MODULE 1: INTRODUCTION TO ART APPRECIATION

UNIT 1: WHAT IS ART?

This unit focuses on developing student’s visual acumen, aesthetic insights, and knowledge of the forms
and role of arts across time and culture.

This course design to incorporate skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration,
organization, and self-assessment.

INTENDED LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

By the end of this unit, the students be able to:

1. Differentiate representational art and non-representational art;

2. Discuss the difference between an art works subject and its content;
3. Identify the subject matter and specific examples of art; and
4. Enumerate the sources of the subjects of some of the most recognizable work of art in the
Philippines art history.

INTRODUCTION:

Introduction to the visual arts, media, techniques, and history review two-three dimentional art forms,
methods, and media; examines the visual elements and principles of design; and briefly surveys and
styles from the prehistoric to the 20th century.

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,
the subject, content, and Form.

WHAT IS ART?

1. Art is the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual
form, such as painting, sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty
or emotional power. “the art of the Renaissance”

Art of the Renaissance are painting, sculpture, architecture, music and literature,
produced during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries in Europe under the combined influences of an
increased awareness of nature, a revival of classical learning, and a more individualistic view of
man. The focus of Renaissance art was on human beauty and nature. People, even when in
religious works, were depicted living life and showing emotion. Perspective, as well as light and
shadow techniques improved, and paintings looked more three-dimentional and realistic. The
Renaissance unfolded the abstract forms of the medieval period gave way to representational
from mainly biblical scenes to include portraits, passages from classical, religion, and
contemporary events, they become increasingly diverse.
RENAISSANCE ART

2. The various branches of creative activity, such as painting, music, literature, and dance. “the
visual art”

What is the visual art? The visual arts are art form such as paintings, drawing, printmaking,
sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, designs, crafts and architecture. Many artistic
disciplines, such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts also involve aspects of visual arts
as well as arts of other types. Visual arts focus on the creation of works which are primarily visual in
nature.

VISUAL ARTS

ART IS AN EXPRESSION of our thoughts, emotions, intuitions, and desires, but it is even more personal
than that, it’s about sharing the way we experience the world, which for many is an extensions of
personality. It is the communication of inmate concepts that cannot be faithfully portrayed by words
alone.

TYPE OF ART EXPRESSION

1. Visual art – these are arts that meet the eye and evoke an emotion through an expression of
skill and imagination.
 Example: painting, photography, drawing, films, sculpture, engraving, wooden materials, silk
screen, cartoon, stained glass, mosaic, and stage setting.

2. Literary art – is something in the form of writing or stories that have autistic and cultural value
that displays the beauty of speech and language to convey certain meaning.
Example: non-fiction, fiction, stage play, poetry, screenplay and song

3. Architectural art – the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the
skills associated with construction.
Example: Monument, Architectural Designs, Rice terraces, Rock Garden, Eiffel Tower,
Statue of Liberty, flower gardens, water fountain, and buildings.

4. Dance – is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement either improvised or

purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be
categorized and described by its chorography, by its repertoire of movements, or by its historical
period of place of origin.
Elements of Dance

1. Choreography - creation of steps with music and movement with a rhythm of music

2. Costumes- the style of dress that a dancer wears. It depends upon the color

3. Dancer - a person who perform synchronize movement. usually employed on contract or

for particular performances/productions such as Anna Pavlova Patrick Swayze Rudolf
Nureyev.

4. Decoration - it pertains to props, design and accessories.

5. Movement - the action of the dancer as they move to create various and to communicate
with audience

6.Indian Dance - highly exaggerated facial expression and extensive vocabulary of hand
gestures Example: Kathakali, Bhangra, and Punjab

7.Ballet - a stage entertainment which enacts a story of expresses a dramatic idea through
dance or theatrical story telling. It is a combined with music, drama, poetry, song, costumes
and dance. Example: The Swan

8.Court Dance - a street dance. Example: Panagbenga and Ati-atihan 8.Theatrical Dance -
perform in order to convey drama or play. Example: Opera, Myme, and Classical dance

5. Music – art concerned with combining vocal or instrumental sounds of beauty of form or
emotional expression, usually according to cultural standards of rhythm, melody, and in most
western music and harmony.

6. Theatrical – the performing arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an
audience.
Theatrical art is a collaborative for of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or
actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a
specific place, often a stage.
 Theatrical Dance - perform in order to convey drama or play. Example: Opera, Myme, and
Classical dance

ACTIVITY 1:
WORD ASSOCIATION: Cite word or group of words that can be associated with the word
“ART”. Write your answer in the box.

ART

Out of these words you’ve associated with the word given, create your own definition of ART.

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ACITVITY 2:
Fill in the table below. Write down the examples of art expressions and provide
ways on how you can express these art expressions. The first row is done for you as your
example.

