensional, descriptive, implied, or abstract.
Shape An element of art that is two-dimensional, flat, or limited to height and width.

Form An element of art that is three-dimensional and encloses volume; includes

height, width AND depth (as in a cube, a
sphere, a pyramid, or a cylinder). Form may also be free flowing.

Value The lightness or darkness of tones or colors. White is the lightest value; black
is the darkest. The value halfway between these extremes is called middle
gray.
Space An element of art by which positive and negative areas are
defined or a sense of depth achieved in a work of art .
Color An element of art made up of three properties: hue, value, and intensity.
 Hue: name of color
 Value: hue’s lightness and darkness (a color’s value changes when
white or black is added)
 Intensity: quality of brightness and purity (high intensity= color
is strong and bright; low intensity= color is faint and dull)

Texture An element of art that refers to the way things feel, or look
as if they might feel if touched.
Color, Hue, Tint, Tone, and Shade

Many people use terms like “hue” and “color” or “tint” and “shade” interchangeably, but
the terms have distinctly different meanings. Color is a very general term used to
describe every hue, tint, tone, or shade we can see. Hue refers to the dominant color
family.
Hue refers to the origin of the colors we can see. Primary and Secondary colors (Yellow,
Orange, Red, Violet, Blue, and Green) are considered hues; however, tertiary colors
(mixed colors where neither color is dominant) would also be considered hues.
Tint refers to any hue or mixture of pure colors to which white is added. Pastel colors are
generally tinted colors. Tinted color remains the same color, but it is paler than the
original. When mixing a tint, always begin with white paint and gradually mix in small
amounts of color until you’ve achieved the tint you want.
Tone is a hue or mixture of pure colors to which only pure gray is added (equal amounts
of black and white). Adding gray to a color will make the intensity much duller. Beware
of mixing too much gray into a hue as it can become over-dulled and virtually impossible
to restore the brilliance.
Shade is a hue or mixture of pure colors to which only black is added. It contains no
white or gray. Shade darkens the color, but the hue remains the same. When mixing a
shade, begin with the color itself then add black one drop at a time.
 PRINCIPLES OF ART: Balance, emphasis, movement, proportion, rhythm, unity, and
variety; the means an artist uses to organize elements within a work of art.

Rhythm A principle of design that indicates movement, created by the careful

placement of repeated elements in a work of art to cause a visual tempo
or beat.
Balance A way of combining elements to add a feeling of equilibrium or
stability to a work of art. Major types are symmetrical and
asymmetrical.
Emphasis A way of combining elements to stress the differences between those
(contrast) elements.
Proportion A principle of design that refers to the relationship of
certain elements to the whole and to each other.
Gradation A way of combining elements by using a series of gradual changes in
those elements. (large shapes to small shapes, dark hue to light hue, etc)

Harmony A way of combining similar elements in an artwork to accent their

similarities (achieved through use of repetitions and subtle gradual
changes)
Variety A principle of design concerned with diversity or contrast. Variety is
achieved by using different shapes, sizes, and/or colors in a work of art.

Movement A principle of design used to create the look and feeling of action and to
guide the viewer’s eye throughout the work of art.

Subject and Content

What are Content and Subject Matter in Art?

Obviously, content and subject matter are two

different things when it comes to Art, so it
would be best to separate them, explain
what each of them is, and then see how they
can work together. You’ll also be pleased
to know that, for all the strange-sounding jargon
and obtuse language that surrounds Art, these
two terms are actually pretty simple and aren’t
difficult to wrap your head around.
What is Subject Matter?

When it comes to the aforementioned complex Art terminology, this one is actually fairly easy to
explain.

Subject matter, simply put, is what the artwork is trying to portray. If, for example, you are
looking at a painting of birds, then the subject matter is the birds. See, we told you that it was
pretty simple!

There are many different types of artwork, separated into genres based purely on the subject
matter they portray. For example, portraiture tends to focus on people. Still life, on the other
hand, uses collections of objects as the core of its subject matter. Landscape painting, in a move
that would surprise absolutely nobody, tends to be pictures of landscapes (and is where we get
the name of paper orientation from, same as with portraiture).

What is Content?

While subject matter is relatively easy to summarise and explain, content is a little more difficult
to pin down and define. But don’t worry, that doesn’t mean we’re going to leave you high and
dry without having a shot at it.

