MODULE 2 the Nature of Arts and Art Appreciation

What is art?

Art is very important in our lives. Art plays a large part in making our lives infinitely
rich. It constitutes one of the oldest and most important means of expression developed by
man. Since men have lived together, art sprung up. In fact, in nearly every country, art shows
itself in primitive societies. In every age or country, there is always art. Art has been created
by all people at all times; it has lived because it is liked and enjoyed. A true work of art is
made by man himself not imitatively, but creatively. A true artist does not imitate nature but
rather interpret it in his own way by selecting the essential features of the subject and rejecting
the minor ones. Art, as a term is taken from the Italian word, “artis,” which means
craftsmanship, skill, mastery of form, inventiveness and the association that exist between
form and ideas and between material and techniques. From the Aryan root “ar” which means
to “join” or “put together”; from the Greek words “artizein,” which means to prepare, and
“arkiskein,” meaning to put together. Watch the video below.

Art has been defined in various ways. Hereunder are some of the definitions given
by various authors:

1. Art is derived from the Latin word “ars”, meaning ability or skill.-J.V. Estolas

2. Art is taken from the Italian word “artis,” which means craftsmanship, skill, mastery
of form, inventiveness, and the associations that exist between form and ideas, between
material and technique._ A. Tan.

3. Art is a product of man’s need to express himself.- F. Zulueta

4. Art is concerned itself with the communication of certain ideas and feelings by
means of sensuous medium, color, sound, bronze, marble, words, and film.- C. Sanchez

5. Art is that which brings life in harmony with the beauty of the world.-Plato.

6. Art is an attitude of spirit, a state of mind-one which demands for its own
satisfaction and fulfilling, a shaping of matter to new and significant form.- John Dewey.

7. Art is the skilful arrangement or composition of some common but significant

qualities of nature such as colors, sounds, lines, movements, words, stones, wood, etc., to
express human feelings, emotions, or thoughts in a perfect meaningful and enjoyable
way.- Panizo and Rustia.
From the definition above, there are four (4) common essentials of art:

(1) art must be man-made;

(2) art must be creative, not imitative;

(3) art must benefit and satisfy man-man make use of art in practical life through artistic
principles, taste, and skill;

(4) art is expressed through a certain medium or material by which the artist communicates
himself to his fellows.

Art has a particular importance in our lives. All the art that we see and hear have a
purpose as well as expression; they occupy some place in our judgment. We can
communicate through paintings, songs, dances, and dramatic plays to highlight and heighten
the importance of certain events and to keep them memorable and pleasurable. We also
build monuments to remind us of the heroic deeds of great men.

Artworks are also valuable sources of inspiration, and aesthetic and delightful
experience. We are delighted by the books we read and we are moved by the music we
hear. We also get deep satisfaction from them. We enjoy a masterpiece of painting,
sculpture, or a play because they capture our attention. We are inspired to plan and construct
our houses beautifully when we are stimulated by modern architectural designs. Through the
artist’s work, we get a glimpse of the thoughts, feelings and beliefs of the people in their time
and the faces in their environment that influenced their artwork. We also value and appreciate
beautiful things as a consequence of our encounter with the arts. Out of the aesthetic
experiences we derive from the arts, we may be influenced to change our ways and
behavior. They may transform us into highly-cultured, dignified, and respectable human
beings. The arts may beautify our humanity.

This explains why the arts are called the humanities. They bring out the good and the
noble in us. Through the arts, we come to know the changing image of man as he journeys
across time, searches for the reality, and strives to achieve the ideals that create meaning for
life. (Ariola, Mariano M. 2014)

Art Appreciation Defined

Art appreciation is the ability to interpret or understand man-made arts and enjoy
them either through actual and work-experience with art tools and materials or possession of
these works of art for one’s admiration and satisfaction. Art appreciation therefore deals with
learning or understanding and creating arts and enjoying them. (Ariola, Mariano M. 2014)

Art appreciation could be casual or professional. Casually, art appreciation is the

practice of viewing art pieces with an aim towards deriving intellectual, emotional enjoyment
or spiritual enlightenment. Professional art appreciation tends more towards practice of art
criticism. It is viewing art with a positive intention of understanding and communicating to
others the aims, methods and level of success of the artist, on assumption that the work of
art is worthy of consideration. A professional critic would need to be very educated in art
theory and in art history, and in other disciplines to put the work in its context. So an art critic
can often offer insights into the culture and history of the art piece as well as its aesthetics. All
art appreciation is a discipline, in that it can be improved with education and
practice.https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-meaning-of-art-appreciation

Assumptions of Art

Assumptions on something means to put it to a test as to think whether it is true or not. Some
experts enumerate three basic assumptions of art as follows:

1. Art is universal. In every country and in every generation, there is always art. Often
times, people feel that what is considered artistic are only those which have been made 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 is made by man, whereas nature is given around us, God’s
creation. Art therefore, is man’s way of interpreting nature.

3. Art involves 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 an art then
cannot be abstracted from actual doing. In order to know what an artworks, we have to sense
it, see and hear it. An important aspect of experiencing art is its being highly personal,
individual, and subjective. In philosophical terms, perception of art is always a value
judgment. It depends on who the perceiver is, his tastes, his biases, and what he has inside.

