Art Appreciation

• Art history, also known as art historiography, involves the historical study of the visual arts
• It is concerned with identifying, classifying, describing, evaluating, interpreting, and understanding art products and historic development in fields like painting, sculpture, architecture, decorative arts, drawing, printmaking, photography, and interior design
• Primary concerns of art historical research:

  • Discovering the creator of an art object (attribution)
  • Authenticating art objects
  • Determining the cultural or career stage when the object was made
  • Assessing the influence of one artist on others
  • Gathering biographical data on artists and documentation on the previous whereabouts and ownership of artworks
• Another primary concern is understanding the stylistic and formal development of artistic traditions on a large scale and within a broad historical perspective
• Art history also involves iconography, which is the analysis of symbols, themes, and subject matter in the visual arts, particularly the meaning of religious symbolism in Christian art
• The visual arts encompass art forms that create primarily visual works, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, photography, video, filmmaking, and architecture
• 1. D art forms like sculpture and architectural structures are tactile because they can be felt, providing examples of natural textures like wood, sandpaper, rocks, glass, and metal
• Spatial Arts:

  • Focuses on the environmental aspect of 3-dimensional design in contemporary art practice
  • Involves space, form, material, color, texture, light, scale, and context in creating spatial art works
• Aural Art:

  • Primarily addresses the ear and uses sound as its primary material
  • Examples include sound installations and kinetic sculptures that harness the power of quick, chaotic movements
• Four essential principles of Art:

  • Background
  • Medium
  • Composition or Organization
  • Style
• Art can be representational or non-representational
• Subject is the term used for whatever is represented in a work of art
• Artworks that have practical usefulness are called functional or applied arts
• Art that is concerned with the creation of objects of imagination without relation to function is called non-functional or fine arts
• Medium is the vehicle by which an artist externalizes and communicates his thoughts and feelings
• Names designated to artists are derived from the medium used
• Medium can be classified into 3 groups:

  • Visual or Space Arts
  • Tonal or Time Arts
  • Combined Arts
• Examples of mediums include colored pigments, building materials, sound, words, and parts of the body
• All art is composed of materials or elements that are arranged according to some pattern to express meaning
• The interlocking compositions of art are form and content:

  • Form: visual aspect that provides a sensuous delight to the eyes of the viewer
  • Content: intended meaning or message underlying the form
• Style in art refers to the distinctive quality of a work of art which relates it to other artworks
• Style also refers to the development of peculiar forms in art related to particular historical periods and individual works of a single artist
• Comparative characteristics of art styles:

  • Archaic or Primitive
  • Daring
  • Original
  • Sacred
  • Symbolic
  • A Mental Image
  • Classical
  • Calm
  • Ideal
  • Traditional
  • Natural
  • A Visual Image
  • Romantic
  • Restless
  • Sentimental
  • Revolutionary
  • Experimental
  • A Multiple Image
  • Modern or Contemporary
  • Confusing
  • Distorted
  • Wild
  • Eclectic
  • A Fragmental Image
• Stylistic periods in art include:

  • Greek Golden Age
  • Medieval
  • Renaissance
  • Baroque
  • Neo-Classic
  • Romantic
  • Modern
• The term "humanities" comes from the Latin word "humanus," meaning civilized, refined, cultured, or disciplined
• Humanities encompass various forms of art such as painting, architecture, sculpture, literature, music, dance, and cinema
• The humanities or the arts serve as records of man's experiences, values, sentiments, ideals, and goals
• The sciences focus on the external world of man that can be experimented, measured, and manipulated, while the humanities deal with man's internal world that cannot be exactly observed, dissected, and experimented
• The word "Art" is derived from the Latin word "Ars," meaning "ability" or "skill"
• Art brings life in harmony with the beauty of the world - Plato
• Art creation involves a process where abstract thoughts and feelings are translated into something concrete through the use of a medium or materials
• There are three essential truths about art creation:

  1. Creation is a process

  2. Art creation involves experience

  3. Form is the result of the creative process
• Four essential principles of Art:

  • Background
  • Medium
  • Composition or Organization
  • Style
• Art can be representation or non-representational
• The role of an artist includes preserving experiences through art and opening people's eyes and ears to new visions of life
• Subject is the term used for whatever is represented in a work of art
• Artworks that have practical usefulness are called functional or applied arts
• There are two categories of artists: creators (e.g., painters, sculptors, architects) and performers (e.g., dancers, actors, singers)
• Art that is concerned with the creation of objects of imagination without relation to function is called non-functional or fine arts
• Medium is the vehicle by which an artist externalizes and communicates his thoughts and feelings