TYPE OF ART EXAMPLE HOW DOES THIS

EXPRESSION EXPRESS?
Ex.
Visual Arts Painting Artist expresses his emotions
(Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da through painting by using
Vinci) colors, materials, lines and
shapes

Literary Arts

Architectural Arts

Dance Arts

Musical Arts

Theatrical Arts
ASSUMPTION OF ART is a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without
proof. Art represents reality.
What are the 3 assumption of arts?
1. Art is universal/art is everywhere – art is a reflection of people and their social context.
It also unifies differences and brings awareness. Countries around the world create
cultural exchange program through art to develop mutual understanding between
different cultures, countries, and people.
Art is universal, because in every country and in every generation, art is constantly
present.

Example:

a. Spoliarium – famous paintings in the Philippines.

b. Monalisa – Paris famous painting

 c. Great Wave of Kanagawa – Japan

2. Art is not nature – the simple answer is, because art is an artificial creation we make to
record or express our views of natural things.
Art is made by man setting us apart from the animals, human learned and perceived logic
and pattern in our everyday lives. And art is not an exception. Art is composed of patterns
and aesthetics. Take note that nature is created by God and is given to human.

Example:

Encantadia of Philippine television, the famous TV fantacy – the series is complete

manifestation of the assumption that art is not nature but is made through the writer’s
creative mind as a product of her reception about nature.

3. Art involves experience – art is just an experience that depicts the actual doing of
something.

Example:

One cannot be a choreographer if he/she cannot even execute a single dance step or
sculpture cannot produce a work if he does not know what a chisel is, or a painter is
expected to know how to hold a paintbrush.
Activity 3
Read and check the following statements whether you agree or disagree in the following
assumptions of art. Justify your answer in not less than three (3) sentences.

ASSUMPTIONS OF Agree Disagree Justification

ART

1. Art is everywhere

2. Art is not nature

3.Art involves
experience.

What is an Art Appreciation?

Art appreciation analyzes art using the methods and materials allowing people to make connections to
the context of art, and the interactions of societies. It is difficult to understand the art without
understanding the culture.

The term art appreciation is referred to the knowledge of the general and everlasting qualities that
classify all great art. It is much appreciated through reviewing the clues that allowing the viewer to more
easily comprehend what he is seeing. These clues are the three basic components of a work of art:

1. Subject – the visual focus or the images that maybe extracted from examining the artwork; the “why”

The subject is maybe thought of as the “what” (the topic, focus, or image).

2. Content – the meaning that is communicated by the artist or the artwork; the ‘why”

The content as the “why” (the artist’s intention, communication, or meaning behind the work.

3. Form – the development and configuration of the artwork – how the elements and the medium or
material are put together; the “how’

The form as the “how” (the development of the work, composition, or the substantiation)
The Spoliarium (often misspelled Spolarium) is a painting by Filipino painter Juan Luna. Luna,
working on canvas, spent eight months completing the painting which depicts dying gladiators. The
painting was submitted by Luna to the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1884 in Madrid, where
it garnered the first gold medal (out of three).[1] The picture recreates a despoiling scene in a Roman
circus where dead gladiators are stripped of weapons and garments. Together with other works of
the Spanish Academy, the Spoliarium was on exhibit in Rome in April 1884. [2]
In 1886, the painting was sold to the Diputación Provincial de Barcelona for 20,000 pesetas. It
currently hangs in the main gallery at the first floor of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Manila,
and is the first work of art that greets visitors upon entry into the museum. The National Museum
considers it the largest painting in the Philippines with dimensions of 4.22 meters x 7.675 meters. [3]
Filipino historian Ambeth Ocampo writes, "...the fact remains that when Luna and Félix Resurrección
Hidalgo won the top awards in the Madrid Exposition of 1884, they proved to the world
that indios could, despite their supposed barbarian race, paint better than the Spaniards who
colonized them."[4]
"Luna's Spoliarium with its bloody carcasses of slave gladiators being dragged away from the arena
where they had entertained their Roman oppressors with their lives... stripped to satisfy the lewd
contempt of their Roman persecutors with their honor...."[6] Rizal was footnoted in his speech that
the Spoliarium, "embodied the essence of our social, moral and political life: humanity in severe
ordeal, humanity unredeemed, reason and idealism in open struggle with prejudice, fanaticism and
injustice."[6]
ACTIVITY 4

Evaluate the artwork of Juan Luna the Spoliarium by identifying the following areas:

HOW TO EVALUATE OR ENGAGE WITH ARTWORK

DESCRIPTION – what can be seen in

the artwork?

ANALYSIS – what relationships exist

with what is seen?

INTERPRETATION – what is the

content or meaning based on
description and analysis?
JUDGEMENT – what is your
evaluation of the work, based on
description, analysis and
interpretation?