CHAPTER

WHAT IS ART?
1

For as long as man existed in this planet, he has cultivated the land, altered the conditions of the fauna
and the flora, in order to survive. Alongside these necessities, man also marked his place in the world through
his works. Through his bare hands, man constructed infrastructures that tended to his needs, like house. He
sharpened swords and spears. He employed fire in order to melt gold. The initial meaning of the word “art” has
something to do with all these craft.
The word “art” comes from the ancient Latin, ars which means a “craft or specialized form of skill, like
carpentry or surgery” (Collingwood, 1938). Art then suggested the capacity to produce an intended result from
carefully planned steps or methods. When a man wants to build a house, he plans meticulously to get to what
the prototype promises and he executes the steps to produce the said structure, then he is engaged in art.
The Ancient World did not have any conceived notion of art in the same way that we do now. To them, art only
meant using the bare hands to produce something that will be useful to one’s day-to-day life.
This chapter presents the basic concepts of art which will give us insight on what really art is. It will also
tackle art’s importance in our daily lives by presenting the different functions it has in our society. We will also
learn the different types of art based on the medium used by the artist. In the last part of the unit, difference
between representational and nonrepresentational arts as well as the different subject matter of arts will be
presented.
 LESSON
BASIC CONCEPTS
1
“Art is not what you see, but what you
make others see.”
- Edgar Degas
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Learning Outcome:
At the end of the chapter, the students shall be able to:
 Identify and discuss the basic concepts of art;
 Demonstrate understanding of the nature of art vis-à-vis various aspects of human experience; and
 Formulate their own definition of art based on the concepts presented.
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Art is something that is perennially around us. Some people may deny having to do with the arts but it
is indisputable that life presents us with many forms of and opportunities for communion with the arts. Despite
the seemingly overflowing instances of arts around people, one still finds the need to see more and experience
more, whether consciously or unconsciously.
The following are the five basic concepts of art:

1. Art and nature

• Art is not nature. Art is man’s expression of his reception of nature. Art is man’s way of interpreting
nature. Art is made by man, whereas nature is given around us. It is in this juncture that they can be
considered opposites.
• A work of art is man-made, and although it may closely resemble nature, it can never duplicate
nature.
• Artists frequently find their inspiration and subject matter in nature, and artists do use nature as a
medium, but art itself not nature. Art is made by human beings, and no matter how close it is to
nature, it always shows that it was made by human beings.
• Nature has been a constant source of models for art, and great artists have drawn their subjects from
nature, but they have never tried to make an exact copy of a natural thing. Their concern has not
been to describe the actual appearance of objects but to tell us what they felt or thought about these
objects. In presenting a human experience, although artists draw from actual life situation, they do
some altering of details so that the work becomes a modified representation of real life, not an exact
copy.
• In many ways, we use art to improve on nature. In a garden, if we allow nature to have its own way,
the plants would grow anywhere and any way they would. With art – in this case, the art of
landscaping – we can bring order into the garden. The result would be something different from the
wilderness it would have been without our intervention.

2. Art is everywhere
• The popular feeling about art is that it exists only in concert halls, museums and art galleries in a
world by itself, accessible only to those who can afford to pay for its enjoyment or to the critics and
scholars who take time to study art objects. On the contrary, art is found everywhere. It is very much
a part of our lives. We cannot ignore its presence even if we try to.
• Art is something that is perennially around us.
 o We find art in the clothes and accessories we wear, in the design of our furniture and
furnishings, in the style of the houses we build and the vehicles we use. We find art objects in
the home and in the community, in religion, in trade and in industry.
• Art is not confined to our cities and town alone; it also exists among ethnic groups, many of whom,
by choice or necessity, live far away from urban centers.
o T’boli women have been stringing colorful bead necklaces and wearing them for generations.
o Some of the finest wood sculpture we see in many souvenir shops today.
• We find art at all times. If we go back in time to the prehistoric cave dwellers, we would find art as an
integral part of their communal lives. Evidences of early man’s attempt to objectify his ideas and
beliefs are found in the paintings of animals on the walls of caves in southwestern France and
northern Spain as well as in Africa and Australia. All these dates back to antiquity. Art is indeed as
old as the human race itself.
• Art exists in all forms of human society and in every generation because it serves some fundamental
human needs.
• Art has been created by all people at all times, in all countries and it lives because it is well-liked and
enjoyed.

