Art Appreciation

Art is a diverse range of human activities and the products of those activities; this article

focuses primarily on the visual arts, which includes the creation of images or objects in fields

including painting, sculpture, print making, photography, and other visual media. Architecture is

often included as one of the visual arts; however, like the decorative arts, it involves the creation

of objects where the practical considerations of use are essential—in a way that they usually are

not in a painting, for example. Music, theatre, film, dance, and other performing arts, as well as

literature and other media such as interactive media, are included in a broader definition of art

or the arts

An art form is the specific shape, or quality an artistic expression takes. The media used

often influence the form. For example, the form of a sculpture must exist in space in three

dimensions, and respond to gravity. The constraints and limitations of a particular medium are thus

called its formal qualities. To give another example, the formal qualities of painting are the canvas

texture, color, and brush texture. The formal qualities of video games are non-linearity, interactivity

and virtual presence. The form of a particular work of art is determined by the formal qualities of the

media, and is not related to the intentions of the artist or the reactions of the audience in any way

whatsoever as these properties are related to content rather than form

A genre is a set of conventions and styles within a particular medium. For instance, well

recognized genres in film are western, horror and romantic comedy. Genres in music include death

metal and trip hop. Genres in painting include still life and pastoral landscape. A particular work of

art may bend or combine genres but each genre has a recognizable group of conventions, clichés

and tropes. (One note: the word genre has a second older meaning within painting; genre

painting was a phrase used in the 17th to 19th centuries to refer specifically to paintings of scenes of

everyday life and is still used in this way.)

The style of an artwork, artist, or movement is the distinctive method and form followed by

the respective art. Any loose brushy, dripped or poured abstract painting is called expressionistic.

Often a style is linked with a particular historical period, set of ideas, and particular artistic

movement.

Ethymology – The word “art” is rooted from the 13 th century French word “art” which

means skills. The same root of the following words that is equivalent to human creativeness:

1. Artificial – made by human beings

2. Inert – having no skills.

3. Artisan – instructor or master of a human skill

Importance of Arts:

1. They are languages that all people speak that cut across racial, cultural,

social, educational, and economic barriers and enhance cultural

appreciation and awareness.

2. They provide opportunities for self-expression, bringing the inner world

into the outer world of concrete reality

3. They provide opportunities for self-expression, bringing the inner world

into the outer world of concrete reality

4. They develop both independence and collaboration

5. They make it possible to use personal strengths in meaningful ways and

to bridge into understanding sometimes difficult abstractions through

these strengths

6. They improve academic achievement -- enhancing test scores, attitudes,

social skills, critical and creative thinking

7. They exercise and develop higher order thinking skills including analysis,

synthesis, evaluation, and "problem-finding.

8. They provide the means for every student to learn

Categories of Arts:

1. Anthropological – artworks are defined and categorized according to the culture or

country they originated.

2. Thematic – some reference would consider the philosophy, the principle, the medium

and techniques employed by the artists in categorizing their works.

3. Critique and Patrons – arts come from the elite sector of the society thus the

categories marginalize or discriminate other works that they don’t patronize.

Categories:

High art and low arts – the former of the powerful and the latter is culture

of the less powerful.

Art and Popular culture – culture of the elite has aesthetic appeal while

the culture of masses is popular and less appealing.

High Prices and Low Priced – works of geniuses and popular artist are

priced higher while other struggle to have their work exhibited and bought

for the commercial value is less and it is not then considered as good

investments.

4. Deconstruction of the aesthetic and real value of arts – some group of people or

ideology are convinced that artworks should not be classified or categorized but

needed to be revolutionized.

Purpose of Arts:

Art has had a great number of different functions throughout its history, making its

purpose difficult to abstract or quantify to any single concept. This does not imply that the

purpose of Art is "vague", but that it has had many unique, different reasons for being created.

Some of these functions of Art are provided in the following outline. The different purposes of art

may be grouped according to those that are non-motivated, and those that are motivated.

