Art appreciation

by
dr. froilan d. mobo, friedr
Associate professor 2
 What is Art: Introduction and
Assumptions

✣ Art is something that is

perennially around us. Some
people may deny having to do
with the arts but it is
indisputable that life presents us
with may forms of and
opportunities for communion with
the arts.
✣ The word “art” comes from the ancient
arts which means a “craft” or
specialized form skill, like carpentry
smithying or surgery.
✣ 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.
✣ Early Renaissance artists saw their
activities merely as craftmanship,
devoid of a whole lot of intonations
that are attached to aesthetics.
✣ Human history has witnesses how man
evolved not just physically but also
culturally, from cave painters to men
of exquisite paintbrush users of the
present.
✣ The cave, discovered by a hunter in 1868, was
visited in 1876 by Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, a
local nobleman. He returned in 1879 to excavate
the floor of the cave’s entrance chamber,
unearthing animal bones and stone tools. On one
visit in the late summer, he was accompanied by
his eight-year-old daughter, Maria, who first
noticed the paintings of bison on the ceiling of a
side chamber. Convinced of the antiquity of the
paintings and the objects, Sanz de Sautuola
published descriptions of his finds in 1880.
 Assumptions of Art

✣ Literature has provided key works or art.

Among the most popular ones taught in
school are the two Greek epics, the lliad and
the Odyssey. The Sanskrit pieces
Mahabharata and Ramayana 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 been passed on,
known, and sung throughout the years.
✣ In every country and in every generation,
there is always art. Oftentimes, people feel
what is considered artistic are only those
which have been made long time ago.
✣ In the Philippines, the works of Jose Rizal and
Francisco Balagtas are not being read
because they are old. Florante at Laura
never fails to teach high school students the
beauty of love, one that is universal and
pure.
 Art is not a nature

✣ In the Philippines, it is not entirely

novel to hear some consumers of local
movies remark that these movies
produced locally are unrealistic. They
contend that local movies work around
certain formula to the detriment of
substance and faithfulness to reality of
the movies.
✣ Paul Cezanne, a French painter, painted a
scene from reality entitled Well and Grinding
Wheel in the Forest of the Chateau Noir. The
said scene is inspired by a real scene in
forest around the Chateau Noir area near
Alix in Cezanne’s native provence.
✣ These distinction assumes that all if us sees
nature, perceive its elements in myriad,
different, yet ultimately valid ways.
 Art involves experience

✣ Getting this far without a satisfactory

definition of art can be quite weird for
some. For some people, art does not
require a full definition. Art is just
experience. By experience, we mean
the “actual doing of something”. When
one says that he has an experience of
something, he often means that he
knows what that something is about.
✣ A work of art then cannot be
abstracted from actual doing. In order
to know what an artwork is, we have to
sense it, see or hear it. And see and
hear it. Finally one should also
underscore that every experience with
art is accompanied by some emotion.