3. Art and beauty

• The desire for beauty and order around us is another basic human need. Somehow these provide
the much-needed comfort and balance to our lives.
• We may find beauty in nature or we may find it in man-made objects. A thing of beauty is one which
gives us pleasure when we perceive it. The delight that we experience is called aesthetic pleasure,
“aesthetic” coming from a Greek word which means “to perceive with the senses”
• What we call beauty is relative. What may be beautiful to us may not be so to others. And no two
persons would derive exactly the same degree of satisfaction from seeing what they mutually agree
upon as a beautiful object or from listening to what they both consider as beautiful tune. Our attitude
is usually conditioned by many factors, among which are our social involvement, our education and
training, and our past experiences or some psychological and emotional associations we have with
the object.
• Concepts of beauty changes as time passes. The prevailing idea held by one generation is usually
different from that of the previous one. Nowhere is this more apparent than in fashion design.
• An artist’s own concept may change as he grows older. This accounts for differences in an artist’s
own style and artistic expression.
• Concepts of beauty vary between culture. That is why the Western listener, for example, finds it
difficult to appreciate Asian music, just as we in our time, with our ears attuned to music in the
Western tradition, find little pleasure in listening to the music of our ethnic groups.
• We expect every artwork to be beautiful. But it may not always be so. If we look around us, we will
find many works of art which we would not exactly regard as delightful to perceive. It is not always
an artist’s intention to present a beautiful subject or to evoke a pleasant sensation in the viewer.
• Even if the subject is “ugly”, if we find in the presentation a sense of order, a harmonious arrangement
of formal elements, then we can also experience aesthetic pleasure from looking at it. Beauty in art
may be the result of the successful organization of lines, color, shapes and spaces in order to carry
an idea or emotion.

4. Art and experience

• Art is always an experience. Unlike fields of knowledge that involve data, art is known by
experiencing. Art depends on experience, and if one is to know art, he must know it not as fact or
information but as experience.
 • At least three major kinds of experience are involved in the artistic activity. It usually starts as an
experience which the artist wants to communicate. Then the act of expressing this experience – that
of creating the art object or form – is itself another kind of experience. Finally, when the work is done,
there is the artist’s gratifying experience of having accomplished something significant.
• But there is still another kind of experience associated with art. This refers to what an onlooker or
listener undergoes when he perceives the work of art. The perception may kindle an experience
which is similar or related to what the artist tried to express. Feelings and emotions are concrete
proofs that the artwork has been experiences.
• A work of art cannot be abstracted from actual doing. In order to know what an artwork is, it must be
directly seen or heard in order to be enjoyed or appreciated. No amount of reading about a painting
or sculpture can take the place of actually seeing it. Listening to a lecture on music is of very little
value unless one also hears the music itself; and reading a play is not a fair substitute for seeing it
actually performed.
• A varying combination of sensory, emotional and intellectual responses is involved in experiencing
art.
o Some people looking at a painting, for instance, experience a kind of delight similar to that
which one feels when he sees a beautiful girl or lovely scenery. This is largely a sensory
response. It is the same kind of response many people have when they hear a lively march.
They feel like marching or dancing. They do not seem to need a deeper understanding of what
the artist has tried to express and how he has managed to achieve his purpose, although, of
course, such understanding would further enhance their enjoyment.
o Then there is the emotional response triggered by the recognition of a familiar situation
presented as the subject of the work. The response may stem, on the other hand, from
memories evoked by the subject. Sometimes, our emotional response springs from identifying
ourselves with the people portrayed in the work of art.
o Some works, on the other hand, delight the mind primarily. There are works whose unique
arrangements of elements, apart from subject matter, stimulate the intellect more than they do
to the emotions.
• An important aspect of experiencing art is its being highly personal, individual and subjective. In
philosophical terms, perception of art is always a value judgment. It depends on who the perceiver
is, his tastes, his biases and what he has inside him.

