ART APPRECIATION

Table of Contents
UNIT 1: Introduction to Art Appreciation
Lesson 1 What Is Art? Introduction
and Assumptions
Lesson 2 Art Appreciation: Creativity,
Imagination and Expression
Lesson 3 Functions and Philosophical
Perspectives on Art
 Lesson 1:
What Is Art?
Introduction and Assumptions
LESSON OUTCOME
By the end of this lesson, the student should be
able to:
1. Understand the role of humanities and arts in
man’s attempt at fully realizing his end;
2. Clarify misconceptions about the art;
3. Characterize the assumptions of arts; and
4. Engage better with personal experiences of
and in art.
LESSON PROPER
What Is Art?
- The word “art” comes from the ancient
Latin ars which means a “craft or
specialized form of skill, like carpentry or
smithying or surgery” (Collingwood,
1938).
- Art then suggested the capacity to
produce an intended result from carefully
planned steps or method.
LESSON PROPER
What Is Art?
- Arts in Medieval Latin came to mean
something different. It meant “any special
form of book-learning, such as grammar or
logic, magic or astrology” (Collingwood, 1938).
- The fine arts would come to mean “not
delicate or highly skilled arts, but ‘beautiful’
arts” (Collingwood, 1938). This is something
more akin to what is now considered art.
LESSON PROPER
What Is Art?
- The expression or application of
human creative skill and
imagination, typically in a visual
form such as painting or sculpture,
producing works to be appreciated
primarily for their beauty or
emotional power. (Oxford 2019)
Assumptions of Art:
1. Art is Universal – Art has always
been timeless and universal,
spanning generations and
continents through and through.
Assumptions of Art:
2. Art is not nature – Art is man’s expression
of his reception of nature. Art is man’s way
of interpreting nature.
3. Art involves experience – Unlike fields of
knowledge that involve data, art is known
by experiencing. A work of art then cannot
be abstracted from actual doing. In order to
know what an artwork is, we have to sense
it, see or hear it, and see AND hear it.
DISCUSSION POINTS
• Why do people have difficulty in
coming up with a single definition of
art?
• “Art is subjective. It depends on how
one perceives the art work.” To what
extent do you agree with this
statement?
PROCESSING QUESTIONS
• How can we see art in our everyday
lives?
• If you were an artist, what kind of
artist would you be? Are there
specific themes or messages that you
would want your art to contain?
LESSON SUMMARY
• Humanities and the art have always been part of
man’s growth and civilization.
• Since the dawn of time, man has always tried to
express his innermost thoughts and feelings
about reality through creating art.
• Three assumptions on art are its universality, its
not being nature, and its need for experience.
• Without experience, there is no art. The artist
has to be foremost, a perceiver who is directly in
touch with art.
 Lesson 2:
Art Appreciation:
Creativity, Imagination,
and Expression
LESSON OUTCOME
By the end of this lesson, the student should be
able to:
1. Differentiate art from nature;
2. Characterize artistic expression based on
personal experiences with art;
3. Discuss the nature of art’s preliminary
expression; and
4. Categorize works of art by citing personal
experiences.
 LESSON PROPER
Art Appreciation as a Way of Life:
• Art as a creative work that depicts the world in a
completely different light and perspective, and the
source is due to human freedom (Jean Paul Sartre
as cited in Greene, 1995)
Ex. Criticism and Stress
• Hence, refining one’s ability to appreciate art
allows him to deeply understand the purpose of an
artwork and recognize the beauty it possesses
(Collins & Riley, 1931).
Ex. Time
 Sabel in Blue
by Benedicto
Cabrera, 2006
The Role of Creativity in Art Making:
• In art, creativity is what sets apart one
artwork from another.
Ex. Message, form, medium, technique

