Art Appreciation Reviewer

Elements and Principles of Art

Forms of Art:
1. Literary Arts – written mode
2. Visual Art – perceived by the eyes
a. Graphic Arts – 2d arts (flat arts)
b. Plastic Arts – 3d arts
3. Audio Visual Art – perceived by both ears and eyes

Elements of art:
1. Color – meaning, value, intensity, saturation; produced when light strikes an image
a. Hue – names we assign a color
b. Saturation – vividness of a color
c. Value – lightness or darkness of a color
Classification of colors:
1. Primary Colors – pure colors (red, blue, yellow)
2. Secondary Colors – combination of two primary colors (Green, Violet, Orange)
3. Intermediate Colors – mixing one primary and one secondary (Yellow-green, Red-
violet, Red-orange)
4. Tertiary Colors – combination of two secondary colors (orange + purple = russet;
Orange + green = citron; purple + green = olives)
2. Line – One or two dimensional art; indicates direction, orientation, movement, and
energy
a. Solid Lines – to define forms
b. Broken Lines – to suggest hidden forms
Direction of Line:
1. Vertical line – basic framework; power, strength, stability, simplicity, and efficiency
2. Horizontal line – impression of serenity and perfect stability; rest, calmness, peace,
reposed
3. Diagonal line – movement and instability; movement action
4. Jagged line – violence, zigzag, confusion, conflict
5. Curved – gradual change of direction and fluidity; subtle form
3. Form – shape and perceived volume; 3d figure
a. Shape – expression of content
b. Technique – personal ways of handling tools to form shapes
c. Material – substance; what is manipulated in a distinct technique
4. Space – foreground, background, middle ground
a. Positive Space – focal objects
b. Negative Space – empty space
Two types of perspective:
1. Atmospheric – utilizes the properties of light and air in depicting the illusion of
distance
2. Linear – use of vanishing points and receding hidden lines
5. Texture – smoothness, ruggedness of the image
a. Real – can be felt
b. Implied – artificial
6. Shape and Mass – with boundaries identified; drawn using lines
a. Organic Shape – natural or living forms; irregular
b. Geometric shape – measured forms
Principles of art:
1. Emphasis – developing points of interest; important parts
2. Balance – sense of stability; creating a feeling of equal weight
3. Harmony – using similar elements; gives an uncomplicated look
4. Variety – differences in the work; shapes, textures, colors, and values
5. Movement – adds excitement by showing action; directing viewer's eye
6. Rhythm – repeating of shapes and colors; alternating lights and darks
7. Proportion or scale – sense of size seen as a relationship of objects; smallness or
largeness
8. Unity – all the parts equal as a whole; not disjointed or confusing

Assumptions of Art: Functionalism, Action Theory, Institutional Theory

Functionalism Theory of Art – practical function or purpose

- Ancient Greeks

Louis Sullivan – art's form follows function

Reduction Thesis – aesthetics are unnecessary; aesthetics will be automatically taken care of if
function is dealt with adequately
- Austere Functionalism

Functions of art
1. Personal Function – artist's perspective or the one who perceive the artwork itself;
expression
2. Physical Function – created to fulfill a certain task of function
3. Social Function – addresses aspects of collective life; socio-political conditions

Monetary Value of Art – material value of artworks

Institutional Theory of Art – institutional context of the 'artworld'; museums,

universities/academies

Criticism on Institutional Theory:

Catherine Lord (professor and art critic)
a. If a work of art is institutional, then practice of making works of art is conservative
b. If conservative, then institutional precludes creativity
c. Freedom, creativity, originality, spontaneity
d. A work of art is not to be defined as institutions, universities/academies, galleries,
and critics

George Dickie – 'institution' as an established, continuing traditional practice; complete with a

unique history

Action Theory of Art – artist's action/gestures that create the work of art

Action Painting (Abstract Expressionism) – gestural painting (vigorous sweeping application of

paint); physical act of painting showing the emotion of the artist

Harold Rosenberg – coined the term Action Painting in 1952; not a picture but an event
Art of Painting – process of putting, dripping, pouring, splashing paints on the canvas

Jackson Pollock – action painting (drip technique); frenetic dancing style

Sand Painting – art of pouring sands and powdered pigments

Drypainting – unfixed sand paintings; ritual paintings prepared for religious or healing
ceremonies

Art History: Western Art

Classical Art – Greece and Rome; cornerstone of Western Civilization

Greek Culture – Philip  Alexander the Great (Son)  Aristotle (Teacher)

- Hellenistic Age

Roman – forced to fight for survival

Carthage – rival of roman

Sicily – first overseas province of Rome

Roman art – copied from the greeks

- Heirs of greek art

The Medieval Period

Middle Ages – dark ages for art

- Parliamentary government
- Common law
- Present-day languages
- Modern nation states
– age of faith
a. Early Medieval
a. Carolingian Dynasty
b. Feudalism
c. Monasticism
b. Romanesque
a. Castles
c. Gothic – did not hold the standards of ancient Greek and Roman art.