1. Non-motivated purposes of art are those that are integral to being human, transcend the

individual, or do not fulfill a specific external purpose. In this sense, Art, as creativity, is

something humans must do by their very nature

a. Basic human instinct for harmony, balance, rhythm

b. Experience of the mysterious

c. Expression of the imagination

d. Ritualistic and symbolic functions.

2. Motivated purposes of art refer to intentional, conscious actions on the part of the artists

or creator. These may be to bring about political change, to comment on an aspect of

society, to convey a specific emotion or mood, to address personal psychology, to

illustrate another discipline, to (with commercial arts) to sell a product, or simply as a

form of communication.

a. Communication. Art, at its simplest, is a form of communication.

b. Art as entertainment. Art may seek to bring about a particular emotion or mood,

for the purpose of relaxing or entertaining the viewer.

c. The Avante-Garde. Art for political change. One of the defining functions of early

twentieth-century art has been to use visual images to bring about political

change

d. Art as a "free zone", removed from the action of the social censure.

e. Art for social inquiry, subversion and/or anarchy.

f. Art for social causes. Art can be used to raise awareness for a large variety of

causes.

g. Art for psychological and healing purposes.

h. Art for propaganda, or commercialism. Art is often utilized as a form of

propaganda, and thus can be used to subtly influence popular conceptions or

mood.

i. Art as a fitness indicator. It has been argued that the ability of the human brain by

far exceeds what was needed for survival in the ancestral environment.

Different factors that affects the artist and his works

1. Style – it is the overall embodiment of the choice of subject matters, treatment and

emphasis which appear again and again in the artwork of the artist or the particular

epoch.

2. Historical Factors it is the style of a particular period of time.

3. Geographical Factors – artists are conditioned by their nationality and so we have

categorization.

4. Political, Psychological and Sociological Factors – aside for the material, historical

and artistic conditions artist maybe influences by his/her political belief, culture, state

of mind or a certain philosophy in life.

Categories of Artworks:

1. Fine Arts- he term "fine art" refers to an art form practiced mainly for its aesthetic

value and its beauty ("art for art's sake") rather than its functional value. Fine art

is rooted in drawing and design-based works such as painting, printmaking,

and sculpture. It is often contrasted with "applied art" and "crafts" which are both

traditionally seen as utilitarian activities. Other non-design-based activities

regarded as fine arts, include photography and architecture, although the latter is

best understood as an applied art.

2. Visual Arts- is a modern but imprecise umbrella term for a broad category of art

which includes a number of artistic disciplines from various sub-categories. Its

wide ambit renders meaningless any attempt at definition, so rather than define

or compose some diluted meaning for it, here is a list of its constituent

disciplines.

3. Plastic Arts - The term plastic art typically denotes three-dimensional works

employing materials that can be moulded, shaped or manipulated (plasticized) in

some way: such as, clay, plaster, stone, metals, wood (sculpture), paper

(origami) and so on. For three-dimensional artworks made from everyday

materials and "found objects", including Marcel Duchamp's "ready made"

4. Decorative Arts - is a traditional term for a rather unwieldy range of artistic

disciplines concerned with the design and ornamentation of items, usually

functional, that do not necessarily have any intrinsic aesthetic qualities. Broadly-

speaking, many decorative arts (eg. basket-weaving, cabinet-making, ceramics,

tapestry and others) are also classified as "crafts." Also, decorative art is part of

the larger category of applied art.

5. Applied Art - refers to the application (and resulting product) of artistic design to

utilitarian objects in everyday use. Whereas works of fine art have no function

other than providing aesthetic or intellectual stimulation to the viewer, works of

applied art are usually functional objects which have been "prettified" or

creatively designed with both aesthetics and function in mind. Applied art

embraces a huge range of products and items, from a teapot or chair, to the

walls and roof of a railway station or concert hall, a fountain pen or computer

mouse.

6. Performance Arts -This type refers to public performance events. Traditional

varieties include, theatre, opera, music, and ballet. Contemporary performance

art also includes any activity in which the artist's physical presence acts as the

medium. Thus it encompasses, mime, face or body painting, and the like. A

hyper-modern type of performance art is known as Happenings.