Lesson 5: Is Art for
Everybody?: Art and Society
Leyte colleges
Objectives:
Realize the importance of art critics when it comes to
educating ourselves with taste
Compose for oneself a set of standards for individual taste
Adjust one’s mindset to the idealistic qualities of art and the
practical reality of economics
“If anything, art is...about morals,
about our belief in humanity.
Without that, there simply is
no art.”
- Ai Weiwei, Contemporary Chinese Activist Artist
A good artist must be a good citizen first and
everything else you do must hinge on what you
believe is good, true and beautiful for your country
and society.
However, as part of society, sometimes what
hinders us from appreciating art is our poverty.
Society as recipient of the arts and what are trying
to engage us in are also part of what circulates
around in our art scene.
Socially Engaged Practice
Socially engaged practice, also referred to as social practice or
socially engaged art, can include any art form which involves
people and communities in collaboration or social interaction. This
can often be organized as the result of an outreach or education
program, but many independent artists also use it within their work. The
term new genre public art, coined by Suzanne Lacy, is also a form of
socially engaged practice.
The participatory element of socially engaged practice, is key, with
the artworks created often holding equal or less importance to the
collaborative act of creating them. As Tom Finkelpearl outlines in his
book What We Made: Conversations on Art and Social Cooperation,
social practice is ‘art that’s socially engaged, where the social interaction
is at some level the art.’
Retrieved from http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/socially-engaged-practice
Installation view of Rirkrit Tiravanija’s untitled (free/still), 2011–12, at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York
Activist Art
The aim of activist artists is to create art that is a form
of social currency, actively addressing cultural power
structures rather than representing them or simply
describing them. In describing the art she makes, the
activist artist Tania Bruguera said, ‘I don’t want art that
points to a thing. I want art that is the thing’.
Retrieved from http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/activist-art
Keith Haring (1958 – 1990)
American Neo-Pop Artist /
Activist
Throughout his career, Haring devoted much of his time to public works, which
often carried social messages. He produced more than 50 public artworks between
1982 and 1989, in dozens of cities around the world, many of which were created for
charities, hospitals, children’s day care centers and orphanages. The now famous
Crack is Wack mural of 1986 has become a landmark along New York’s FDR Drive.
Other projects include; a mural created for the 100th anniversary of the Statue of
Liberty in 1986, on which Haring worked with 900 children; a mural on the exterior of
Necker Children’s Hospital in Paris, France in 1987; and a mural painted on the
western side of the Berlin Wall three years before its fall. Haring also held drawing
workshops for children in schools and museums in New York, Amsterdam, London,
Tokyo and Bordeaux, and produced imagery for many literacy programs and other
public service campaigns.
Retrieved from http://www.haring.com/!/about-haring/bio#.WeC0TROCyb8
Keith Haring, Crack Is Wack, painted mural (New York City, USA), 1986
Keith Haring, Stop Aids, Poster, 1989
Guerrilla Girls
“The Guerrilla Girls are feminist activist artists. We wear
gorilla masks in public and use facts, humor and outrageous
visuals to expose gender and ethnic bias as well as corruption in
politics, art, film, and pop culture. Our anonymity keeps the focus
on the issues, and away from who we might be: we could be
anyone and we are everywhere. We believe in an intersectional
feminism that fights discrimination and supports human rights for
all people and all genders.” - from www.guerrillagirls.com
Ai Weiwei (b. 1957)
Chinese Conceptual Artist / Activist
As an activist, Ai Weiwei calls attention to human rights violations on
an epic scale; as an artist, he expands the definition of art to include
new forms of social engagement. In a country where free speech is not
recognized as a right, the police have beaten him up, kept him under house
arrest, bulldozed his newly-built studio and subjected him to surveillance. He
is viewed as a threat to "harmonious society." The West did not invent
revolutionaries. China has an illustrious history of dissidents, anti-
authoritarian originals and eccentrics, from the drunken monks of pre-history
to counter-culture artists living in today's Beijing. Ai himself is from this long
line of free-thinkers and writers, marginalized both by the right and left. From
smashing an ancient vase to reciting the names of children who died due to
government negligence, Ai's dramatic actions highlight the widening gap
between the ideal and the real in Chinese society. He is also one of the
earliest conceptual artists to use social media - Instagram and Twitter, in
particular - as one of his primary media.
