Introductory Notes for ART APPRECIATION
Art appreciation refers to the pursuit of knowledge and
understanding of the universal and timeless qualities
characterizing works of art. The activity of “appreciation”
invokes understanding, criticism, analysis and synthesis of art
works based on the acknowledged elements of composition and
principles of design through which the study of art is greatly
enhanced.
The study of the arts significantly exposes students to the so
called “tradition of humanization” as it attempts:
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To provide students with a general perspective of art,
making them see and appreciate the arts from critically
informed perspectives;
To introduce students to visual arts (painting,
architecture, sculpture), auditory arts (music and
literature), and performing arts/theatre arts (drama and
dance) through the study of the types, medium, basic
elements and principles of organization of each form;
To familiarize APP students with some of the materials and
processes involved in the production of art;
To aid in the analysis of the formal structure of various
works of art considering the historical period and cultural
framework in which they were produced;
To promote the development of critical thinking in the
field of arts and in other academic areas which move in
consonance with the arts; and
To develop among APP students an awareness of the current
times and associate them with their cultural heritage,
thereby integrating the past and present.
With the many disposition of the arts, we pose the question:
“Why study the arts?”
There is a need to examine the place of the arts, the humanities
in general, when juxtaposed to the sciences. Science believes
that it could procure everything that man needed or wanted.
Consider their methodologies:
Natural Sciences – empirical and they employ the scientific
method
Social Sciences / Commercial Sciences / Technical Sciences –
statistical and they employ surveys of large populations as well
as empirical evidence
Humanities (the study of the arts) – neither empirical nor
statistical. The only methods we enjoy in art appreciation are
intuition, feeling, opinion, judgment, debate and criticism
Generalization: The sciences capitalize on methods that are
objective and fixed. The humanities draw its strength from
subjectivity, which is should not be seen as a weakness for the
field, but rather a ground to be further exposed to the so
called “tradition of humanization” – a avenue for diversity,
plurality, peculiarity and individualism – the individual /
human person becomes the champion.
The Artist and His Work / Art as a Silent Historian and Witness
and a Humanizing Agent
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The arts can tell us about how men thought and felt in the
historical period which produced them
The arts have seen the changing image of man as he journeys
across time, searches for the reality, and strives to
achieve the ideals that create life
Question: Why is art said to be the representation of the
individual genius of its creator?
One of the prominent definitions of art is that it is a record
of the particular vision of an artist. The artist has selected
something he has seen, felt, experience, and thought and has
recorded it in an arrangement of design, color, line, mass,
tones or words leading to the satisfaction of his aesthetic
purpose.
But the artist has also been influenced, consciously or
unconsciously, by other determining factor such as the
environment, traditions, national traits, religious beliefs,
economic condition, geography and climate.