GE6:

Art Appreciation
Lesson 1: Fundamentals of
Art
Fundamentals of Art

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 Learning Outcomes
×Define Art based on personal experiences
×Clarify misconceptions about art
×Identify art from nature
×Discuss the difference between an artwork’s
subject and content

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An Art in
the Ancient
World
Art only meant using their bare
hands to produce something that
will be useful to one’s
day-to-day-life.
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 Galloping Wild Boar found in
the cave of Altamira, Spain
CAVE PAINTINGS: The
https://www.google.com.ph/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww
.visual-arts-cork.com%2Fimages-pictures%

“The humanities constitute one of the

oldest and most important means of
expression developed by man.”
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 AR
Art comes from Italian word

T
artis which means
“craftsmanship, skill, mastery of
form, inventiveness and the
association that exist between
form of ideas and between
material and techniques”

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 AR
T
Art is very vital in our
daily existence. Arts are
the concrete evidences in
the study of humanities.

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Etymology
The body of arts consists of
ideas, beliefs and values of the
past, present and even of the
future.
It comes from the The Latin terms
Aryan root word, “ARS” means
“AR” which means everything that is
to join or to put artificially made or
together. composed by man.
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Philosophy of Art

Art as Art as Art as Form

Representation:
Mimesis: copying Expression of -Emmanuel Kant
(1724-1804)
or imitation Emotional
- Plato Content –
Romantic Movement

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For them…art is…
According to Leo To Aristotle, “art Socrates defines art
Tolstoy, “art is a has no other end but as imitation. He
means of union itself. All arts are then declares that it
among all men, a patterned on nature. is very easy to get
means of It is also the right perfect imitations –
communication.” reason for making by means of
things.” mirrors.

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 Art is essentially The work of art and the tool: The traditional
affirmation, the conception of the natural thing, the tool and the
blessing, and the work of art composed of matter and form comes
deification of from human activity in manufacturing which a
Art is an attitude of existence. Art is a material is worked to fit a function, and thus
spirit, a state of
means of coping becomes a tool. But daily use tools mask their
mind-one which being, their truth because the tool is effective
demands for its own with the world we
satisfaction and only in strict as it is forgotten. The work of art is
were live in, our
fulfilling, a shaping of what reveals the being of the tool, membership
matter to new and own existence and in a human world and a primitive nature (the
more significant form making sense of it
– John Dewey Earth)
all – Martin Heidegger
- Fredrich Nietzsche

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Statements given by John Dewy, Fredrich Nietszche,
and Martin Heidegger connect art essentially with
aesthetic-aesthetic judgements, experiences, or
properties – will be considered. Different aesthetic
definitions incorporate views of aesthetic properties and
judgements.

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 Art is making
something out of
nothing and
selling it.
Art washes away
- Frank Zappa
from the soul the Art is not what
dust of everyday you see, but what
life you make others
see.
- Pablo Picasso
-Edgar Degas

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Pablo Picasso, Frank
Zappa and Edgar Degas
defined art as a symbol of
what it means to be
human, manifested in
physical form for others to
see and interpret. They
believe that art can serve
as a symbol for
something that is tangible
or for thought, an
emotion, a feeling or a
concept.
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ASSUMPTIONS OF ART.

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Assumptions of Art

Art is Art is not Art involves

universal nature experience

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1. Art is Universal

Art has always been timeless

and universal. Spanning
generations and continents
through and through.
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The Iliad tells the story of the
Greek struggle to rescue
Helen, a Greek queen, from
her Trojan captors.
The Odyssey takes the fall of
the city of Troy as its starting
point and crafts a new epic
around the struggle of one of
those Greek warriors, the hero
Odysseus.
https://www.amazon.com/Iliad-Odyssey-Fall-River-C
lassics/dp/1435152999
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 In the Philippines:

▪ Jose Rizal and Francisco

Balagtas works
▪ Florante at Laura
▪ Ibong Adarna
▪ Psalms
▪ Kundiman

"...art is not good because it is old, but old because

it is good"

https://www.amazon.com/Iliad-Odyssey-Fall-River-Classics/dp/14351 19
52999
Misconceptions
▪ People feel that what is
considered artistic are only
those which have been made
long time ago.

▪ Art is similar with nature

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2. Art is not Nature

• Man’s expression of his reception in nature.

