L E S S O N 3 FUNCTIONS AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ART

LEARNING OURCOMES

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

• Distinguish directly functional and indirectly functional art,

• Explain and discuss the basic philosophical perspectives on the art,

• Realize the function of some art forms in daily life, and

• Apply concepts and theories on beauty and aesthetics in real life scenarios.

• Aristotle claimed that every particular substance in the world has an end, or telos in Greek, which
translates into “purpose.”

• Every substance, defined as formed matter, moves according to a fixed path towards its aim.

•This telos, according to Aristotle, is intricately linked with function.

•For a thing to reach its purpose, it also has to fulfill its function.

FUNCTIONS OF ART

• An inquiry on the function of art is an inquiry on what art is for.

Example: What is the Rizal monument for?

• When it comes to function, different art forms come with distinctive functions.

• Some art forms are more functional than others.

Architecture and Applied Arts

• The value of the art in question lies in the practical benefits one gains from it

• Obviously made for a specific purpose Painting and Literature

• One can look at the value of the product of art in and for itself

DOES IT MEAN THAT PAINTINGS AND LITERARY WORKS CAN NEVER HAVE ANY FUNCTION?

• Dr. Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibustirismo

• The novels accrued value and as a consequence, function.

• They are functional in so far as they are designed to accomplish some definite end.
PERSONAL FUNCTIONS OF ART

• The personal functions of art are varied and highly subjective.

• Functions depends on the artist who created the art.

• An artist may create an art out of self- expression, entertainment, or therapeutic purpose.

SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF ART

• Art is considered to have a social function if and when it addresses a particular collective interest as
opposed to a personal interest.

• Art may convey message of protest, contestation, or whatever message the artist intends his work to
carry.

• Political art is a very common example of an art with a social function.

• Art can also depict social conditions such as photography (pictures of poverty)

• Performance art like plays or satires can also rouse emotions and rally people toward a particular end.

PHYSICAL FUNCTION OF ART

• The physical functions of art can be found in artworks that are crafted in order to serve some physical
purpose.

• Architecture, jewelry-making, interior design all serves physical functions.

OTHER FUNCTIONS OF ART

• Music was principally used for dance and religion.

• The ancient world saw music as an instrument to facilitate worship and invocation to gods.

• Music was essential for synchronicity of dancers.

• Music guarantees that warriors were simultaneous.

• Today, music has expanded its functions and coverage.

• There is a lot of music that has no connection to dance or religion.

• Example: Serenade – People compose hymns to express feelings and emotions.

• Music is also used as accompaniment to stage plays and motion pictures

• Sculptures have been made by man most particularly for religion.

• In the Roman Catholic world, the employment of sculptures for religious purposes has remained vital,
relevant, and symbolic

• Rizal and Bonifacio’s monument and commemorative coins (Pope Francis)

• Architecture may be the most prominent functional art.

• Unlike other forms of art, buildings take so much time to erect and destroy.

• One cannot dismiss taking into consideration the function of a building before construction.

• It is also in architecture where one can find the intimate connection of function and form.

DOES ART ALWAYS HAVE TO BE FUNCTIONAL?

PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ART

ART AS AN IMITATION

• In Plato’s The Republic, 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 things in this world are only copies of the original, the
eternal, and the true entities that can only be found in the World of Forms.

• 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 real entities in the World of Forms.

• Plato was deeply suspicious of arts and artists for two reasons: 1. They appeal to the emotion rather to
the rational faculty of men 2. They imitate rather than lead one to reality2. They imitate rather than lead
one to reality

• Poetry rouses emotions and feelings and thus, clouds rationality of people. • Art is just an imitation of
imitation. A painting is just an imitation of nature, which is also just an imitation of reality in the World
of Forms.

• Art then is to be banished, alongside the practitioners, so that the attitudes and actions of the
members of the Republic will not be corrupted by the influence of the arts. • For Plato, art is dangerous
because it provides a petty replacement for the real entities than can only be attained through reason.

ART AS A REPRESENTATION

• Aristotle, agreed with Plato that art is a form of imitation.

• However, Aristotle considered art as an aid to philosophy in revealing the truth.

• The kind of imitation that art does is not antithetical to the reaching of fundamental truths in the
world.
• Unlike Plato who thought that art is an imitation of another imitation, Aristotle conceived of art as
representing possible versions of reality.

• For Aristotle, all kinds of art do not aim to represent reality as it is, it endeavors to provide a version of
what might be or the myriad possibilities of reality.

•In Aristotelian worldview, art serves two particular purposes:

• Art allows for the experience of pleasure (horrible experience can be made an object of humor)

• Art also has an ability to be instructive and teach its audience things about life (cognitive)

ART AS A DISINTERESTED JUDGMENT

• Immanuel Kant, in his Critique of Judgment, considered the judgment of beauty, the cornerstone of
art, as something that can be universal despite its subjectivity.

