Art App

• Art appreciation


  The exploration and analysis of the art forms that we are exposed to
• Art is mainly a product of human expression and it is part of our civilization to dig deeper and understand the traces of our existence – from personal to universal
• Humanities


  The branches of learning based on the philosophy and ethical perspective of humanism, which emphasizes the value of agency of human beings individually and collectively
• Aesthetics


  The study of beauty, from a Greek word "aesthesis" which means "sense of perception"
• Universal Signatures in Human aesthetics

  • Expertise or virtuosity
  • Nonutilitarian pleasure
  • Style
  • Criticism
  • Imitation
  • Special focus
• Values of Art

  • Intrinsic
  • Instrumental
• Immediate Intrinsic Benefits

  • Captivation – "imaginative flight"
  • Pleasure
  • Empathy
• Contribution to Public Spheres

  • Creation of social bonds
  • Expression of communal feeling
• Instrumental Values

  • Cognitive
  • Attitudinal or Behavioral
  • Health
  • Social
  • Economic
• Qualities of Art

  • The Skill of the Creator
  • Originality
  • The Uniqueness of the Creation
  • The Aesthetic Unity and Proportion of Simple and Complex Creations
  • The Durability of the Creation's Reputation
• Philosophy


  The quest to know, spurred by the love for truth
• Metaphysics


  The study of what is beyond the physical
• Immanuel Kant


  • Practical reason
• René Descartes


  • The proof of existence is the human capacity to think
• Baruch Spinoza


  • Affects and feelings matter
• Three primary kinds of affects

  • Pleasure or Joy (Laetitia)
  • Pain or Sorrow (Tristitia)
  • Desire (Cupiditas) or Appetite
• Blaise Pascal


  • He recognized the limits of reason. "The heart has reasons, which even the reason does not know."
• Transcendence


  Going beyond reason to the realm of the divine
• Philosophy is about what is attainable through human reason and theorizes what is attainable beyond reason
• Plato


  • First and seminal philosophy of art in the West
  • Proposed the concept of the World of Ideas and the World of Forms
  • Claims that what we see on earth, what is visible as natural forms are copies of the original in the World of Ideas
  • Thought of art as mimesis, that is, copying what we see in the World of Forms. Art keeps us away from the World of Ideas (the true reality)
• Apollonian Proportion


  The standard Greek statue was seven heads tall
• Golden ratio


  The ideal ratio that guided the artists and produced harmonious and pleasing effects
• Aristotle


  • Plato's disciple had a far more empirical approach to art
  • Finding form in what he encountered
  • Everything is composed of matter and form. They are called causes
• Aristotle's Causes


  • Material cause - the elements out of which an object is made
  • Formal cause - an expression of what an object is
  • Efficient cause - the means by which an idea is made
  • Final cause - the end or purpose why an object is made
• Attitudes towards art

  • Iconoclasts - against it
  • Iconodules - portrays god
• Giorgio Vasari


  • Artists featured were influenced by the spirit of genius
• Immanuel Kant


  • First had aesthetic questions that brought together the metaphysical and the psychological
  • Aesthetic judgment = moral judgment
• Four Moments of Aesthetic Judgement

  • Disinterested - unexplained beauty
  • Behaves Universally - agreements/disagreements
  • Purpose and purposiveness
  • Necessary - all agrees it is beautiful
• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

  • Art as a human experience and as an artifact must be understood from historical perspectives
• Thesis


  An intellectual proposition
• Antithesis


  Negation of the thesis
• Synthesis


  Solves the conflict between the thesis and antithesis by reconciling their common truths and forming a new proposition
• Karl Marx


  • Art is a reflection of the hierarchy in the society. Art celebrated kingship and the exploit of kings
  • Art celebrated the triumph of the Industrial Revolution. And art will also be used as a tool for social transformation
• Postmodernism


  Overarching explanations and systematizations are replaced by little narratives that accentuate difference, diversity, and paradox. Instead of building grand pictures, this approach to art emphasizes looking at art from a limited perspective
• Roland Barthes


  • An artwork is not as important in itself as art but as a document of social interaction
• philos - love

  sophia – wisdom
• trans : across

  ascendere: go up
• Marxism


  Critique and analyze capitalism, and a classless society
• Social classes in Marxism

  • Bourgeoisie - owns all means of production
  • Proletariat - wage earners, exploited workers
• Marxist Ideology


  • A theory about the primacy of economic distinctions and class struggle in the course of human events