Contemporary Philippine

Arts from the Regions

Working Module
1st semester (Week 6)

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Teacher: ________________________________
Introduction
The elements and concepts of art — including line, form, color, and texture— are historically the conceptual
building blocks of art and design used by Western artists to convey ideas or emotions in art.
Besides learning how to use paint or carve stone, by applying concepts such as balance, repetition, harmony,
and symmetry, artists often learn how to work with those elements.
Just as we need to know how to read the words to understand a novel, so we also have to learn the language of
art to understand a painting or a sculpture.
Art audiences need to grasp the vocabulary of certain elements and concepts in order to fully appreciate what
artists are making. Before the industrial period (approximately before the mid-19th century) in Europe and the
United States, artists used the elements of art to make their paintings and sculptures more realistic and express
their ideas about their subjects — usually figures, still life, or landscapes. Generally speaking, they worked to
create compositions which had unity, balance and harmony.
From the 1850s well into the 20th century, modern artists began to use these artistic elements to create
more abstract art. Eventually, many used elements such as color, line, or shape alone to express feelings,
emotions, or concepts and ideas directly separated from any other subject matter. (Clyfford Still untitled (1950-
C)
At the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, art historians and critics noticed a difference in ways
that artists worked and the ideas that interested them. They began to describe this era as postmodern, literally
“after modern.” Postmodernism has been used to categorize widely diverse styles and concerns about making
art. What unifies postmodern art, if anything, is a reaction to modernism—at times destroying or debunking
traditionally held rules or canons of modern art; at other times copying masterworks of the past in new ways.
Generally, meaning in art became more ambiguous and contradictory.
The traditional elements and principles of art, and their use in the art of the past, often seem beside the point or
purposefully set aside in the work of postmodern artists. For much contemporary art or art being made today,
the content or meaning is more important than the materials or forms used to make it. Until very recently, artists
were making art that would engage viewers visually through subject matter and the composition of elements
and principles. Contemporary artists seem to be more interested in engaging viewers conceptually through ideas
and issues. The elements of art, while still present at times, are often not adequate to understanding the meaning
of contemporary art.
Lesson 7: Elements and Principles of Contemporary Arts
We live in a community where pictures and objects overflow. From television to the Internet, from the
supermarket to the junkyard, we're surrounded by cheap, or free, and throwaway words, pictures, and objects.
This is not shocking that today's artists integrate this content into their artistic expression. In this, the first
element and principle of contemporary arts born…
 Appropriation. It is the process of making new content by taking from another source pre-existing
image — books on art history, ads, the media — and incorporating or combining it with new ones.
Appropriation is a three-dimensional variant of using found objects in painting. To appropriate is to
borrow. A found object is an actual object— often a manufactured product of a commonplace nature —
given a new identity as an artwork or part of an art piece.
Some common sources of stolen images are artworks from the distant or recent past, historical records, media
(film and television), or popular culture (advertisements or products). The source is sometimes unknown, but
the artist may have personal associations. The
source of the appropriate image or object may be
politically charged, symbolic, ambiguous, or
may push the limits of the imagery considered to
be acceptable to art.
Appropriate imagery can be photographically or
carefully imitated, reproduced by mechanical
infers such as an overhead projector, joined of
the time re-create an address or repaint it,
changing its scale or design to make unused
meaning. Experts can as well compare differing
pictures or objects, layer them with other pictures, break them into parts, or contextualize them, with
recommends to reconsider pictures or objects by a setting them in a cutting-edge setting.
Appropriation refers to the act of borrowing or reusing existing components inside a modern work. Postmodern
apportionment craftsmen, counting Barbara Kruger, are sharp to deny the idea of creativity. They accept that in
borrowing existing symbolism or components of symbolism, they are re- contextualizing or appropriating the
first symbolism, permitting the audience to renegotiate the meaning of the initial in distinctive, more important,
or more current.
The modern shape of contemporary art – which risen out of Happenings and Conceptual art ended up a
major frame of avant-garde art amid the late 1960’s and 1970’s – takes as its medium the artist himself: the real
work of art being the artist’s live actions. Presently prevalent with an expanding number of postmodernist
specialists.
