Art Appreciation
One can look at the value of the
Introduction
Art Appreciation - develops student's ability to
appreciate, analyze and critique works of art.
Lesson 1: Assumptions and Nature of Arts
What is Art?
 Latin word, ars which means a "craft or
specialized form of skill, like carpentry or
smithying or surgery" (Collingwood, 1983)
 Ars in Medieval Latin came to mean "any
special form of book learning, such as
grammar or logic, magic, or astrology.
 18th Century: FINE ARTS vs. USEFUL
ARTS
What is Humanities?
 one of the oldest and most important means
of expression developed by man. (Dudley et.
al., 1960)
 academic disciplines that study aspects of
human society and culture.
Assumptions of Art
1. Art is universal.
a. An art is not good because it is old,
but old because it is good. (Dudley
et. al., 1960)
2. Art is not nature.
a. Art is man's expression of his
reception of nature. Art is man's way
of interpreting nature. Art is man's
way of interpreting nature.
b. Paul Cezanne, a French painter -
Well and Grinding Wheel in the
forest of the Chateau Noir.
3. Art involves experience.
a. "All art depends on experience, and
if one is to know art, he must know it
not as fact of information but as
experience. " (Dudley et. al., 1960)
Lesson 2: Functions and Philosophical
Perspectives on Art
Aristotle claimed that every particular
substance in the world has an end (telos which
means purpose)
Telos is linked with function.
To reach its purpose, it must fulfill its function.
Functions of Art
1. Architecture and Applied Arts
a. value of the art lies in the practical
benefits one gains from it
2. Painting and Literature
a.
product of art in and for itself
b. They are functional in so far as they
are designed to accomplish some
definite end.
Personal Functions of Art
 Varied and highly subjective.
 depends on the artist who created the art.
 may create an art out of self-expression,
entertainment, or therapeutic purpose.
Social Functions of Art
 addresses a particular collective interest as
opposed to a personal interest.
 may convey message of protest,
contestation
 Political art is a very common example of
an art with a social function.
 can also depict social conditions such as
photography (pictures of poverty)
 Performance art like plays or satires
Physical Functions of Art
 artworks that are crafted in order to serve
some physical purpose.
 Architecture, jewelry-making, interior design
Other Functions of Art
1. Music
o was principally used for dance and
religion.
o ancient world saw music as an
instrument to facilitate worship and
invocation to gods.
o essential for synchronicity of
dancers; warriors were
simultaneous.
2. Sculptures
o made by man most particularly for
religion.
o commemorative coins
3. Architecture
o one can find the intimate connection
of function and form.
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 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.
 Plato was deeply suspicious of arts and
artists for two reasons:
o They appeal to the emotion rather to
the rational faculty of men
o They imitate rather than lead one to
reality
  Art is just an imitation of imitation.
Art as a Representation
 Aristotle considered art as an aid to
philosophy in revealing the truth.
 representing possible versions of reality.
 In Aristotelian worldview, art serves two
particular purposes:
o Art allows for the experience of
pleasure (horrible experience can
be made an object of humor)
o Art also has an ability to be
instructive and teach its audience
things about life (cognitive)
Arts as a Disinterested Judgement
 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.
 judgment of beauty is subjective.
 However, even subjective judgments are
based on some universal criterion for the
said judgment.
 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
 Leo Tolstoy, art plays a huge role in
communication to its audience’s emotions
that the artist previously experienced.
 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 3: Form and Content
Form
 constituent elements of a work of art
independent of their meaning (e.g., color,
composition, medium)
 primary features, secondary features tertiary
features
Content
 subject matter vs. content
 meaning vs. significance
 MESSAGE (genres)
Genres of Content
1. HISTORY - important incidents
2. MEGALOGRAPHY - portrayal of historically
important people or things
3. MYTHOLOGY - stories of gods, goddesses,
nymphs and heroes
4. RELIGION - the portrayal of sacred
narratives and legends from the world’s holy
texts
