Art Appreciation

Art is a diverse range of human activities and the products of those activities; this article
focuses primarily on the visual arts, which includes the creation of images or objects in fields
including painting, sculpture, print making, photography, and other visual media. Architecture is
often included as one of the visual arts; however, like the decorative arts, it involves the creation
of objects where the practical considerations of use are essentialin a way that they usually are
not in a painting, for example. Music, theatre, film, dance, and other performing arts, as well as
literature and other media such as interactive media, are included in a broader definition of art
or the arts
An art form is the specific shape, or quality an artistic expression takes. The media used
often influence the form. For example, the form of a sculpture must exist in space in three
dimensions, and respond to gravity. The constraints and limitations of a particular medium are thus
called its formal qualities. To give another example, the formal qualities of painting are the canvas
texture, color, and brush texture. The formal qualities of video games are non-linearity, interactivity
and virtual presence. The form of a particular work of art is determined by the formal qualities of the
media, and is not related to the intentions of the artist or the reactions of the audience in any way
whatsoever as these properties are related to content rather than form
A genre is a set of conventions and styles within a particular medium. For instance, well
recognized genres in film are western, horror and romantic comedy. Genres in music include death
metal and trip hop. Genres in painting include still life and pastoral landscape. A particular work of art
may bend or combine genres but each genre has a recognizable group of conventions, clichs and
tropes. (One note: the word genre has a second older meaning within painting; genre painting was a
phrase used in the 17th to 19th centuries to refer specifically to paintings of scenes of everyday life
and is still used in this way.)
The style of an artwork, artist, or movement is the distinctive method and form followed by
the respective art. Any loose brushy, dripped or poured abstract painting is called expressionistic.
Often a style is linked with a particular historical period, set of ideas, and particular artistic
movement.

Ethymology The word art is rooted from the 13 th century French word art which
means skills. The same root of the following words that is equivalent to human creativeness:
1. Artificial made by human beings
2. Inert having no skills.
3. Artisan instructor or master of a human skill

Importance of Arts:
1. They are languages that all people speak that cut across racial, cultural,

social,

educational,

and

economic

barriers

and

enhance

cultural

appreciation and awareness.

2. They provide opportunities for self-expression, bringing the inner world
into the outer world of concrete reality
3. They provide opportunities for self-expression, bringing the inner world
into the outer world of concrete reality
4. They develop both independence and collaboration
5. They make it possible to use personal strengths in meaningful ways and
to bridge into understanding sometimes difficult abstractions through
these strengths
6. They improve academic achievement -- enhancing test scores, attitudes,
social skills, critical and creative thinking
7. They exercise and develop higher order thinking skills including analysis,
synthesis, evaluation, and "problem-finding.
8. They provide the means for every student to learn
Categories of Arts:
1. Anthropological artworks are defined and categorized according to the culture or
country they originated.
2. Thematic some reference would consider the philosophy, the principle, the medium
and techniques employed by the artists in categorizing their works.
3. Critique and Patrons arts come from the elite sector of the society thus the
categories marginalize or discriminate other works that they dont patronize.
Categories:
High art and low arts the former of the powerful and the latter is culture

of the less powerful.

Art and Popular culture culture of the elite has aesthetic appeal while

the culture of masses is popular and less appealing.

High Prices and Low Priced works of geniuses and popular artist are
priced higher while other struggle to have their work exhibited and bought
for the commercial value is less and it is not then considered as good

investments.
4. Deconstruction of the aesthetic and real value of arts some group of people or
ideology are convinced that artworks should not be classified or categorized but
needed to be revolutionized.

Purpose of Arts:
Art has had a great number of different functions throughout its history, making its
purpose difficult to abstract or quantify to any single concept. This does not imply that the
purpose of Art is "vague", but that it has had many unique, different reasons for being created.
Some of these functions of Art are provided in the following outline. The different purposes of art
may be grouped according to those that are non-motivated, and those that are motivated.
1. Non-motivated purposes of art are those that are integral to being human, transcend the
individual, or do not fulfill a specific external purpose. In this sense, Art, as creativity, is
something humans must do by their very nature
a. Basic human instinct for harmony, balance, rhythm
b. Experience of the mysterious
c. Expression of the imagination
d. Ritualistic and symbolic functions.