The reason that content is harder to understand than subject matter is that it’s much easier to look
at an artwork like a painting and understand what it’s a painting of. Even an abstract work will
have some manner of subject matter, it could just be a particular shape or even just a colour. You
can look at a painting of three birds and understand that it is a painting of three birds. Even the
most cursory of glances would be enough to confirm that.

However, content in Art is about much more than just what is in a particular artwork. While
there may be three birds in the painting, the content of it may be something entirely different. For
example, if each of the birds has plumage that is coloured either red, white, or blue, then
suddenly it becomes clear that this may be a reference to a country or nation’s flag.

This is a very heavy-handed and obvious example of what is often a much more subtle nod on
the part of the painter or artist, but it illustrates the point well. If we think about subject matter as
being like the What in an artwork, in terms of what it is of or trying to portray, then content is the
Why. Why has the artist specifically included these elements, and what are they trying to say, do,
or make you feel by including them?

What is the Connection Between Content and Subject Matter in Art?

Content can encompass many things. We spoke earlier about how a painting of three birds with
different coloured feathers could be an example of the artist making a political point by
referencing a flag. Frequently, artists will use Art as a way to confront, interrogate, or make clear
their stance on a particular event or issue.

Sometimes this is a very subtle point, and sometimes it’s far more obvious. When Pablo Picasso
painted the monumental work Guernica, which is 3.49 metres tall and 7.76 metres across, he was
by his own admission trying to make a statement about war. The painting depicts the bombing of
the village of Guernica, and Picasso attempted to capture the true horror of this. There are many
examples of frightening and disturbing images in the painting, famously an image of a bull and a
horse.

Many scholars have argued over the significance of the bull and the horse, which have often
been used as symbols or emblems in Picasso’s work. However, when asked about their inclusion,
the artist had this to say:
“…this bull is a bull and this horse is a horse… If you give a meaning to certain things in my
paintings, it may be very true, but it is not my idea to give this meaning. What ideas and
conclusions you have got I obtained too, but instinctively, unconsciously. I make the painting for
the painting. I paint the objects for what they are.”

By saying this, Picasso is telling us that what we can see in his painting is the literal truth, that
the subject matter and the content are of the same nature and purpose. The purpose of the
painting, as we’ve discussed, is to convey the horror of war and the awful event that it depicts.
To Picasso, there is no more significance to the presence of the bull and the horse than the fact
that there may have been bulls and horses present at the bombing, and they were caught up in the
event also.

However, artists are a sneaky bunch, and will often hide the most incredible of messages in their
artworks, right under the noses of everyone who looks at them, just waiting to be discovered.
Although one downside of having well hidden meanings and secret messages is that it can take
many years for anyone to find them.

Take, for example, the painting The Creation of Adam, which forms a part of the ceiling fresco
of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo in 1512. It is a beautiful fresco, and one of the
most reproduced religious images of all time, if not one of the most famous paintings of all time.

In terms of the subject matter, it depicts God reaching out to touch the hand of Adam, the first
man, in an illustration of the biblical story of creation. Adam reclines on the left side of the
image, with left arm outstretched. On the right side of the image is God, an old man surrounded
by a great swirling cloak, in which twelve other figures also huddle, peering out at Adam, to
whom God is extending his own left hand. The accepted interpretation of this is that, with both
of their left arms outstretched, the fresco is a reminder of the biblical verse that God created
humankind in his own image.

However, in 1990, a doctor from Indiana by the name of Frank Meshburger stunned the world
with the revelation that there may be more going on with the painting of God than was first
thought. He looked at the shape of God’s cloak in the image and noted its similarity to the
anatomy of the human brain.

Many of the major components of the brain were found to be correctly situated in the painting,
including the frontal lobe, the optic nerve, and the pituitary gland.

And that isn’t all. In 2015, a group of scholars overlaid an image of The Creation of Adam with a
human uterus and found it to match extremely closely. Could Michaelangelo have been trying to
paint, in a very surreptitious way, a more literal interpretation of the ‘birth’ of humankind? It
would certainly explain why Adam has a belly button in the painting, which as he was not born
in the bible but instead created, he shouldn’t have had.

In the case of both of these revelations, it’s worth noting that Michaelangelo was extremely
interested and very well versed in anatomy, which was then a fledgling subject that people had
only recently begun to explore. So, while the subject matter was of a very traditional and famous
scene from the bible, as befit a fresco on the roof of a chapel, Michelangelo had other ideas about
the content. In fact, he used this opportunity to show off his fascination with anatomy.

Enjoy Reading!

Good Luck!

CONGRATULATIONS!

God Bless You!