Republic of the Philippines

AURORA STATE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
BALER, AURORA

MODULE 1:
Introduction to Art Appreciation

Educational objectives of the chapter:

At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to:
1. Understand the role of humanities and arts in man’s attempt at fully
realizing his end;
2. Clarify misconceptions on art
3. Characterize the assumptions of arts; and
4. Engage better with personal experiences of /and on art.

Discussion:
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 many form and opportunities for
communion with the arts, a bank manager choosing what tie to wear together with his shirt and
shoes, a politician shuffling her music track while comfortably seated on her car looking for her
favorite song, a student marveling at the intricate designs of a medieval cathedral during his field
trip, and a market vendor cheering for her bet in a dance competition on a noontime TV program
all manifest concern for values that are undeniably, despite tangentially, artistic.
Despite the seemingly overflowing instances of arts around people, one still finds the
needs to see more and experience more, whether consciously or unconsciously. One whose
exposure to music is only limited to one genre finds it lacking not to have been exposed to more.
One whose idea of a cathedral is limited to the locally available ones, finds enormous joy in
seeing other prototypes in Europe. Plato had the sharpest foresight when he discussed in the
Symposium that beauty, the object of any love, truly progress. As one moves through life, one
locates better, more beautiful objects of desire (Scott, 2000). One can never be totally content
with what is just before him. Human beings are drawn toward what is good and ultimately,
beautiful.
This lesson is about this yearning for the beautiful, the appreciation of the all-consuming
beauty around us, and some preliminary clarifications on assumptions that people normally hold
about art.

1 I Module in Art Appreciation

By: MS. MARJORIE J. RUZOL, 2nd Semester, SY 2020-2021
Republic of the Philippines
AURORA STATE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
BALER, AURORA

ACTIVITY 1

In the first column of the table below, list down your most striking encounters with arts
the most memorable at least three(3) example. On the second column, explain how is your
encounter in art, what do you feel when you experience art.
My Encounters with Arts My Experience with art

Why Study the Humanities?

For as long as man existed in this planet, he has cultivated the land, altered the conditions
of the fauna and the flora, in order to survive. Alongside these necessities, mas also marked his
place in the world through his works. Through his bare hands, man constructed infrastructures
that tended to his needs, like his house. He sharpened swords and spears. He employed fire in
order to melt gold. The initial meaning of the word “art” has something to do with all these craft.
Art – comes from the ancient Latin, ars which means a “craft or specialized form of skill, like
carpentry or smithying or surgery” (Collingwood, 1938). Art then suggested the capacity to
produce an intended result from carefully planned steps or method. When 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. The ancient world did not have any
conceived notion of art in the same way that we do now. To them, art only meant using the bare
hands to produce something that will be useful to one’s day-to-day life. (like building house).
Ars 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
Renaissance Period the word reacquired a meaning that was inherited in its ancient’s form of
craft. It was during the 17th century when the problem and aesthetic, the study of beauty, began to
unfold distinctly from the notion of technical workmanship, which was the original conception of
the word “art”. It was finally in the 18th century when the word has evolved to distinguish
between the fine arts and the useful arts. The fine arts would come to mean “not delicate or
highly skilled arts, but ‘beautiful’ arts” (Collingwood, 1938). This is something more akin to
what is now considered art.

2 I Module in Art Appreciation

By: MS. MARJORIE J. RUZOL, 2nd Semester, SY 2020-2021
Republic of the Philippines
AURORA STATE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
BALER, AURORA

“The humanities constitute one of the oldest and the most important means of expression
developed by man” ( Dudley et al., 1960). Human history has 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 has
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. In 1879, a Spaniard and his daughter were exploring a cave when
they saw pictures of a wild boar, hind and bison. According to experts, these paintings were
purported to belong to upper Paleolithic Age, several thousands of years before the current era.
Pre-historic men, with their crude instruments, already showcased and manifested earliest
attempts at recording man’s innermost interest, preoccupations, and thoughts. The humanities,
then ironically, have started even before the term has been coined. Human persons have long
been exercising what it means to be human long before he was even aware of his being one. The
humanities stand tall in bearing witness to this magnificent phenomenon. Any human person,
then, is tasked to participate, if not, totally partake in this long tradition of humanizing himself.
Assumptions of Art
Art is Universal.
Literature has provided key works of art. Among the most popular ones being taught in
school are 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. 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 a long time ago. This is a
misconception. Age is not a factor in determining art. An “… art is not good because it is old, but
old because it is good” (Dudley et al.., 1960). In the Philippines, the works of Jose Rizal and
Francisco Balagtas are not being read because they are old. Otherwise, works of other Filipinos
who have long died would have been required in junior high school too. The pieces mentioned
are read in school and have remained to be with us because they are good. They are liked and
adored because they meet our needs and desires. Florante at Laura never fails to teach high
school students the beauty of love, one that is universal and pure. Ibong Adarna another
masterpiece, has always captured the imagination of the young with its timeless lessons. When
we recite Psalms, we feel in Communication with King David as we feel one with him in his
conversation with God. When we listen to kundiman or perform folk dances, we still enjoy the
way our Filipino ancestors whiled away their time in the past. We do not necessarily like a
kundiman for its original meaning. We just like it. We enjoy it. Or just as one of the characters in
the movie Bar Boys thought, Kundiman makes one concentrate better.

