PHILARTS 1

In a Nutshell: Critical Approaches to Art and Expressive Cultures

A. Formalist Approach and Semiotics

This approach is basically concerned with the formal properties of a work of art (i.e.
composition, line, color, form, etc.) and their relation to characteristics of a particular period style. In
using this approach, an art critic pursues a theme or meaning by focusing on how the artist utilizes
materials to create an artwork. This approach is usually used in analyzing abstract and non-
representational art as well as those that are produced by other cultures because these can be
approached in their own terms. It is commonly used in art studios and art appreciation courses.

Semiotics1 is the study of signs or representations whose meanings are beyond their literal
representations. Signs can come in visual or auditory form- as in language or sounds. Signs are
everywhere, not just in art. Semiotics offers a way to break an image into its constituent parts- its
signs, and trace how they relate to each other, and other systems of meaning

In semiotics the image itself is the focus and the most important site of meaning.2 The signs
in an image are analyzed into two parts, the signified and signifier. The signified is the concept or
thing the representation stands in for. The signifier is the representation. For example, in a
photograph with a baby in it— the baby is the signifier, and the signified could be youth, or the
future, or some other association that we make with the representation of a baby.

There are three basic types of signs: icon, index, and symbol. Icons bear a very close visual
relationship to the thing they represent. An icon of a woman might be a photograph of an actual
woman. An indexical sign points to the thing it represents or bears some relationship to the thing it
represents, but is one step removed. An example of an indexical sign of a woman is the simple
illustration of a woman that you find on restrooms designated for women. A symbol is arbitrary, and
bears no relation to the thing it represents. An example of a symbol for women is the circle/cross
shape that signifies the female gender.

Another example of a symbol is the American flag. If you were raised in America, you are
taught that it stands for the country America and national pride, and possibly other meanings like
freedom, but how the flag looks is arbitrary. It could just as easily have taken on some other graphic
representation, and still have been coded with those meanings, just like the flags of other countries
share a similar national significance in those other cultures.

B. Psychological Approach

This approach views a work of art as an artist’s personal expression. It focuses on the
biography of the artist and how the work reflects the artist’s personal history or personality.
Ideally, this approach considers the work of a novice or psychologically ill artists as important as any
other art. It utilizes the biography of the artist and how an art work depicts the artist’s personal
history or personality. It attributes the production and effect of a work to the artist’s psychological
state. It illustrates the influence of modern psychology on art and expressive culture. This approach
illustrates how the theoriesof noted psychologists like Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud on the
unconscious, sexual drives, repression, fears, and desires have found their way in art criticism.

According to lumenlearning.com, psychological criticism has a number of approaches, but it

usually employs one (or more) of three approaches:

1 This discussion on “Semiotics” is lifted directly from: https://

courses.lumenlearning.com/masteryart1/chapter/reading-the-fourth-level-of-meaning-
iconography/, accessed August 7, 2020.
2 Rose, Gillian. Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching Visual Materials.
Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2012, p. 108.

ELDimzon Page 1 of 4
 PHILARTS 1

1. An investigation of “the creative process of the artist: what is the nature of literary genius and
how does it relate to normal mental functions?”

2. The psychological study of a particular artist, usually noting how an author’s biographical
circumstances affect or influence their motivations and/or behavior.

3. The analysis of fictional characters using the language and methods of psychology.
One example of psychoanalytic criticism is the way people allude Vincent Van Gogh’s works
to his mental condition. When discussing Vincent van Gogh you will often hear people allude to his
mental state more than his actual artwork, experience, or career.3

C. Sociological Approach

This approach examines the socio-cultural, economic, and political context of an art
work. Sometimes it involves research on the artist’s society to better understand and critique
an art work. It usually views art as political and thus may either challenge or promote the status quo
and ultimately, can illuminate the political and economic dimensions of art that other approaches
may have overlooked. To Paul (2005), “art is Weltanschauung, or a window into the world through
which we can identify and explore the social contexts of artistic forms” and by extension, while
“artists may be gifted individuals driven by their own creative energies, they are also products of their
societies” (p. 3). Art can serve a number of functions in society: “as political ritual, as religious icon,
as commemoration (ibid., p. 5), as instrument for the dominant groups in creating and distributing
cultural products that bear ideas favorable to their interests (p. 6). Yet, on the other hand, art can also
be a means for the dominated to see the elite’s real intentions and may eventually be a vehicle for
liberation and social change (p. 7).

Under this approach, art is viewed as a social product involving an interactive network of art
dealers, artists, critics, gallery owners, clients, and the public. Also, art can be studied in terms of
the role they play in “people’s definition of who they are, of who they have been, and who they wish
to become” (Csikszentmihalyi and RochbergHalton in Paul 2005, p.10).