 Performance art is another
element of contemporary art which
regularly increases drama, often
acting and development to
extremes of expression and
continuity that are not allowed
within the theater. It interprets
various human activities such as
ordinary activities such as chores,
routines, and rituals, to socially
relevant themes such as poverty, commercialism, and war.
Execution events are hosted in several of the most outstanding exhibitions of modern craftsmanship in the
world, as well as conventional ones. Words are rarely noticeable, while music and commotions of different
kinds are regular. A number of the most outstanding exhibitions of modern craftsmanship in the world, as well
as conventional centers such as the Metropolitan Exhibition Hall of Art, are being held for performances.
Serbian Marina Abramovic is one of the most popular examples of modern execution craftsmanship.
Although this brand of postmodernist art is not easy to define precisely, one important feature is the need for an
artist to perform or express his 'art' in front of a live audience. For example, allowing the audience to view an
interesting assemblage or installation would not be considered Performance Art, but it would be to watch the
artist construct the assemblage or installation.
Performance art refers to art activities that are presented to a live audience and can combine music, dance,
poetry, theater, visual art and video. Whether public, private or videotaped, performance art often involves an
artist performing an action that can be planned and scripted, or can emphasize spontaneous, unpredictable
elements of chance. Various types of performance art have evolved from simple, often private investigations of
everyday routines, rituals, and endurance tests, to larger-scale site-specific environments and public projects,
multimedia productions, and autobiographical cabaret-style solo work.
The picture above are example of performative art emphasizing the different characteristics of performance art
such as spontaneous and one-off, or rehearsed and series based. It may consist of a small-scale event, or a
massive public spectacle. It can take place almost anywhere and deliberately thin.
Many contemporary artists deal with space by concentrating on real space— the dimensions of a house, the
spaces that we travel through in the city or in the natural world, the boundless spaces of the sky or the virtual
space of the Internet. We work with fine-art or industrial materials— from wood and stone to steel and plastic—
to frame space or to create space-filling work. Materials such as electrical lighting, film, video, or digital media
can also transform, document, or create space. Viewers may be surrounded by art, or they can contribute to a
concentrated experience or a perception of a real space. When an artist creates a piece of work for a room or a
specific space, it is called installation art. Most installations are temporary and often require multiple senses,
such as sight, sound and smell.
 Space is an art transforming space, for example the
flash mobs, and art installations in malls and parks. It
also refers to the distances or areas surrounding,
within, and within the components of an item. Space
can be either positive or negative, open or closed,
shallow or deep, and two-or three-dimensional. Often
space is not clearly shown in a piece, but it is an
illusion. It is considered as the breath of art. Space is
found in almost every piece of art that has been made.
Photographers capture space, sculptors depend on space and
shape, and architects create space. This is a central aspect of every of the visual arts. Space provides the
audience a guide for the presentation of an artwork. For example, you can draw a larger object than another to
suggest that it is closer to the viewer. Likewise, a piece of environmental art can be installed in a way that leads
the viewer through space.
Negative and Positive Space
Art historians use the term positive space to refer to the subject of the
piece itself—the flower vase in a painting or the structure of a
sculpture. Negative space refers to the empty spaces the artist has
created around, between, and within the subjects.
Quite often, we think of positive as being light and negative as being
dark. This does not necessarily apply to every piece of art. For
example, you might paint a black cup on a white canvas. We wouldn't
necessarily call the cup negative because it is the subject: The black value is negative, but the space of the cup is
positive. In three-dimensional art, the negative spaces are typically the open or relatively empty parts of the
piece. For example, a metal sculpture may have a hole in the middle, which we would call the negative space. In
two-dimensional art, negative space can have a great impact.
Below is an example of item specific art
form that is performed and positioned in a
specific space such as public places. As
what you have learned above contemporary
artists used various mediums and
techniques, applied different elements and
principles in their artworks such as space,
appropriation, and performance. But since
we are immersed in a hybridized
environment of reality and augmented
reality daily. For artists today, the choice of
materials and media for creating art is wide
open. Some artists continue to use traditional media such as paint, clay, or bronze, but others have selected new
or unusual materials for their arts, such as industrial or recycled materials, and newer technologies such as
photography, video, or digital media offer artists even more ways to express themselves.