5. PORTRAITURE - likenesses of real people
6. LANDSCAPE - representations of places,
urban and rural
7. GENRE - the portrayal of scenes of
everyday life
8. STILL-LIFE - objects, furniture, settings,
utensils, flowers, foods, etc.,
9. RHOPOGRAPHY – trash
Content: Levels of Complexity
Primary - simplest way of taking inventory of what
you see
Secondary - includes things which push "what you
see" into "what you understand"
Tertiary - convergence and mutual modification of
form, content and context
Secondary Content
1. ALLEGORIES - stories in which people,
things, and events represent abstract ideas,
values and messages
2. ATTRIBUTES - conventional devices
identifying the person holding it
3. PERSONIFICATION – individuals
representing abstract ideas or values
4. TRADITIONAL SIGNS - anything which is
understood in a given context to mean
something other than what it literally is
5. METAPHOR - a comparison, not using like
or as
6. METONYMY - signifying a literally absent
thing via some attribute or other item
typically associated with it
7. SYNECDOCHE - signifying a literally absent
whole via one of its parts
8. IRONY - a twist or complete reversal in
meaning
9. PARODY - mimicking the appearance
and/or manner of something or someone,
but with a twist for comic effect or critical
comment
Context
 Primary – that which pertains to the artist
 Secondary – that which addresses the
milieu in which the work was produced
 Tertiary – the field of the work’s reception
and interpretation
Chapter 1: Other Concepts of Art
Aesthetics
 the philosophical argument about the nature
of beauty
 notions of taste, cultural conventions –
ideas of art being 'good' and 'bad' based on
specific cultural information
Subjective & Objective Perspectives
Artistic Roles Gestalt
1. DESCRIPTION - term we use to explain how the brain forms
a. traditional role of visual art is to a whole image from many component parts.
describe ourselves and our 1. Similarity
surroundings. 2. Continuity
2. PORTRAIT o The human eye will follow the
a. capture the accuracy of physical smoothest path when viewing lines
characteristics but the very best also regardless of how the lines were
transfer a sense of an individual’s actually drawn
unique personality 3. Closure
3. LANDSCAPES o The idea that your brain will fill in the
a. give us detailed information about missing parts of a design to create a
our natural and human made whole
surroundings traditional role of visual 4. Proximity
art is to describe ourselves and our o How close elements are to one
surroundings. another
4. REALISM 5. Figure/Ground
a. vivid works that show a keen sense o Takes advantage of the way the
of observation brain processes negative space
5. SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATION 6. Symmetry and Order
a. accuracy and utility rather than o Also known as prägnanz
aesthetics and document many o Brain will perceive ambiguous
different types of scientific
shapes in as simple manner as
phenomenon
possible
7. Common Fate
Artistic Categories
o People will group together things
1. Fine Arts
that point to or are moving in the
a. Human artistic heritage
same direction
2. Pop Arts
8. Critical Perspectives
a. ideas and attitudes that help define
o Structural Criticism
the contemporary period
3. Decorative Arts  Based on the notion that our
a. shows a high degree of skilled concept of reality is
workmanship in its production expressed through
language and related
Artistic Styles systems of communication
- Particular kind of appearance in works of art o Deconstructive Criticism
 Any work of art can have
1. Naturalistic many meaning attached to it.
2. Abstract None of which are limited by
a. Representational abstract a particular language
b. Non-representational o Formalist Criticism
3. Non-objective  Doesn’t really care about
what goes on outside the
Perception and Visual Awareness actual space of the work, but
 How and what we see finds meaning in its use of
 Subjective and objective materials
o Ideological Criticism
 "the truth"
 Looking and seeing  Relationship between art
ang structures of power. It
 Aesthetic perception
infers that art is embedded in
 Context
a social, economic and
political structure that
Chapter 2: The Artist
determines its final meaning
o Psychoanalytic Criticism
The Artistic Process
 The way we should look at
1. Artist
work if we feel it is only
2. Material
about personal expression
3. Artwork
o Feminist Criticism
4. Gallery
5. Museums  Viewing art as an example of
6. Critics gender bias
 Plane
- Defined as any surface area in space