Stained Glass – bring to mind the beautifully colored illuminations found in Medieval
manuscripts
a. Size. Cathedrals
b. Color. Minerals added
c. Design

Renaissance Art – sought to capture experience of the individual and the beauty and mystery
of the natural world

Pertrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio – revival of ancient Greece and Rome

Giotto – most famous artist of the proto-Renaissance; human body realistically
- Cathedrals at Assisi, Rome, Padua, Florence, and Naples

Lorenzo Ghiberti – designed a new set of bronze doors for the Baptistery of the cathedral of
Florence

Filippo Brunelleschi and Donatello – master of early renaissance sculpture

Masaccio – Trinity in the Church of Santa Maria Novella and in the Brancacci Chapel of the
Church of Santa Maria del Carmine

Lorenzo de' Medici – "The Magnificent" for his strong leadership and support of the arts

Rome – displaced Florence as the principal center of Renaissance art (Pope Leo X – son of
Medici)

Leonardo da Vinci – Renaissance man

- Mona Lisa
- The Virgin of the Rocks
- The Last Supper

Michelangelo Buonarroti – dominant sculptor of the High Renaissance

- Pietà in St. Peter's Cathedral
- David (from enormous marble block)
- Fresco at Sistine Chapel

Raphael Sanzio – The School of Athens (beauty, serenity, and harmony)

Giorgione and Titian – developed a method of painting in oil directly on canvas (Oil Painting)

Jan van Eyck – masterful altarpiece in the cathedral at Ghent

Giorgio Vasari – author of "Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects"

Industrial Revolution – rapid change took place in manufacturing, transport and technology
- Photography
- Impressionism
John Rand – collapsible tin paint tube

Impressionism – impressions is the gound of the artists in actualizing their perception of the
world.

Charles Baundelaire – The Painter of Modern Life: "Modernity is the transitory, the fugitive, the
contingent." (1860)

Claude Monet – Impression: Sunrise (gave birth to impressionism)

Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Le Moulin de la Galette (1876)  Parisian Dance Hall

Fauvism – to develop an art having directness of Impressionism but with use of intense color
for expressive ends

Critic Louis Vauxcelles – described artists as wild beasts (fauves)

Henri Matisse – believed that color could play a primary role in conveying meaning

Expressionism – the use of bold and striking color (German Expressionists)

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner – bridge between the old and the new; focused on negative effects of
industrialization and alienation of individuals (die brücke group)

Vassily Kandinsky – produced paintings that captures the artist's feelings in visual form; eliciting
visceral message (der blaue reiter)
- One of the first artists to explore complete abstraction in paintings
(Improvisations)

Surrealism – to unlock the power of our imagination; reuniting conscious and unconscious
realms of experience

Andre Breton – surrealist manifesto. "an absolute reality, a surreality"

Sigmund Freud – concept of unconscious (origin of the imagination)

Pop Art – to haze the boundaries between high art and low culture; commercial art

Art History: Eastern Art

Ancient Chinese Art – stylistic unity unparalleled in any other culture.

Han Dynasty – produced outstanding metalwork, ceramics, and sculpture.

Song Dynasty – idyllic landscape and nature painting

Japanese Art – influenced by China and Korea; represented nature from a more spiritual
perspective rather than scientific realism

Zen Buddhism and Minimalism – the less is beautiful

- The lesser the possessions, the lesser the suffering (Living a simple life)

Southeast Asian Art and Architecture

- Indigenous traditions, China, and India (Indochina)

Buddhist Archaeology – associated with rivers, ancient coastlines, and trade routes by land and
water

Buddhist Art – Buddha Sakyamuni (philosophy that seeks enlightenment)

Indian Art – India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh; can be seen in the British Museum, in Victoria and
Albert Museum, and in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Hindu Art – originated in India
- Ajanta caves,
- Lingaraj Temple,
- Red Sandstone,
- Bhubaneswar,
- Khajuraho Group of Monuments,
- Sanstone,
- Khajuraho (Madhya Pradesh)

Vedas – earliest sacred texts

Gautama Buddha and Maitreya – seated in pipal tree and asoka tree

Western Gateway (torana) of the Great Stupa – Early Period

- Pillar capitals depict four yajsga-like figures

Aboriginal Art – Art of the Australian Aborigines

- Traditionally, religious, and ceremonial
- Portraying stories of the dreamtime

Philippine Art
Philippine Contemporary Aesthetics by Alice G. Guillermo

Aesthetics – philosophy of art

Art – (1) socially and historically situated; (2) has its specificity, language and vocabulary

Baranganic Societies – highly communal in nature and based on kinship ties; start of traditional
arts

Animism – natural world and spirit world are in continuous interaction

Okir designs – curvilinear lines and shapes

Horror vacui – sense of space which the entire space is covered with figures

San Isidro Maytime Festival – the entire facades of houses are covered with kiping

Kiping – thin and leaf-shaped rice flour wafers

Curvilinear lines – convey grace, suppleness, sweetness, and harmonious interplay

Rectilinear lines – convey discipline, order, formality

Siquieros, Orozco, and Rivera – models in achieving national identity in contemporary

expression

Visual Form:
1. Semiotic plane – physical aspect of the work as a visual text
2. Mimetic plane – figurative art; deals with the manner of presentation of the image itself
3. Thematic plane – themes, references and allusions,
Issues and Discourse – Authorship

Notion of the author - point of attribution

Authorship – point of origin in dominant discourse; style or signature

Roland Barthes – epitome and culmination of capitalist ideology; the very meaning or value of
the work resides in the person of the author

Susan Sontag – criticizes the dependence to the artist

Mimesis – imitation of reality; Plato

Transparence – highest, most liberating value in art; experiencing the luminousness of the thing
in itself