THE SUBJECT OF ART

I. SUBJECT

- A term used for whatever is represented in a work of art.

- Refers to any identifiable object, individual, thing, place or event illustrated in a work of art.
- Subject answers the question “what is it?” or “what is it about?’. It is the main focus of the artwork.
- Not all arts have subject.
2 kinds of Subject
a. Objective or Representational art – those arts with subjects that are recognizable.
b. Non-objective or Non Representational – those arts without subjects, and not easily recognizable as
coming from nature or environment.
II. Sources of Subject
1. Landscapes, Seascapes, Cityscapes – nature and the physical environment
2. Animals – the movement and strength of an animal’s action.
3. Human Figures, Portraits, Couples – person, people, the human body in nude or clothed
4. Everyday life or genre – observations of people working ordinary activities.
5. Still life – A category of subject matter in which inanimate objects are used as subjects.
6. Image of Divinity, Mythology – these includes Christian religion, Christ, Madonna and Child, stories
Old Testament, may also include gods and goddesses and deities.
7. Narration and Historical - it is storytelling implying a series of events and dimension of time
beginning, middle and end.
Ex. Manuscript illuminations, stained glass, wall paneling of churches
* Historical scenes are those events that are worthy of remembering because they remind a
significant event.
8. Legends – based on stories
9. Dreams and Fantasy – depicts the unconscious mind.
10. Technology – shows the modern era, robotics
WAYS OF REPRESENTING THE SUBJECT
1. Realism – depicts the artist’s attempt of portraying the subject as it is.
2. Abstraction – abstract means ‘to move away or to separate from’. Abstraction moves away from
reality.
Kinds of Abstraction
a. Distortion – results when figures have been so arranged that its proportions differ significantly
from reality.
b. Elongation – the subject is stretched vertically to give impression of thinness.
c. Mangling – artist show subject as cut, lacerated, mutilated or hacked with repeated blows.
d. Cubism – abstract form is presented through the use of figures.
3. Symbolism – defined as a visible sign of something invisible such as an idea or quality.
4. Fauvism – literally means wild beasts, artists used pure, brilliant colour aggressively applied straight
from the paint tubes to create a sense of an explosion on the canvas.
5. Dadaism – Dada is French word for hobby horse. This is an art movement that doesn’t follow the
traditions and principles in art.
6. Futurism – artists of this movement wanted their works to capture the speed and force of the modern
industrial society.
7. Surrealism -attempts to show man’s inner mind and how he may perceive his outside world.
8. Expressionism - depicts emotions aroused by objects and events. Subject involves chaos, sadness,
tragedy and defeat.
* A ‘beautiful’ subject does not necessarily produce a good work of art, or an ignoble work. The value of
art does not lie in the subject but in what the artist does in his subject. The greatness of art comes not
from the subject but from the artist.

II. CONTENT – the meaning of the work of art; must be analyzed, involves and unifies all parts of the
artwork.
- To recognize and grasp the message of the artwork, the viewer may sometimes need to go
beyond what is visible. Why was the artwork created in the first place? When this question is asked, we
are after the meaning or message that is expressed or communicated by the artwork.
Levels of Meaning in Art
a. Factual meaning – meaning is extracted from the identifiable or recognizable forms in the artwork and
understanding how these elements relate to one another.

b. Conventional meaning – pertains to the acknowledged interpretation of the artwork using motifs,
signs, symbols and other cyphers as through time, strengthened by recurrent use and wide 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.

c. Subjective meaning – A variety of meaning may arise when a particular work of art is read because of
subjectivities. These meanings stem from the viewer’s or audience’s circumstances that come into play
when engaging with art. When looking at a particular painting for example, perception and therefore
meaning is always informed ( and even colored) by a manifold of contexts; what we know, what we
learned, what we experienced, and the values we stand for. It is therefore expected that meaning may
not be singular, rather, a painting may communicate multiple meanings to its many viewers.