5. Art as expression and communication

• Art is man’s oldest mean of expression.
• We express our emotional state by some visible signs and activities. We burst into songs when we
are happy, or we dance, for it is pleasant to express joy through rhythmic body movements. We
likewise sing out our love or our despair, or try to convey our deep emotions in poetic language.
• Art has grown out of man’s need to express himself. Expression in the arts, however, is not limited
to the revelation of emotions alone. The personal and social values of the artist and his penetrating
psychological insights into human reality are also conveyed through the arts.
• As in other systems of communication, the artist uses symbols which he organizes into some
comprehensible equivalent of the experience that he is trying to convey. If the symbols are
understood by his audience, then communication has been established. But sometimes, it is not the
artist’s main intention to communicate. It is enough for him to express himself, vent his spleen, so to
speak, to relieve himself of tension. He finds satisfaction merely in having created a new form. This
is especially true of the action painters of our time who are more intensely fascinated with the act of
painting itself than with the finished product. They do not care whether or not their personal imagery
is understood by the viewer, nor are they interested in delighting him through the pleasing use of
color, shape or design.
 • While each work of art is evidently the expression of an artist’s personal viewpoint, it is at the same
time an expression of a general vision of the age in which it was created. For the artist, he cannot
escape the influence of his social, economic, political, religious, scientific and technological
environment. These factors affect his artistic expression. His vision is also influenced by his cultural
traditions and by his own training.
• At any rate, art in any given period simultaneously reflects two things – the genius of its creator as
well as the sensibility or the characteristic values and attitudes toward important aspects of life held
by the society in which the work of art was born. Even the most subjective and personal expressions
show these two aspects.

THE NATURE OF ART

From the basic concepts above, we came up with the very nature of art. That it is very important in our
lives. It constitutes one of the oldest and most important means of expression developed by man. Art has been
existent since men have lived together. In fact, in nearly every country, art can be found in primitive societies.
Art has been created by all people at all times; it has lived because it is liked and enjoyed. A true work of art
is made by man himself not imitatively, but creatively. A true artist does not imitate nature but rather interprets
it in his own way by selecting the essential features of the subject and rejecting the minor ones.
Art has been defined in various ways. Hereunder are some of the definitions given by various authors:
 Art is derived from the Latin word ars, meaning “ability or skill.” – J.V. Estolas
 Art is taken from the Italian word artis, which means craftmanship, skill, mastery of form, inventiveness
and the associations that exist between form and ideas, between material and technique. – A. Tan
 Art is a product of man’s need to express himself. – F. Zulueta
 Art is concerned with the communication of certain ideas and feelings by means of sensuous medium,
color, sound, bronze, marble, words and film. – C. Sanchez

 The word art encompasses many meanings:

– As ability, art is the human capacity to make things of beauty and things that stirs us; it is creativity
– As process, art encompasses acts, such as drawing, painting, sculpture, designing buildings and
using the camera to create memorable works
– As products, art is the completed work – an etching, a sculpture, a structure, a tapestry, a portrait,
a song

ART APPRECIATION
It is the ability to interpret or understand man-made arts and enjoy them either through actual and work
experience with art tools and materials or possession of these works of art for one’s admiration and satisfaction

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References:
 Ariola, Mariano M. (2014). Introduction to Art Appreciation. A Textbook in Humanities. 2 nd Edition. Quezon
City: C & E Publishing, Inc.
 Cabasaan, William Jr. J. (2015). Humanities: Philosophy and History of Art. 2nd Edition. Malabon City:
Jimczyville Publications.
 Caslib, Bernardo Nicolas Jr., et al. (2018). Art Appreciation. Quezon City: Rex Printing Company, Inc.
 Ortiz, Aurora et al. (1976). Art perception and appreciation. Manila: University of the East
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 STUDENT ACTIVITY

Name: ______________________________________ Date: __________________

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ACTIVITY 1 – Answer the following questions as precisely yet as thoroughly as possible.

1. Why is art not nature?
2. Why is art ageless and timeless?
3. Why does art involve experience?
4. One basic concept of art is ART as EXPRESSION. Cite ways or times wherein you use art to express
your feelings, thoughts and emotions.
5. From the basic concepts of art presented in this chapter, formulate your OWN definition of art.

ACTIVITY 2
There are countless ways of expressing oneself through art. We can use visual arts (painting and
drawing), film, performance art, poetry, dance or literary art, among others, to express ourselves.
Now, it’s time for you to use art in order to express yourself. You may choose painting, drawing, poetry,
dance or literary art, among others, in order to express yourself.