What is Art?

Art is something that is perennially around us.

The word art comes from the Latin word arts which means a "craft or specialized form of skill like carpentry or smithing
or surgery" (Collingwood, 1938). Art then suggested the capacity to produce an intended result from carefully planned
steps or methods. When a man wants to build a house, he plans meticulously to get to what the prototype promises,
and he executes the steps to produce the said structure then he is engaged in art. To the Ancient World, art only meant
using the bare hands to produce something that will be useful to one's day-to- day life.

Arts in Medieval Latin came to mean something different. It meant "any special form of book-learning, such as grammar
or logic, magic or astrology
(Collingwood, 1938). During the Renaissance Period that the word reacquired a meaning that was inherent in its ancient
form of craft. Early Renaissance

Art Tree
Art is composed of two sections: Visual art which is comprised of painting.
sculpture, and architecture.
The performing art comprised music, theatre, dance, and literature.

ART as a Language
Is charged with feelings and significance, the desire to create a universal language.
art is the universal language that speaks to all people and is able to evoke emotions, ideas and
thoughts. Living in a world where written and spoken language is the primary form of
communication, society has come to rely on theirvoices to communicate their ideas, feelings
and emotions.
Concerns itself with the communication of certain ideas and feelings by means of a SENSUOUS
MEDIUM like color, sound, marble, words, and film.
(Art is creative self-expression, and the people who create these things are all
expressing themselves, be it by building things, drawing, writing, singing, or anything.
All of the things you can see in everyday life are art.
(Art is structured like a language
Language is a tool we use to communicate with one another and to express our
emotions and thoughts. Through the language of art we can also communicate and
evoke response within the viewer.

These sensuous mediums are fashioned into symbolic language marked by the beauty of
design and coherence in form.
These symbols appeal to our mind, arouse our emotions, kindle our imagination, and enchant
our senses.

Language is not only verbal it can also be sign language and symbols. For a deaf
person symbols and sign language give meaning and mental form from which he relies
on to create his art.

Essentially, Art is a form of expression for the creator and hence open to interpretation and
comprehension in the audience, based on their experience and understanding capabilities.
WHAT ARE THE COMPONENTS OF ART?
 Composed of an ARTIST who exhibits exceptional talents or skills in music,
design, drawing or writing; and
 The PERFORMER who interprets the art.

What is Creativity?
The act of a person through imaginary makes something new such as a product, a solution, or a work of art that has
value.
Creative artist- this artist does not simply copy or imitate another artist's work.
he/she does not imitate the lines, flaws, colors, and patterns in recreating nature.
it means that creativity stands for originality.
Jean-Paul Sartre- is a famous French philosopher of the twentieth century, he described the role of art as a creative
work that depicts the world in a completely different light and perspective and the source is due to human freedom.

What is Imagination?
It is one able to craft something bold, something new, and something better in the hopes of creating something that will
stimulate change.
Albert Einstein- a German physicist who made significant and major contributions in science and humanity
demonstrates that imagination is more important than knowledge. He said that " knowledge is limited, imagination
encircles the world"

Humanities?
Humanities from the Latin word HUMANUS means human, cultured, and refined.
The humanities constitute one of the oldest and most important means of expression developed by man (Dudley et al,
1960)

Human history witnessed how man evolved not just physically but also culturally from cave painters to men of exquisite
paintbrush users of the present. Even if one goes back to the time before written records of man's civilization have
appeared, he can find cases of man's attempts of not just crafting tools to live and survive but also expressing his
feelings and thoughts. The Galloping Wild Boar found in the cave of Altamira; Spain is one such example.

Cave Paintings

Art is Universal.
What is Literature?
Literature comes from the Latin word "Litera" which literally means an acquaintance with letters, the root definition of
literature. It is a body of literary productions, either oral, written, or visual, containing imaginative language that
realistically portrays thoughts, emotions, and experiences of the human
condition.

Literature is a language in use that provides insights and intellectual stimulation to the reader. As one explores
literature, he likewise discovers the beauty of language. Among the most popular ones being taught in school are the
two Greek epics, the liad, and the Odyssey. The Sanskrit pieces Mahabharata and Rayamana are also staples in this field.
These works, purportedly written before the beginning of recorded history, are believed to be man's attempt at
recording stories and tales that have passed on, known, and sung throughout the years. Art has always been timeless
and universal, spanning generations and continents through and through.

In every country and in every generation, there is always art. Oftentimes, 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. Art is not
good because it is old, but old because it is good (Dudley et al, 1960).
Some Filipino works have been required in school.

Florante at Laura
Ibong Adarna
El Filibusterismo
Noli Me Tangere

Art is not Nature.