• Kant recognized that judgment of beauty is subjective.

• However, even subjective judgments are based on some universal criterion for the said judgment.

ART AS A DISINTERESTED JUDGMENT HOW AND IN WHAT SENSE CAN A JUDGMENT OF BEAUTY, WHICH
ORDINARILY IS CONSIDERED TO BE A SUBJECTIVE FEELING, BE CONSIDERED OBJECTIVE OR UNIVERSAL?

HOW ARE THESE TWO STATEMENTS DIFFERENT?

1. “I like this painting.” 2. “This painting is beautiful.”

• The first is clearly a judgment of taste (subjective), while the second is an aesthetic judgment
(objective).

• Making an aesthetic judgment requires us to be disinterested. In other words, we should try to go

beyond our individual tastes and preferences so that we can appreciate art from a universal standpoint.

ART AS A COMMUNICATION OF EMOTION

• According to Leo Tolstoy, art plays a huge role in communication to its audience’s emotions that the
artist previously experienced.

• In the same that language communicates information to other people, art communicates emotions.

• As a purveyor of man’s innermost feelings and thoughts, art is given a unique opportunity to serve as a
mechanism for social unity.

• Art is central to man’s existence because it makes accessible feelings and emotions of people from the
past and present.
LESSON 4: SUBJECT AND CONTENT
In viewing art, there are clues that mediate between the artwork and the viewer, allowing the
viewer to more easily comprehend what he is seeing. These clues are the three basic
components of a work of art:
Subject – the visual focus or the image that may be extracted from examining the artwork; the
“what”
Content – the meaning that is communicated by the artist or the artwork; the “why”
Form – the development and configuration of the art work – how the elements and the
medium or material are put together; the “how”
In the sciences, experimentation is the key to proving a hypothesis or a larger theory. In the
arts, there are observable qualities that the artwork holds that will point to its subject, and
sometimes even to its content.
TYPES OF SUBJECT
REPRESENTATIONAL ART
- These types of art have subjects that refer to objects that refer to objects or events
occurring in the real world. Also termed figurative art because the figures depicted are
easy to make out and decipher.
- Mona Lisa Leonardo da Vinci (1503)
Despite not knowing who Mona Lisa is, it is clear that the painting is of a woman
that is realistically-proportioned; only the upper torso is shown; a beguiling and
mysterious smile is flashed; the background is a landscape.
NON-REPRESENTATIONAL ART
- Art forms that do not make a reference to the real world, whether it is a person, place,
thing, or even a particular event. It is stripped down to visual elements, such as shapes,
lines, and colors that are employed to translate a particular feeling, emotion, and even
concept.
NON-REPRESENTATIONAL ART AND ABSTRACT ART
- Is non-representational art the same with abstract art? There is no clear-cut divide,
rather, they exist in a spectrum. Non- representational art Abstract art Representational
art
- Head of a Woman, Mougins Pablo Picasso (1962)
 Looking at the combination of lines, shapes, and colors of the sculpture will point to a
head of a woman Even with the abstraction of the image, this work is arguably
representational art.
SOURCES AND KINDS OF SUBJECT

For non-representational art, a higher, level of perceptiveness and insight might be required to fully
grasped the feeling, emotion, or concept behind the work. For representational art, it is easier to infer
the subject matter because from the figures depicted in the artwork, there is already a suggestion as to
its implication.

Sources of Subject

- Nature
- History
- Greek and Roman mythology
- Judeo-Christian tradition
- Sacred oriental texts
- Other works of art

Kinds of Subject

- Hiistory
- Still life
- Animals
- Figures
- Nature
- Landscape
- Seascape
- Cityscape
- Mythology
- Myth
- Dreams
- Fantasies

CONTENT IN ART

The meaning or message that is expressed or communicated by the artwork. In understanding the
content of art, it is important to note that there are various levels of meaning:

Factual meaning

- The most rudimentary level of meaning for it may be extracted from the identifiable or
recognizable forms in the artwork and understanding how these elements relate to one
another.
Conventional meaning

- Pertains to the acknowledged interpretation of the artwork using motifs, signs, and symbols
and other cyphers as bases of its meaning. These conventions are established through time,
strengthened by recurrent use and wide acceptance by its viewers or audience and scholars who
study them.

Subjective meaning

- When subjectivities are consulted, a variety of meanings may arise when a particular work of art
is read.  These meanings stem from the viewer’s or audience’s circumstances that come into
play when engaging with art (what we know, what we learned, what we experienced; what
values we stand for) Meaning may not be singular, rather, multiple and varied