THE CONTEXT OF

ART
What is context?

■ Context refers to settings, conditions,

circumstances, and occurrences affecting
production and reception or audience
response to an artwork. It is a set of
background information that enables us to
formulate meanings about works of art and
note how context affects form.
DIFFERENT CONTEXT
OF ART
a. Artist’s Background

■ The artist’s age, gender, culture, economic

conditions, social environment, and
disposition affect art production. The mode of
production, which encompasses the kind of
materials accessible to the artists as well as
the conditions surrounding labor, also hope
the work produced by the artist.
• Julie Lluch, an artist who
hails from Iligan City, would
often emphasize her
female identity and
personal experiences in
many of her terracotta
works. In Cutting Onions
Always Make Me Cry,
1988, Lluch’s self-portrait
presents cooking --- a role
associated with women in
the home --- as oppressive
and unpleasant.
b. Nature

■Nature can be seen as a

source of inspiration an a
wellspring of materials for
art production.
The t’nalak for example uses abaca
fibers stripped from the trunk of the
banana tree, and colored with re
and black dyes naturally extracted
from roots and leaves of plants.
Using a backstrap loom, the weaver
produces t’nalak designs including
stylized forms inspired by nature:
kleng (crab), ‘gmayaw (bird in flight),
tofi (frog), and sawo (snake skin).
c. Everyday Life

■ Philippine traditional art has always

been an integral part of daily life. Its
significance lies not only in its
aesthetics appearance but also in its
functionality and its value to the
community that produced it.
d. Society, Politics and Economy, and
History
■Changes in the society, politics and
economy affect artists, the work
that they do, and the structures
that support their production.
• The painting of National Artist
Benedicto Cabrera titled
Brown Brother’s Burden, ca.
1970, approximates the look
of an old photograph which
presents an aspect of colonial
history from the gaze of the
colonized. If we were to look at
the jeepney on the other
hand, we will see that its style
of ornamentation, reminiscent
of folk characteristics, has
practically effaced its roots as
a postwar vehicle.
Appropriation – technique of transforming
existing materials through the juxtaposition
of elements taken from one context and
placing these in another to present
alternative meanings, structure, and
composition to an art work.
e. Mode of Reception

■ Art is encountered via the museum; arranged

and categorized before a public for the
purpose of education and leisure. Owning to
its longstanding history as an institution that
exhibits arts or other objects of value, we
automatically assume that what is shown is of
value.