Many artists working today incorporates more than material or technique in ways that create hybrid art forms.
Combinations of still image, moving image, sound, digital media, and found objects can create new hybrid art
forms that are beyond what traditional artists have ever imagined.
 Hybridity is another element and principle used by contemporary artist in their artworks. It is a usage of
unconventional materials, mixing of unlikely materials to produce and artwork. For example, coffee for
painting, miniature sculptures from pencils.
The concept of hybridity when applied to culture conveys elements of all of these definitions, including positive
elements such as diversity, and cooperation, as well as negative elements such as unviable offspring and
unnatural monsters. In this way the term hybridity contains conflicting connotations. Hybridity, at the most
basic level, implies the mixing of two or more elements to create a third. Beyond this there is some discussion
as to what cultural hybridity means. How could this idea transfer when we use the term hybridity to describe
contemporary art? What do artists use to make art? This hybridity in art practice is about transcendence, beyond
the visual logic of the digital or material. In the fluid transaction between states of existence, algorithm and
human error, and different forms of media, something metaphysical starts to surface in the space between. The
concept of hybridity can be applied to two aspects of art today.
1. Artists today are comfortable using whatever seems best to fully investigate and express their ideas or
concepts and often move among different media and techniques to express new things in their work.
2. One approach to understanding art today involves identifying what media and materials the artists chose and
considering why they chose to work with them.
Look at the example below of how contemporary artists apply hybridity in their craftsmanship.
The first picture shows a product of mixed media and hybridity obra
maestro by Renee Isaac.
The second picture shows the creativity of the artists using coffee for his
painting. What have you observed in their art works? What are the
materials they used to come up with this craftsmanship? How does a
technique or medium limit or expand meaning in art? How do artists make
choices about materials and techniques for their art? Well, whatever the
decisions of the artists make concerning media and materials are often
affected by ideas they want to express about their experiences living
today.
Furthermore, humans have created art through the ages, but
various cultures have defined it differently. Throughout the history of
Western culture, the nature of art has been debated, leading to the
formation of an entire branch of philosophical study called aesthetics.
Today, most experts agree that there is not only one definition of art, but that it encompasses a variety of ideas,
approaches, and qualities.
So, in this age of transition in which material and digital experience are in an unprecedented state of
coexistence, our understanding of the physical is being endlessly reshaped by advancements in technology.
Consequently, the very meaning of physicality and its apparent importance to us has become subject to
questioning.
Since the 1960’s the term new media art was coined and it was used to describe practices that apply computer
technology as an essential part of the creative process and production.
Placing the term under a vast umbrella known as new
media, computer production, video art, computer-
based installations, and later the Internet and Post
Internet art and exploration of the virtual reality
became recognized as artistic practices. The term, in
the contemporary practice, refers to the use of mass
production and the manipulation of the virtual world,
its tools and programs as what we called Technology
art. The use of technology in the creation and
dissemination of art works.
As such, designers, and artists to produce commercial
pieces or for more elaborate and conceptual works
implement many different computer programs, such
as 3D modeling, Illustrator, or Photoshop.
Pointers and Key terms of the topic
Contemporary art is an art of today produced by the artists of today. There are five elements and principles of
contemporary art.
1. Appropriation. It is the process of making new content by taking from another source pre-existing
image — books on art history, ads, the media — and incorporating or combining it with new ones
2. Performance art refers to art activities that are presented to a live audience and can combine music,
dance, poetry, theater, visual art and video.
3. Space is an art transforming space, for example the flash mobs, and art installations in malls and parks.
It also refers to the distances or areas surrounding, within, and within the components of an item.
4. Hybridity is another element and principle used by contemporary artist in their artworks. It is a usage of
unconventional materials, mixing of unlikely materials to produce and art work.
5. Technology art. Refers to the use of mass production and the manipulation of the virtual world, its
tools, and programs.