3 I Module in Art Appreciation

By: MS. MARJORIE J. RUZOL, 2nd Semester, SY 2020-2021
Republic of the Philippines
AURORA STATE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
BALER, AURORA

The first assumption about the humanities is that art has been crafted by all people
regardless of origin, time, place, and that it stayed on because it is like and enjoyed by people
continuously. A great piece of work will never be obsolete. Some people say that art is art for its
intrinsic worth. In John Staurt Mill’s Utilitarianism (1879), enjoyment in the art belongs to a
higher good, one that lies at the opposite end of base pleasures. The art will always be present
because human beings will always express themselves and delight in these expressions. Men will
continue to use art while art persists and never gets depleted.
Art is not 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. These
critical minds argue that a good movie must reflect reality as closely as possible. Is that so?
Paul Cezanne, a French painter, painted a scene from reality entitled Well and Grinding
Wheel in the Forest of the Château Noir. The said scene is inspired by a real scene in a forest
around the Château Noir area near Aix in Cezanne’s native Provence. Comparing the two, one
can see that Cezanne’s landscape is quite different form the original scene. Cezanne has changed
some patterns and details from the way they were actually in the photograph. What he did is not
natural. It is art.
One important characteristics of art is that it is not nature. Art is man’s expression of his
reception of nature. Art is man’s way of interpreting nature. Art is not nature. Art is made by
man, whereas nature is given around us. It is juncture that they can be considered opposites.
What we find in nature should not be expected to be present in art too. Movies are not meant to
be directed representation of reality. They may, according to the moviemaker’s perception of
reality, be a reinterpretation or even distortion of nature.
This distinction assumes that all us see nature, perceives its element in myriad, different,
yet ultimately valid ways. One can only imagine the story of five blind men who one day argue
against each other on what an elephant looks like. Each of the five men was holding a different
part of the elephant. The first was touching the body thus, thought the elephant was like a wall.
Another was touching the ear and was convinced that the elephant was like a fan. The rest was
touching other different parts of the elephant and concluded differently based on their perception.
Art is like each of these men’s view of the elephant. It is based on an individual’s subjective
experienced of nature. It is not meant, after all, to accurately define what the elephant is really
like in nature. Artist are not expected to duplicate nature just as even scientist with their
elaborate laboratories cannot make nature.
Once this point has been made, a student of humanities can ask further questions such as:
what reasons might the artist have in creating something? Why did Andres Bonifacio write “Pag-
bibig sa Tinubuang Lupa”? What motivation did Juan Luna have in creating his masterpiece, the

4 I Module in Art Appreciation

By: MS. MARJORIE J. RUZOL, 2nd Semester, SY 2020-2021
Republic of the Philippines
AURORA STATE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
BALER, AURORA

Spoliarium? In whatever work of art, one should always ask why the artist made it. What is it
that he wants to show?
Art involves experience.
Getting this far without satisfactory definition of art can be quite weird for some. For
most people, art does not require a full definition. Art is just experience. By experience, we mean
the “actual doing of something” (Dudley et al., 1960). When one says that he has an experience
on something, he often means that he knows what that something is about. When one claims that
he has experienced falling in love, getting hurt, and bouncing back he in effect claims that he
knows the (sometimes) endless cycle of loving. When one asserts knowing how the recipe is
made. Knowing a thing is different from hearing from others what he said things is. A radio DJ
dispensing advice on love when he himself has not experienced it does not really know what he
is talking about. A choreographer who cannot execute a dance step himself is a bogus. Art is
always an experience. Unlike fields of knowledge that involved data, art is known by
experiencing. A sculptor cannot produce a work of art if a chisel is foreign to him. Dudley et al.
(1960) affirmed that “all art depends on experienced, and if one is to know art, he must know it
not as fact or information but as experience.”
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. In matter of art, the subject’s
perception is of primacy. One can read hundreds of views about a particular movie, but at the
end of the day, until he sees the movie himself, he will be in no position to talk about the movie.
He does not know the movie until he experienced it. An important aspect of experiencing the art
is its being highly personal, individual, and subjective. In philosophical terms, perception of art
is always a value of judgement. It depends on who the perceiver is, his taste, his bias, and what
he has inside him. One cannot argue with another person’s evaluation of art because one’s
experience can never be known by another. Finally, one should also underscore that every
experience with art is accompanied by some emotion. One either likes or dislikes, agrees or
disagrees that a work of art is beautiful. With experience comes emotions and feelings, after all.
Feelings and emotions are concrete proof that the artwork has been experienced.

5 I Module in Art Appreciation

By: MS. MARJORIE J. RUZOL, 2nd Semester, SY 2020-2021
Republic of the Philippines
AURORA STATE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
BALER, AURORA

ACTIVITY 2

Answer the Following question in your own words as precisely yet as thoroughly as possible.

1. If you were an artist, what kind of artist would you be?

2. Why is art not nature?

3. Why is art ageless and timeless?

3. Why does art involve experience?

6 I Module in Art Appreciation

By: MS. MARJORIE J. RUZOL, 2nd Semester, SY 2020-2021
Republic of the Philippines
AURORA STATE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
BALER, AURORA

ACTIVITY 3

Choose one (1) artwork under each given category that you are familiar with. This can be the last
artwork that you come across with or the one that made the most impact to you. Criticize each
using the guide questions provided.
CATEGORIES:
1. Movie
2. Novel
3. Poem
4. Music
5. An architectural structure
6. A piece of clothing
CATEGORY: _________________________
Artwork: _____________________________

1. What is it about? What is it for?

2. What is it made of?

7 I Module in Art Appreciation

By: MS. MARJORIE J. RUZOL, 2nd Semester, SY 2020-2021
Republic of the Philippines
AURORA STATE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
BALER, AURORA

3. What is its style?

4. How good is it?

8 I Module in Art Appreciation

By: MS. MARJORIE J. RUZOL, 2nd Semester, SY 2020-2021