Art Appreciation: Lesson 1

* ART – Latin word ‘ars’, which means “skills”. Greek ‘techne’, from which our modern word
“technology” is derived. (Ortiz et al., 1976)

There are various definitions of art, according to history:

a.) Ancient Latin Ars is a craft or specialized form of skill.

b.) Medieval Latin Ars is considered as any special form of book-learning, such as grammar

or logic, magic, or astrology.

c.) Renaissance Period. The word ‘ars’ required the meaning that was inherent in its ancient form of
craft.

d.) Seventeenth-Century. In this era, the problem and idea of aesthetics, which is the study of beauty,
began to unfold distinctly from the notion of technical workmanship.

e.) Eighteenth-Century. Art evolved to distinguish fine arts from useful arts.

Assumption of Art:

-Art is Universal.

-Art is not nature.

-Art involves experience.

Art as Creation, Imagination, and Expression:

Art Forms: Visual Arts (2D and 3D)

*Photography (digital and analog), Performance Arts, Poetry, Architecture, Dance, Film, Literature,
Theater, Music, and Applied Arts (fashion and furniture)

ART AS CREATION:

*Man has also been led by an innate craving for order to create objects that are delightful to perceive.
*Creation – refers to the act of combining and re-ordering already existing materials so that a new
object is formed.

*Art is a planned activity. An artist thinks of a design, selects his materials, and arranges them according
to his design.

*Creation involves constant correction and redirection, depending on the demands of the material and
the challenges it poses.

ART AND IMAGINATION:

Art starts in the human mind. It all begins with imagination.

*Through imagination, one is able to craft something bold, something new and something better in the
hopes of creating something that will stimulate change. Imagination allows endless possibilities.

*Something imaginary does not necessarily mean it cannot be called art. Artists use their imagination
that gives birth to reality through creation.

*In the same way that imagination produces art, art also inspires imagination.

ART AS EXPRESSION:

*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.

VISUAL ART creations that fall under this category are those that appeal to the sense of sight and are
mainly visual in nature.

*Some medium of visual arts include paintings, drawings, letterings, printing, sculptures, digital,
imaging, and more.
 FILM refers to the art of putting together succession of still images in order to create an illusion
of movement.

*Film making focuses on its aesthetic, cultural, and social value and is considered as both an art and an
industry.

PERFORMANCE ART, a live art and the artist’s medium is mainly the human body which he or
she uses to perform, but also employs other kind of art such as visual art, props, or sound. this form of
art cannot be bough or traded as a commodity.

DANCE is a series of movements that follows the rhythm of the music accompaniment.

*Dancing is a creative form that allows people to freely express themselves.