D. Historical Approach

This approach seeks to analyze an art work by focusing on the social, cultural, and
intellectual context of its production. This context refers to the artist’s biography and milieu. “Most
often, this is the time and place in which a work was created—typically we want to know why and by
whom it was made and how it originally functioned” (Glass, n.d., n.p.). The primary goal of this
approach is to understand the effect of an art work upon its original viewers. Analyzing an art work’s
function is made more complicated when one considers the motives of the people behind it. These
people may consist of the artists, the patrons who commissioned the work, and the advisors who
represent the patrons (ibid.). Subject matter is closely tied to the historical context of an art work so
that our understanding an art work is enriched by understanding its original historical context and the
meaning that it had for the artist and his/her milieu. For instance, Sastrawan’s mini-review of a
painting that alludes to the Sto. Nino de Cebu, refers to the inclusion of the Child Jesus in a “self-
consciously folksy artwork, is that it showed how the social resonance of this relic has changed
drastically since the 16th century” because from its being “originally a royal gift and miraculous
talisman for the deeply statist Spanish colonial project, the statue is now beloved as an object of
popular devotion by the citizens of an independent, postcolonial republic” (Sastrawan 2018, n.p.). In
this mini-review, Sastrawan points to the necessity of looking at the original historical context of the
significance of the statue of the Sto Nino de Cebu as an aid in understading the inclusion of the Sto.
Nino image in “Passion + Procession” by Renato Habulan which was among the exhibits in the 2018
Art Gallery of New South Wales' exhibition of contemporary Philippine art.

3 https://courses.lumenlearning.com/masteryart1/chapter/oer-1-15/, accessed
August 7, 2020.

ELDimzon Page 2 of 4
 PHILARTS 1

E. Cultural Materialism

Cultural materialism4 is one of the major anthropological perspectives for analyzing human
societies. It incorporates ideas from Marxism, cultural evolution, and cultural ecology. Materialism
contends that the physical world impacts and sets constraints on human behavior. The
materialists believe that human behavior is part of nature and therefore, it can be understood by
using the methods of natural science although they do not necessarily assume that material reality is
more important than mental reality. However, they give priority to the material world over the world of
the mind in explaining human societies. Adherents to cultural materialism refer to three levels of
social systems that constitute a universal pattern: 1) infrastructure, 2) structure, and 3)
superstructure. Infrastructure constitutes the basis for the other two levels and refers to the
fulfillment of basic needs and the interaction with the local environment. Structure constitutes a
society’s economic, social, and political organization, while superstructure refers to ideology and
symbolism. Marvin Harris, a cultural materialist, contends that the infrastructure is the most critical
aspect as it is here where the interaction between culture and environment occurs.
Cultural Materialism “seeks to explain cultural organization, ideology and symbolism within a
materialistic (Infrastructure/structure/superstructure) framework” and contends that “society
develops on a trial and error basis” whereby, “something not beneficial to a society's ability to
produce and/or reproduce, or causes production and/or reproduction to exceed acceptable limits, it
(sic) will disappear from society altogether” (allaboutphilosophy.org). Corollary to this, a cultural
materialist approach to art stresses the way by which an art work or expressive culture may
have been produced in ways that defined their material or economic relevance to society and
thus ensured their perpetuation. As Brannigan (1998) would have it, “cultural materialism aims to
show that our political and ideological systems manipulate images and texts of the past to serve
their own interests, and that these images and texts can be interpreted from alternative and radically
different perspectives, often constructed by placing those images or texts in their historical contexts”
(p. 119).
F. Anthropological Approach5

The anthropology of art overlaps with art history, aesthetics, material culture studies, and
visual anthropology. However, the anthropological approach to art is distinguished by its focus on
the social processes involved in making objects. So, whereas art historians might be interested in
the work and lives of named individuals, anthropologists of art are more concerned with the role and
status of the artist in the wider community. Another central concern of this branch of the discipline
has been to analyse the form and function of objects and to explore the relations between these and
aspects of the wider society.
Since the 1960s in particular, anthropologists have produced increasingly sophisticated
analyses of visual materials. More recently, closer attention has been paid to the different ideas of
aesthetic value in different societies. Increasing attention has also been paid to the ways in which
material objects made in one sphere come to have value in another. For example, there have been a
number of recent studies of the tourist and art markets as well as of the role of museums.

4 This paragraph was lifted directly from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/

culturalanthropology/chapter/cultural-materialism/, accessed August 7, 2020.
5 Text written by Dr. Jeremy Coote was directly lifted from https://
www.discoveranthropology.org.uk/about-anthropology/specialist-areas/anthropology-of-art.html,
accessed August 10, 2020.

ELDimzon Page 3 of 4
 PHILARTS 1

References

Brannigan, J. (1998). “New Historicism and Cultural Materialism.” New Historicism and Cultural
Materialism Today. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/
10.1007%2F978-1-349-26622-7_6, on August 17, 2020.

“Critical Modalities.” Retrieved from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/masteryart1/chapter/

oer-1-15/, on August 7, 2020.

Coote, J. “Anthropology of Art.” Retrieved from https://www.discoveranthropology.org.uk/about-

anthropology/specialist-areas/anthropology-of-art.html, on August 10, 2020.

“Cultural Materialism.” (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/cultural-

materialism.htm, on August 17, 2020.

Glass, R. “Introduction to Art Historical Analysis.” Retrieved from https://www.khanacademy.org/

humanities/ap-art-history/start-here-apah/intro-art-history-apah/a/introduction-to-art-
historical-analysis, on August 17, 2020.

Paul, J. (2005). “Art as Weltanschauung: An Overview of Theory in the Sociology of Art.” Retrieved
from https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20120904191859/http://www.sociology.org/content/
2005/tier2/the_sociology_of_art.pdf, accessed on August 10, 2020.

Sastrwan, W.J., (2018). “Historical Perspectives on Philippine Contemporary Art.” Retrieved from
https://www.newmandala.org/historical-perspectives-on-philippine-contemporary-art/, on
August 17, 2020.

“Semiotics.” Retrieved from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/masteryart1/chapter/reading-the-

fourth-level-of-meaning-iconography/, on August 7, 2020.

ELDimzon Page 4 of 4