LESSON 1: ASSUMPTIONS AND NATURE OF ARTS: CREATIVITY, IMAGINATION, AND EXPRESSION

What is Art Appreciation?

Refers to the exploration and analysis of the art forms that we are exposed to.
Art appreciation can be highly subjective, depending on an individual’s personal tastes and preferences, or can
be done on the basis of several grounds such as elements of design and mastery displayed in the piece. Also, it
takes an artist to make art. One may perceive beauty on a daily basis. However, not every beautiful thing that
can be seen or experienced may truly be called a work of art.
In fact, not everyone can be considered an artist, but all are spectators of art. Despite being a spectator, we are
able to distinguish what is fine and beautiful from what is not and what good quality is and from poor.
ART APPRECIATION AS WAY OF LIFE
“The role of art as a creative work is to depict the world in a completely different light and perspective” –
Jean-Paul Sartre

 Each artwork beholds beauty in its own kind, the kind that the artist sees and wants the viewers to
perceive. More often than not, people are blind to this beauty and only those who have developed a fine
sense of appreciation can experience and see the art the way the artist did.
 refining one’s ability to appreciate art allows him to deeply understand the purpose of artwork and
recognize the beauty it possesses. So, In cultivating an appreciation of art, one should also exercise and
develop his taste for things that are fine and beautiful. This allows individuals to make intelligent choices
and decisions in acquiring necessities and luxuries, knowing what gives better value for time or money
while taking into consideration the aesthetic and practical value.
 Learning to appreciate art no matter what vocation or profession you have, will lead to a fuller and
more meaningful life.
What is Art?
- Human ingenuity in adapting natural things to man’s use. Transforming God-made things into man-
made things to satisfy his/her needs.
- Art is something that is perennially around us. Some people may deny having to do with the arts but it
is indisputable that life presents us with many forms of and opportunities for communion with the
arts.
- ART comes from the ancient Latin, ars which means a “craft or specialized form of skill, like carpentry
or smithying or surgery” (Collingwood, 1938).
- Medieval Latin came to mean something different. It meant “any special form of book-learning, such
as grammar or logic, magic or astrology” (Collingwood, 1983).
- The fine arts would come to mean “not delicate or highly skilled arts, but “beautiful arts”
(Collingwood, 1983).
- “The humanities constitute one of the oldest and most important means of expression developed by
man” (Dudley et al., 1960). Human history has witnessed how man evolved not just physically but also
culturally, from cave painters to men of exquisite paintbrush users of the present.
- Expression of an idea, experience, or skill. Making meaning involves understanding our surroundings
and making our experiences.
- Art is a piece of you
- A form of communication
- An expression of your creative imagination
- An expression of BEAUTY, of feeling, belief, and character.
- A combination of one’s creativity (doing something that has value/purpose) and imagination (being
limitless).
- Art is a product of a man’s creativity, imagination, and expression.
Some definitions of ART according to Philosophers:
Art brings life in harmony with the beauty of the world. –Plato
Art is the whole spirit of man.-Ruskin
Art is the medium by which the artist communicates himself to his fellows.-Charleton Noyes
Art is anything made or done by man that affects or moves us so that we see or feel beauty in it.-Collins and
Riley
Nature of Art
1. A material that is considered to be BEAUTIFUL/OBRA MAESTRA can be:
• Best Selling
• Ground breaking
• Has a symbolic meaning
• Inherently beautiful
2. Art is a diverse range of human activities. In creating visual, auditory or performing artworks,
expressing the author’s imaginative or technical skill, intended to be appreciated for their
beauty or emotional power. In their most general form these activities include the
production of works of art, the criticism of art, the study of history of art, and the aesthetic
dissemination of art.
3. Art represents reality. Representation is the use of signs that stand in for and take the place
of something else. It is through representation that people organize the world and reality
through the act of naming its elements. Signs are arranged in order to form semantic
constructions and express relations. Art represents reality, since it is often depicting objects
or scenes from the world. An artwork can depict a scene such as a café or a restaurant, or a
park or garden. So, there is a sense in which art represents the mind’s eye or what the
imagination perceives.
4. Art is an expression. The expression contained in the form is an attempt to translate the
unnamed and the unknown. Intrinsic to our existence as humans is our quest to create
meaning, and art allows that process to take place. Making meaning involves understanding
