ART APP

• Imitationism


  Idealist theory of art (by Plato) which answers the questions "what is beauty?" and "what is the essence of art?"
• 2 ways of considering beauty

  • Relative (beauty is in the eye of the beholder)
  • Absolute (beauty is in the thing itself)
• Aesthetic


  Is logic, truth, metaphysics, reality, knowledge, good
• Beauty


  Is logic, truth, metaphysics, reality, knowledge, good
• Ugly

  Is logic, falsity, metaphysics, illusion, ignorance, evil
• 3 types of world by Plato's imitationism

  • World of Being (the reality, unchanging and eternal)
  • World of Becoming (appearance of reality, changing and temporal)
  • World of Art (imitation or illusion of what is seen in physical thing)
• Things in this world are beautiful as appearances of reality or idea of beauty is universal form of beauty existing in the world of being
• Art is beautiful as imitation of things in this world
• Art is imitation of the appearance of reality
• Pythagoras' cosmological theory of music

  Music is imitation of cosmic sound, human music imitates music of spheres
• Plato's epistemological theory of music

  Music is for the spiritual soul/mind and knowledge, as gymnastics is for the physical body
• Augustine's theological theory of music

  Singing is praying twice over
• Definition of art based on imitationism

  • Painting/Sculpture (imitation of appearance of people, things, events)
  • Music (imitation of sounds of universe)
  • Dance (imitation of movements of animals, nature, or things)
  • Literature (imitation of life through language)
  • Drama (imitation of life through action and dialogue)
• Representation theory of art


  Art is an image, appearance, copy, reproduction of things, people, objects, or events
• Ways of representing nature

  • Physical alteration (changing physical appearance)
  • Selective modification (enhancing appearance)
  • Perceptual interpretation (copying nature according to artist's choice)
• William Shakespeare: 'Art is putting mirror up to nature, all the world is a stage and men and women are merely players'
• Chieh Tzu Yuan: 'When painting has reached divinity, there is an end of the matter'
• Chinese art is the drawing of forms which answer to natural form
• Christian art is representational icon of religious images
• Romantic realism in Philippine art has shown only aspect of beauty, idyllic and exotic rural sceneries, and forms of light and shadow for tourism purposes
• Formalism


  Art is combination of perceptual elements, art is non-figurative because it does not contain any representation
• Clive Bell: 'To appreciate art, we bring with us nothing from life. What is essential in art is only the "significant form"'
• Paul Cezanne: 'Artists need to look at nature and things only as forms made up of sphere, cylinders, cones'
• Wassily Kandinsky's theory of art

  Every work of art is the child of its age, art is born from the inner necessity of the artist in an enigmatic, mystical way through which it acquires an autonomous life and becomes an independent subject, animated by a spiritual breath
• Categories of Kandinsky's paintings

  • Impressions (retain some naturalistic representation)
  • Improvisations (convey deep emotions inspired by events of spiritual type)
  • Compositions (purely formal paintings done carefully over a period of time after preliminary studies)
• Kandinsky's view on color and sound

  Yellow is the color of middle C on a brassy trumpet, black is the color of closure and endings, combinations of colors produce vibrational frequencies, akin to chords played on a piano
• Purely formal music (form of classical music)

  • Cantata (sung/vocal music, becomes representational because of lyrics)
  • Sonata (instrumental music, only sound of musical instruments)
• Expressionism


  Transfer of artist's expression of emotions and ideas into an art
• Susanne Langer: 'Art is the creation of symbolic forms expressive of human feelings'
• Leo Tolstoy: 'Art is the objectification of emotion'
• Aristotle: 'Art is the expression of the artist's overflowing emotion (catharsis)'
• Benedetto Croce: 'Like language, art is the expression of idea by the artist (intuitionism)'
• Periods of classical music

  • Baroque (dramatic style with many decorative parts and details)
  • Classical (generally considered more serious than other kinds of music)
  • Romantic (characterized by an emphasis on subjective emotional qualities and freedom form)
• Aesthetic hedonism


  Beauty is pleasure and ugly is pain
• Aristippus and Epicurus: 'Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you die'
• Aesthetic functionalism


  Answers the question "What is it for?", person's feeling of need of an object which satisfies their needs
• Functionalism (Renaissance period) is about teaching catechism to people
• Architectural principle - form follows function, purpose of the use of the building is according to the shape, size, color, texture, and space
• Action theory of art

  Style of abstract expressionism by Jackson Pollock, process of putting, dripping, pouring, and splashing paints on the canvas
• Jackson Pollock: 'On the floor I am more at ease, I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be 'in' the painting'