Chapter 3: The Basic Elements of Art
Mass
The Point - Three-dimensional volume that has or gives
- Can be defined as singularity in space, or in the illusion of having weight, density or bulk
geometric terms, the area where two
coordinates meet The Element of Space
- Pointilism is a style of painting made Space
famous by the French artist Georges - Empty area surrounding real or implied
Seurat in the late nineteenth century. objects
- 3-D Space
The Line o The space over, under, through,
- Actual Lines behind, and around a form
o Physically present - 2-D Space
- Implied Lines o Illusion
o Created by visually connecting two
or more areas together Point of View
o Straight or Classic Lines - Refers to angle which you view an object
 Provide structure or
composition Illusion of Form
 Can be oriented as - Manifested by creating an image with a
horizontal, vertical, or range of value
diagonal
o Expressive lines Chiaroscuro
 Curved, adding an organic, - An Italian word that means the arrangement
more dynamic character to a of light and shadow
work of art
o Outline or Contour Lines Overlapping
 They create a path around - Occurs when objects that are closer to the
the edge of a shape viewer prevent the view of objects that are
o Cross Contour Lines behind them
o Hatch Lines
 Repeated at short intervals Placement
in generally one direction - Objects placed higher within the picture
o Cross hatch Lines plane will appear further away
o Line Quality
Size
 Sense of character
- Objects that are smaller will appear further
embedded in the way a line
away
presents itself
 Jagged Lines
Detail
 Staccato visual - Objects that are further away should have
movement less detail than objects that are closer to the
 Meandering Lines viewer
 Create a more
comfortable feeling Color and Value
o Calligraphic Lines - Far objects: cooler in color temp.; lighter in
 Use quickness and gesture, value
more akin to paint strokes to - Closer objects: warmer; darker
imbue an artwork with a
fluid, lyrical character Perspective
- Linear perspective is a drawing method that
Shapes and Figure-Ground Relationship uses lines to create the illusion of space on
a flat surface
Shape - One-point perspective
- An enclosed area in two dimensions - Two-point perspective
- Always implied and flat in nature - Three-point perspective
- Positive Shape o Bird’s eye view
o The figure
- Negative Shape The Element of Value
o The ground Value
- Darkness or lightness
Light source – area which light is originating ARBITRARY COLOR - colors chosen by the artist to
express feelings or mood.
Value Scale – a guide to creating a range of value; Texture
good pieces of art have a full range of value - The way an object feels or touch or looks as
it may feel if it were touched
Color Values
Tint – light values  3-D Texture - refers to the way an object
Shades – dark values feels to the touch
 2-D Texture- refers to the way an object
Highlights – areas where light is hitting looks as it may feel
Shadows – areas where light does not hit  Visual texture - the illusion of a 3-D surface
 Simulated- imitate real textures
The Element of Color  Invented - 2-D patterns created by the
Color repetition of lines of shapes
- Reflected light  Rough textures - reflect light unevenly
- The Visible Light Spectrum by Isaac Newton  Smooth textures - reflect light evenly
 Matte - surface that reflects a soft, dull light.
The Color Wheel
 Shiny surfaces are the opposite of matte.
- Color spectrum bent into circle
- Primary colors
- Secondary colors
- Tertiary or intermediate colors

Color Schemes
- Ways colors are put together in an intelligent
way
- Monochromatic
- Analogous colors
o Colors that are next to each other in
the color when
- Complementary Colors
o Colors found directly across from
each other
- Color Triads
o Three colors found on the color
when that are equally spaced apart
- Split Complementary
o Made up of a color and it’s
complements closest analogous
colors
- Warm Colors
o Colors associated with warm things
- Cool Colors
o Associated with cool things

Attributes of Color

HUE - refers to color itself, but also to the variations

of a color.

VALUE - refers to the relative lightness or darkness

of one color next to another.

TONE - refers to the gradation or subtle changes

made to a color when it's mixed with a gray created
by adding two complements

SATURATION - refers to the purity and intensity of

a color. (equiluminance - equal intensity)

OPTICAL COLOR - color that people actually

perceive- also called local color.