• Man’s way of interpreting nature.
• Art is made by man, whereas nature is given
around us.
• Art not directed by representation of reality, is a
perception of reality.

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 https://arttisa.com/product/imaginary-painting/

https://yandex.by/collections/card/5b475acf467d08004f
3cd876/
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 23
https://www.learning-mind.com/this-surrealist-painter-cr
eates-amazing-optical-illusions/
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https://www.learning-mind.com/this-surrealist-painter-cr
eates-amazing-optical-illusions/
http://home.bt.com/news/science-news/can-you-spot-these-hidden-images-i
n-magic-eye-illusions-11364107993380
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3. Art involves experience

• It does not full in detail, but just an experience.

“Actual doing of something.”

• Dancer, Choreographer, Radio DJ, Sculptor, Painter

(Dudley et.al.1960)

• “All art depends on experience, and if one is to know

art, he must it not as factor or information but as
experience” (Dudley et.al. 1960)

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 Subject,
Content, and
Form
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In viewing art, there are clues that
mediate the artwork and the viewer,
allowing the viewer to more easily
comprehend what he is seeing.

These clues are the three basic

components of work of art.
1. Subject
2. Content
3. Form

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1. Subject
Subject – the visual focus or the image that may be extracted from
examining the artwork; the “what”

Types of Subject:

A. Representational art
Representational art – refers to
objects or events occurring in the real
world. Also termed figurative art
because the figures depicted are easy
to make out and decipher.

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 ∙ 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

Figure 13. Mona Lisa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa

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 Types of Subject:

2. Non-representational art
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

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 •Non-representational and abstract art. Is
s
non-representational art the same with abstract art?
There is no clear-cut divide, rather they exist in a
spectrum.

•this work is arguably

representational aLooking 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

Figure 15. Head of a Woman, Mougin

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◻ An artwork, depending on the degree
of distortion or abstraction, may be
judged as leaning more toward one
over the other.

◻ Abstract art is a departure from reality,

but the extent of that departure
determines whether it has reached the
end of the spectrum which is
non-representational.

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SOURCES AND KINDS OF
SUBJECT
Sources 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 form the figures depicted in the work,
there is already a suggestion as to its implication.

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Sources of Subject
◻ Nature
◻ History
◻ Greek and Roman mythology
◻ Judeo-Christian tradition
◻ Sacred oriental texts
◻ Other works of art
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 Kinds of Subject
◻ History and Legends ◻ Religion and
◻ Still life Mythology
◻ Animals ◻ Myth
◻ Portrait or human ◻ Dreams and
Figures Fantasies
◻ Nature
◻ Landscape
◻ Seascape
◻ Cityscape 37
 Die Ebene von Auvers
(Wheat Fields Near Auvers
Vincent van Gogh (1890)

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A Cockchafer, Beetle, Woodlice and Other Insect,
with a Sprig of Auricula
Jan van Kessel (early 1960s)

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 Fruit Pickers Under
the Mango Tree
Fernando Amorsolo
(1937)

Young Women in the

Ricefield Fabian de la
Rosa (1902)
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 Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo (1508-1512)

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2. CONTENT IN ART

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 Content – the meaning that is communicated by the
artist or the artwork; the “why”. In understanding the
content of art, it is important to note that there are
various levels of meaning:
a. 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
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b. 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.
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c. Subjective meaning
∙ When subjectivities are consulted, a variety of meaning
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

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 Analysis:
Subject: biblical art
Factual meaning: Creation
Story (creation of man)
Conventional meaning:
man was created in the
image and likeness of
God
Subjective meaning:
endowment of intellect
to man from God
Creation of Adam (from the
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel)
Michelangelo (1814)
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3. FORM
Form – the development and
configuration of the art
work…how the elements and the
medium or material are put
together; the “how”.

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 Therefore…
◻ Subject in Art is as dynamic with culture and
imagination. It never runs out and is never fully
exhausted: from the simple concept to the
complex artistic creation.
◻ The challenge for artists is on his/her storytelling
and retelling of a story of a reality.
◻ Art itself is storytelling, and at times,
conveys powerful and inspiring stories.
And we may never know how our work
may evoke a sense of curiosity, wonder,
meaning or inspiration to our readers. 48
Thank you!
Any questions?

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