Understanding Arts

In a more specialized sense, art applies to activities that express aesthetic ideas by
the use of skill and imagination in the creation of objects, environment and experiences which
can be shared with others. According to Van de Bogart, a work of art is a record of a particular
artist’s view. It shows something that he has seen, felt and thought of and recorded it as an
arrangement of designs, colors, lines and tones or words which satisfy his aesthetic
purpose. A work of art is the product of the artist’s unique personality influenced consciously
or unconsciously by factors such as: his environment, traditions, national traits, religious
beliefs, economic conditions, his ideals, or even the climate and geography. A work of art
represents or reflects the individual, the character of the period and the place where it was
produced. In understanding arts, the following are enumerated:

1. Art as a skill or Mastery. The term art is used to simply refer to skill or mastery
that is manifested in the outstanding product of an endeavor.
 2. Art as a process or a product of a creative skill. Art is a process because it involves
arranging the aesthetic elements in an artistically interesting and appealing manner. Art is a
product because it includes human creations, different activities and manners of expression.

3. Art as a universal language. The language of art is diverse. Each art form has its
own artistic elements such as literature, music and theatre. Art expresses feelings and ideas
shared by all individuals regardless of culture.

4. Art as a representation of reality. Art is a reflection or a mirror of reality.

5. Art reflects the characteristics of a period. During medieval period, the dominance
of the church initiated the expression of spiritual truths. In the visual arts, figures were
presented in idealized “flat” forms to signify a lack of focus on the material world. In the
Renaissance Period, the value ascribed to the material world was shown in more defined and
realistic rendition of the human body in the visual arts. The focus on the material world is
shown in the “three-dimensional” reality of landscapes. The modern period characterizes the
idealistic search for truth and the realization that it is not attainable; thus, relativity is accepted
as an unavoidable truth. This is manifested by the varied experimentation of expressions.

6. Art shows the manner of existence of the people of long ago. We gain awareness
that the people during the Old Stone Age lived in caves and that they manifested their artistry
by drawings and sketching. https://www.slideshare.net/jinedeth

Creativity, Imagination, and Expression

Creativity is not exclusive to the arts but is a necessary component because in art,
materials are not just being put together it is doing more than just putting materials or actions
or combining ideas together. In the creative arts, they invoke complicated psychological,
conscious and subconscious process of feelings and thought patterns about some aspect of
the world or the artist’s place in the world. But once the art is released to the public it can also
set off similar complicated conscious and subconscious thoughts and feelings in the
viewers. But these may vary from person to person and may not be the same as artist’s
original impressions.

Genuine artistic creativity connects people with the artist’s world view of feeling and
intellect. People realize, if not hampered by prejudice, that they perhaps have a common
humanity, a new way of appreciating the world, with the artist and maybe others. Art
reinforces our common humanity, our shared feelings and ideas of the pleasure or pain of
being in the world. At the moment of artistic creation the artist is the most human of humans,
integrating conscious and subconscious thoughts and feelings through bodily action, and
others sense this and perhaps admire this in the artist as similar to their inner selves. Artists
who try to act as they think artists would act and what they think artists most commonly, do,
are living a falsehood, a delusion, an inauthenticity and their work is less likely to strike a
chord with others as they try to live by these ideas, however, more sophisticated and
intelligent others will sense the sham of not coming from a real, unpretentious creator, but
from a general creator who are doing what they “think” is art and how artists behave.
 But in some very exceptional instances it is possible for design, craft and fashion to
create items that do connect with the feelings and intellect of others (Particularly fashion, car
design and graphics) and in these instances we are prompted to say that the item is an
example of the fine art of the field. However, these deemed examples of “Fine art” usually
come as a strong reflection of one designer’s influence and not from creative committees. It
is also possible for an artist to start in a pretentious or sham way and eventually arrive at a
genuine artistic position but the ego risk is high. johnrossmcglade.wordpress.com

Imagination is tied very closely to creativity because imagination is putting things,

ideas, feelings or images together, initially in the artist’s mind. The artist’s imagination may
be in the form of picturing, thinking or feeling what the proposed work of art will be about. But
also, during the creation of the work, the artist will use their imagination to feel, think and
picture possible alternatives to what they have just done, at every stage of doing. The public,
in turn, will perhaps have to use their imagination to comprehend this work that is usually hard
to pin down precisely in words.

Expression is automatic in every action, thought or feeling in everyone. We can’t

avoid expressing who we are in every thought and feeling, but, until we indicate our internal
states through actions others will not know these. Most people are not very good at getting
their thoughts and feelings out in an acceptable way. Artists and poets, it is claimed, are very
good at getting these things out in a way that the public can say “Hits the nail on the head” in
these allusive aspects of being human. That’s why people read poetry, go to plays and
movies, listen to music or songs and go to art galleries; this is to get insight into their inner
thoughts and/or feelings that they may have felt but can’t express or may never thought or
felt before; most people also find this pleasurable. Imagine our world without music, poetry,
novels, plays, visual art, movies and dance; would you last for any length of time? Definitely
not. Arts, creativity, expression and imagination are intrinsic to being human and to
art. https://www.quora.com/How-do-creativity-imagination-and-expression-relate- to-art