• An artist embraces originality, puts his

own flavor into his work, and calls it his
own creative piece.
• Ex.
Art as a Product of Imagination, Imagination as
a Product of Art:
• Imagination is not constrained by the walls of
the norm, but goes beyond that.
• An artwork does not need to be a real thing,
but can be something that is imaginary
(Collingwood, 1938).
• 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:
• Robin George Collingwood, an English
philosopher who is best known for his work in
aesthetics, explicated in his publication The
Principles of Art (1938) that what an artist
does to an emotion is not to induce it, but
express it.
• Some forms of art expression include visual
arts, lm, performance art, poetry
performance, architecture, dance, literary
arts, theater arts, and applied arts.
DISCUSSION POINTS
• In the present context, why is being
creative becoming more of a
challenge?
• In what ways can imagination
produce art? In what ways can art
inspire imagination?
PROCESSING QUESTIONS
• If given a chance, what art field are
you going to explore? Why?
• How can you utilize the arts to
express yourself, your community,
and your relation to others?
LESSON SUMMARY
• Art is a product of a man’s creativity, imagination, and
expression.
• Refining one’s ability to appreciate art allows him to deeply
understand the purpose of an artwork and recognize the beauty
it possesses.
• Creativity is what sets apart one artwork from another. A
creative artist does not simply copy or imitate another artist’s
work.
• While through imagination, an artist is able to craft something
bold, something new, and something better in the hopes of
creating something that will stimulate change
• Through expression, an artist is able to explore his own emotions
while at the same time, create something beautiful out of it.
 Lesson 3:
Functions and Philosophical
Perspectives on Art
LESSON OUTCOME
By the end of this lesson, the students should be
able to:
1. Distinguish between directly functional art and
indirectly functional art;
2. Explain and discuss the basic philosophical
perspectives on the art;
3. Realize the function of some art forms in daily
life; and
4. Apply concepts and theories on beauty and
aesthetics in real-life scenarios.
LESSON PROPER
Telos and Eudaimonia
• Telos – a Greek term for
“purpose”.
• Eudaimonia – a Greek term for
“a life of fulfillment and
happiness”
LESSON PROPER
Functions of Art:
• Roughly and broadly, the
functions of art are classified into
three: personal (public display or
expression), social (celebration or
to affect collective behavior), and
physical (utilitarian).
LESSON PROPER
Does Art Always Have to Be Functional?
• The value of a work of art does not
depend on function but on the work itself.
• Despite these, efficiency cannot be
mistaken as beauty. While it certainly
determines beauty in some works of art,
an efficient functional object is not
necessarily beautiful.
Major Fields in Arts
Visual Arts
Performing Arts
Applied Arts
Philosophical Perspectives on Art:
I. Art as an Imitation.
- For Plato, when one ascribes
beauty to another person, he
refers to an imperfect beauty that
participates only in the form of
beauty in the World of Forms.
Philosophical Perspectives on Art:
II. Art as a Representation
- Aristotle considered art as an aid
to philosophy in revealing truth. It
allows for the experience of
pleasure. art also has an ability to
be instructive and teach its
audience things about life; thus, it
is cognitive as well .
Philosophical Perspectives on Art:
III. Art as a Disinterested Judgment
- Kant considered the judgment of
beauty, the cornerstone of art, as
something that can be universal
despite its subjectivity. Kant
mentioned that judgment of beauty,
and therefore, art, is innately
autonomous from specific interests.
Philosophical Perspectives on Art:
IV. Art as a Communication of
Emotion
- Art plays a huge role in
communication to its audience’s
emotions that the artist
previously experienced.
DISCUSSION POINTS
• Does art necessarily have an end?
• When an artist creates a work of art,
does he have an end in mind?
• Do all artworks have a function?
Does the function make an object a
work of art?
PROCESSING QUESTIONS
• What art form/artwork has
changed something in your life?
Why?
• Do you think that art can be a
catalyst for change?
LESSON SUMMARY
• Art has remained relevant in our daily
lives because most of it has played some
form of function for man.
• The different functions of art may be
classified as either personal, social, or
physical.
• Art may serve either as imitation,
representation, a disinterested judgment,
or simply a communication of emotion.