One important characteristic of art is that it is not nature. Art is man's expression of his reception of nature. Art is not
nature. Art is made by man, whereas nature is a given around us. It is at this juncture that they can be considered
opposites. What we are found in nature should not be expected to be present in art too.

Well and Grinding Wheel in the Forest

Art is like each men's view of the elephant. It is based on an individual's subjective experience of nature. It is not meant,
after all, to accurately define what the elephant is really like in nature. Artists are not expected to duplicate nature just
as even scientists with their elaborate laboratories cannot make nature.

INVOLVES Experience.
Art is just experience. By experience, we mean the actual doing of something (Dudley et al, 1960). When some says that
he has an experience of something, he often means that he knows what that something is about. Knowing a thing is
different from hearing from others what the said thing is. Art is always an experience. Unlike fields of knowledge that
involve data, art is known by experiencing. Dudely et al. (1960) affirmed that "art depends on experience, and if
one to know art, he must know it not as fact or information but as experience" Art is present in every part of the globe
and in every period time. This is what is meant by its universality. Art not being nature, not even attempting to is mirror
nature, is the second assumption about art. Art is always a creation artist, not nature. Finally, without experience, there
is no art. The artist must be foremost, a perceiver who is directly in touch with art.
Art as Expression
Robin George Collingwood, an English philosopher who is best known for his work in aesthetics, explained in his
publication The Principle of Art (1938) that what an artist does to emotion is not to induce it, but express it. Through
expression, he can explore his own emotions and at the same time, create something beautiful out of them.
Collingwood further illustrated that expressing emotions is something different from describing emotions. The
expression on the other hand individualizes. Artist has the freedom to express himself the way he wants to.
Hence, there is no specific technique in expression.

There are countless ways of expressing oneself through art. The following list includes, but not popular art expressions.
 Visual Arts
 Film
 Performance Art
 Poetry Performance
 Architecture
 Dance
 Literary Art
 Theatre

In viewing art, there are clues that mediate between the artwork and the viewer, allowing the viewer to
comprehend more easily what he is seeing.

These clues are the three basic components of a work of art:

Subject – the visual focus or the image that may be extracted from examining the artwork; the “what”.
Content – the meaning that is communicated by the artist or the artwork; the “why”.
Form – the development and configuration of the artwork – how the elements and the medium or material are put
together; the “how”.

REPRESENTATIONAL ART

These types of art have subjects that refer to objects that refer to objects or events occurring in the real world.
It also termed figurative art because the figures depicted are easy to make out and decipher.
Despite not knowing who Mona Lisa is, the painting is of a woman that is realistically proportioned.

Only the upper torso is shown.

A beguiling and mysterious smile is flashed.
The background is a landscape.
NON-REPRESENTATIONAL ART

Art forms that do not make a reference to the real world, whether it is a person, place, thing, or even a particular
event.

It is stripped down to visual elements, such as shapes, lines, and colors that are employed to translate a particular
feeling, emotion, and even concept.

NON-REPRESENTATIONAL ART AND ABSTRACT ART

Is non-representational art the same as abstract art? There is no clear-cut divide, rather, they exist in a spectrum.

Non- representational art Abstract art Representational art

 Looking at the combination of lines, shapes, and colors of the sculpture will point to a head of a woman. Even with
the abstraction of the image, this work is arguably representational art.

emotion, or concept behind the work.

For representational art, it is easier to infer the subject matter because, from the figures
depicted in the artwork, there is already a suggestion as to its implication.
 Sources of Subject

o
 Nature
 History
 Greek and Roman mythology
 Judeo-Christian tradition
 Sacred oriental texts
 Other works of art
Kinds of Subject

o
 History
 Still life
 Animals
 Figures
 Nature
 Landscape
 Seascape
 Cityscape
 Mythology
 Myth
 Dreams
 Fantasies
The meaning or message that is expressed or communicated by the artwork. In understanding the content of art, it
is important to note that there are various levels of meaning:

Factual meaning.

The most rudimentary level of meaning for it may be extracted from the identifiable or recognizable forms in the
artwork and understanding how these elements relate to one another.

Conventional meaning

Pertains to the acknowledged interpretation of the artwork using motifs, signs, and symbols, and other ciphers as
bases of its meaning.

These conventions are established through time, strengthened by recurrent use and wide acceptance by its viewers
or audience and scholars who study them.

Subjective meaning

When subjectivities are consulted, a variety of meanings may arise when a particular work of art is read.

These meanings stem from the viewer’s or audience’s circumstances that come into play when engaging with art
(what we know, what we learned, what we experienced; what values we stand for)

The meaning may not be singular, rather, multiple and varied.