our surroundings and marking our experiences.
5. Art serves as a means of communication of emotions. The purpose of works of art may be
communicate political, spiritual or philosophical ideas, to create a sense of beauty to explore
the nature of perception, for pleasure, or to generate strong emotions. Art is an act of
expressing feelings, thoughts, and observations of human conditions. A fundamental
purpose common to most art forms is the underlying intention to appeal to, and connect
with, human emotion.
6. Art matters. The arts matter because they allow us to express ourselves and illustrate the
world around us in a different light, helping us to gain understanding of people and society,
and give hope while living in this world. Art matters because it illustrates the human
experience.
7. Art is universal. Literally, art can be found in every corner of the world. Art is everywhere
and it is embedded into the way of life of the people. Exclusivity is out of bounds when we
speak of arts because it is for everyone. Art is the true Esperanto, an artificial language, the
one form of culture that is genuinely beyond national limitations. Art knows no barriers; not
even language is a barrier in understanding it. Example: foreign arts displayed in museums throughout the world,
paintings such as the Mona Lisa, Sistine Chapel, and photos of well-known places are readily viewed. We have
also some foreign performers performing in the country
8. Art is creation. It is the combination of already existing material elements into new forms
which become the realization of a preconceived idea. Both hut and picture rose in the
imagination of their makers before they took shape as things. The material of each was given
already in nature; but the form, as the maker fashioned it, was new. In its essence and widest compass art is
the making of a new thing in response to a sense of need. The very need itself creates, working through man
as its agent.
9. Art as a product of imagination, imagination as a product of art. According to Albert Einstein,
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited
to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire
world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” – Albert Einstein
 Imagination is not constrained by the walls of the norm, but goes beyond that.
 Through imagination, one is able to craft something bold, something new, and something
better in the hopes of creating something that will stimulate change.
 In artist’s mind sits a vast gallery of artworks
 An artwork does not need to be a real thing, but can be something that is imaginary.
 However, something imaginary does not necessarily mean it cannot be called art.
Artists use their imagination that gives birth to reality through creation.
 Imagination allows endless possibilities.
 In the same way that imagination produces art, art also inspires imagination
ASSUMPTIONS OF ART
-Is a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof. It is something that you accept as
true without question or proof.
1. Art is universal
 Timeless, spanning generations and continents through and through.
 Misconception: Artistic made a long time ago.
 Age is not a factor in determining art.
 Literature has provided keywords of art.
 Iliad and the Odyssey are the two Greek Epics that one’s being taught in school.
 The Sanskrit pieces Mahabharata and Ramanaya are also staples in this field.
 In every country and in every generation, there is always art. Oftentimes, people feel that what
is considered artistic are only those which have been made a long time ago. This is a
misconception. Age is not a factor in determining art. “An art is not good because it is old, but
old because it is good” (Dudley et al., 1960)
 In the Philippines, the works of Jose Rizal and Francisco Balagtas are not being read because
they are old.
 Florante at Laura never fails to teach high school students the beauty of love, one that is
universal and pure.
 Ibong Adarna, another Filipino masterpiece, has always captured the imagination of the young
with its timeless lessons.
 When we recite the Psalms, we feel in communion with King David as we feel one with him in
his conversation with God.
 When we listen to a Kundiman or perform folk dances, we still enjoy the way our Filipino
ancestors while away their time in the past.
2. Art is Not Nature
 Art, not directed by the representation of reality, is a perception of reality.
 In the Philippines, it is not entirely novel to hear some consumers of local movies
remark that these movies produced locally are unrealistic. They contend that local
movies work around a certain formula to the detriment of substance and faithfulness to
the reality of movies.
 Paul Cezanne, a French painted a scene from reality entitled Well and Grinding Wheel in
the Forest of the Chateau Noir.
3. Art involves Experience (It implies that the creation of art must be something of personal and knowledgeable
value. In this conception of art, the creator must have an intimate or a subjective link with their creation for both to
have validity)