2. Motivated purposes of art refer to intentional, conscious actions on the part of the artists
or creator. These may be to bring about political change, to comment on an aspect of
society, to convey a specific emotion or mood, to address personal psychology, to
illustrate another discipline, to (with commercial arts) to sell a product, or simply as a
form of communication.
a. Communication. Art, at its simplest, is a form of communication.
b. Art as entertainment. Art may seek to bring about a particular emotion or mood,
for the purpose of relaxing or entertaining the viewer.
c. The Avante-Garde. Art for political change. One of the defining functions of early
twentieth-century art has been to use visual images to bring about political
change
d. Art as a "free zone", removed from the action of the social censure.
e. Art for social inquiry, subversion and/or anarchy.
f. Art for social causes. Art can be used to raise awareness for a large variety of
causes.
g. Art for psychological and healing purposes.
h. Art for propaganda, or commercialism. Art is often utilized as a form of
propaganda, and thus can be used to subtly influence popular conceptions or

i.

mood.
Art as a fitness indicator. It has been argued that the ability of the human brain by
far exceeds what was needed for survival in the ancestral environment.

Different factors that affects the artist and his works

1. Style it is the overall embodiment of the choice of subject matters, treatment and
emphasis which appear again and again in the artwork of the artist or the particular
epoch.

2. Historical Factors it is the style of a particular period of time.

3. Geographical Factors artists are conditioned by their nationality and so we have
categorization.
4. Political, Psychological and Sociological Factors aside for the material, historical
and artistic conditions artist maybe influences by his/her political belief, culture, state
of mind or a certain philosophy in life.

Categories of Artworks:

1. Fine Arts- he term "fine art" refers to an art form practiced mainly for its aesthetic
value and its beauty ("art for art's sake") rather than its functional value. Fine art
is rooted in drawing and design-based works such as painting, printmaking,
and sculpture. It is often contrasted with "applied art" and "crafts" which are both
traditionally seen as utilitarian activities. Other non-design-based activities
regarded as fine arts, include photography and architecture, although the latter is
best understood as an applied art.
2. Visual Arts- is a modern but imprecise umbrella term for a broad category of art
which includes a number of artistic disciplines from various sub-categories. Its
wide ambit renders meaningless any attempt at definition, so rather than define
or compose some diluted meaning for it, here is a list of its constituent
disciplines.
3. Plastic Arts - The term plastic art typically denotes three-dimensional works
employing materials that can be moulded, shaped or manipulated (plasticized) in
some way: such as, clay, plaster, stone, metals, wood (sculpture), paper
(origami) and so on. For three-dimensional artworks made from everyday
materials and "found objects", including Marcel Duchamp's "ready made"
4. Decorative Arts - is a traditional term for a rather unwieldy range of artistic
disciplines concerned with the design and ornamentation of items, usually
functional, that do not necessarily have any intrinsic aesthetic qualities. Broadlyspeaking, many decorative arts (eg. basket-weaving, cabinet-making, ceramics,

tapestry and others) are also classified as "crafts." Also, decorative art is part of
the larger category of applied art.
5. Applied Art - refers to the application (and resulting product) of artistic design to
utilitarian objects in everyday use. Whereas works of fine art have no function
other than providing aesthetic or intellectual stimulation to the viewer, works of
applied art are usually functional objects which have been "prettified" or
creatively designed with both aesthetics and function in mind. Applied art
embraces a huge range of products and items, from a teapot or chair, to the walls
and roof of a railway station or concert hall, a fountain pen or computer mouse.
6. Performance Arts -This type refers to public performance events. Traditional
varieties include, theatre, opera, music, and ballet. Contemporary performance
art also includes any activity in which the artist's physical presence acts as the
medium. Thus it encompasses, mime, face or body painting, and the like. A
hyper-modern type of performance art is known as Happenings.