Retrieved from http://www.theartstory.org/artist-ai-weiwei.htm
Ai Weiwei, Remembering, 2009, backpacks on the façade of the Haus de Kunst,
Munich, Germany
Is Art for Everyboy?
Art is one of the important pillars of culture within a society.
Art is very important in the society because it is an essential
ingredient to empowering the hearts of people
Art is uniquely positioned to move people—inspiring us,
inciting new questions and provoking curiosity, excitement,
and outrage
Art is also a remarkable mode of depicting culture from all
over the world
Art has played an important role in helping fight against
intolerance of different cultures, racism, and other forms of
unjust societal segregation
In sum, art can be considered powerful because of the
following reasons, among others:
It has the power to educate people about almost anything. It can create
awareness and present information in a way that could be absorbed by
many easily. In a world where there are those who don’t even have
access to good education; art makes education an even greater
equalizer of society.
It promotes cultural appreciation among a generation that’s currently
preoccupied with their technology. In fact, it can be said that if it weren’t
for art, our history, culture, and traditions would be in more danger of
being forgotten than they already are.
It breaks cultural, social, and economic barriers. While art can’t really
solve poverty or promote social justice on its own, it can be used as a
levelled playing field for discourse and expression. The reason why
everyone can relate to art is that everyone has emotions and personal
experiences. Therefore, anyone can learn to appreciate art regardless of
their social background, economic standing, or political affiliation.
It accesses higher orders of thinking. Art doesn’t just make you absorb
information. Rather, it makes you think about current ideas and inspire
you to make your own. This is why creativity is a form of intelligence – it
is a special ability that unlocks the potentials of the human mind. In fact,
studies have shown that exposure to art can make you better in other
fields of knowledge.
For whom should art be made?
For a more holistic study of art, it is important to question
and to ponder on the forces that influence the creation,
circulation, and consumption of art
In understanding the forces behind the creation and production of art, we may
consider these factors:
Personal belief or value
Practical needs
Audience level consumption
ACTIVITY 1:
To aid us further in understanding how we, as recipients of art forms, influence its production,
fill out this simple exercise on taste afterward, you will share your answer.
What kind of gadget How much are you
would you need willing to spend for
Simple inside your bag the gadget
What is your most What should be the
important brand of this
Test your taste accessory? accessory?
How would a multi- How much are you
functioning pen willing to pay for
serve you? Name 3 this pen?
primary functions
Sophisticated
If you have to
travel 12 hours
Who are the authors
straight in a bus or
that you should look
plane, what kind of
for?
book would you
read?
ACTIVITY 2:
Complete each picture by adding and connecting to the lines or shapes. Label each box
according to what you have drawn.
ANALYSIS:
Based on the activity you have just done answer the following questions:
1.What are the limitations of the activity
2. Why do you think drew what you drew? Did it reveal anything about your influences as a person?
3. In your opinion, what do you think are the limitations of our society’s setting today (political, economic, and
social) and how does it does it impact an artist’s career?
4. In the activity, you were given preliminary sketches that functioned as a force for you to add something to it.
In the same way, what do you think are the forces behind the production of art give three basis as why artists
create:
Assessment 1. Matching Type
Column A are their description while column B relationship between arts and society . Choose the
letter from column B that describes each term in Column A. write your answer on the space before
each number
Column A Column B
___1.political issues which government does not address find
expressions in various mediums of protest art.
___2 it gives meaning to different places in the Philippines and becomes
expressions of A. Arts and Environment
cultural identity.
B. Arts and Spirituality
___3. art in the hands of the state can harness the resources of the
government to impose its will
C. Arts and Everyday life
___4. society’s belief system which cantered on the concept of god’s
D. Arts and Politics
and spirits is one great impetus for the creation of arts
___5. ifugao’s payo (rice terraces): become basis of their cultural
identity E. Arts and Technology
___6. use our knowledge to harness resources towards changing our
social environment F. Arts and Economy
___7. the production of art in influenced by patronage
___8. rise of shopping mall as an architecture of consumerism
___9. pasyon singing during holy week as performative faith through
which communities are strength
___10. the practice of art in the Philippines is strongly characterized by
its integration in everyday life of people.