 It does not full detail but just an experience. Actual doing of something.
 Getting this far without a satisfactory definition of art can be quite weird for
some. For most people, art does not require a full definition. Art is just
experience. By experience, we mean the “actual doing of something” (Dudley et
al., 1960) and it also affirmed that art depends on experience, and if one is to
know art, he must know it not as fact or information but as an experience.
 A work of art then cannot be abstracted from actually doing. In order to know
what an artwork, is we have to sense it, see and hear it.
 An important aspect of experiencing art is it is highly personal, individual, and
subjective. In philosophical terms, the perception of art is always a value
judgment. It depends on who the perceive is, his tastes, his biases, and what he
has inside.
4. Art is Cultural

 Art influences society by changing opinions, instilling values, and translating experiences
across space and time. Research has shown art affects the fundamental sense of self.
Painting, sculpture, music, literature, and the other arts are often considered to be the repository
of a society's collective memory.

CATEGORIES OF ART
VISUAL- - something one appreciates through the sense of sight; appealing to the eye. Creations that fall
under this category are those that appeals to the sense of sight and are mainly visual in
nature.
 Artists produce visual arts driven by their desire to reproduce things that they
have seen in the way that they perceived them.
 There are also other artistic disciplines that also involve a visual aspect, such as
performance arts, theater, and applied arts.
 Some mediums of visual arts include paintings, drawings, letterings, printing,
sculpture, digital imaging.
Graphic- two-dimensional ex. Painting, drawing
Plastic- three-dimensional ex. Architecture, sculpture
FILM- -refers to the art of putting together successions of still images in order to create an illusion of movement.

 Techniques in film-making process:

-Motion-picture camera (also known as movie camera)
-Animation techniques
-Computer-generated imagery (CGI)

 PERFORMING/ANCE ART- -an art that is a product of talent and skills in performing. Performance
art is 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.
ex. Theater (acting/drama), dancing, singing
LITERARY- -a written art. Artists who practice literary arts use words to express themselves and
communicate emotions to the readers. Simply becoming a writer does not make one a
literary artist.
-Literary art goes beyond the usual professional, academic, journalistic and other technical
forms of writing. It focuses on writing using a unique style, not following a specific format or
norm. It may include both fiction and non-fiction such as novels, biographies, and poems.
Ex. Prose- an ordinary form of writing
Poetry- a written art that is particular into rhyming of words, line, and stanzas that uses figurative languages.
 o Romeo and Juliet – William Shakespeare
o The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

ARCHITECTURE
If Art is the pursuit and creation of beautiful things, then architecture is the
making of beautiful buildings. However, not all building are beautiful because some only
embody the functionality they need, but the structure, lines, forms, and colors are not
beautifully expressed.
Buildings should embody these three important elements if you wish to merit the
title architecture.
 Important elements:
o Plan
o Construction
o Design
APPLIED- - The application of design and decoration to everyday objects to make them aesthetically appealing. It
incorporates elements of style and design to everyday items with the aim of increasing their
aesthetic value.
So, the Artists in this field bring beauty, charm, and comfort into many things
that were useful in everyday life
Ex. Industrial design, interior design, fashion design, graphic design.

DIFFERENT SUBJECTS OF ART

Nature, people, emotion, places, events, animals, saints, churches, babies, toys, fruits,
landscapes, seascapes, and religions. Etc.

ARTISTS TASK

- Shows the relationship of man to the environment

- Create places for human purpose

- Create extraordinary versions of ordinary objects

- Record and commemorate

- Give a tangible form of the unknown