ART APPRECIATION: SUBJECT AND
CONTENT
Looking at the artwork is the beginning of engagement wherein the eyes play a big role in
mechanically making a vision possible. But, like any tool, it is only one component.
In most cases, there are clues that mediate between the artwork and the viewer, allowing the
viewer to more easily comprehend what he is seeing. These clues are the three basic components of a
work of art: subject, form and content. These components are largely inseparable from each other and
usually related to each other.
Subject (what) - refers to the visual focus or the image that may be extracted from examining the
artwork.
Content (why) - is the meaning that is communicated by the artist or the artwork.
Form (how) - is the development and configuration of the artwork - how the elements and the
medium or material are put together.
TYPES OF SUBJECT
1. REPRESENTATIONAL ART
Often termed as figurative art wherein the figures depicted are easy to make out and decipher.
The subjects are objects or events occurring in the real world.
It is art which is clearly identifiable as something which already exists in life; represent actual
subjects from reality.
It depicts any identifiable object or series of objects and their physical appearance in reality.
It include Realism, Impressionism, Idealism, and Stylization
A. REALISM - The term realism was coined by the French novelist Champfleury in the 1840s. It
refers to a mid nineteenth century artistic movement characterised by subjects painted from
everyday life in a naturalistic manner. It is also generally used to describe artworks painted in a
realistic almost photographic way. Realism is also applied as a more general stylistic term to
forms of sharply focused almost photographic painting irrespective of subject matter.
B. IMPRESSIONISM - Impressionism developed in France in the nineteenth century and is
based on the practice of painting out of doors and spontaneously ‘on the spot’ rather than in a
studio from sketches. Main impressionist subjects were landscapes and scenes of everyday life .
The style include small, visible brushstrokes that offer the bare impression of form, unblended
color and an emphasis on the accurate depiction of natural light.
C. IDEALISM - encourages imagination and attempts to realize a mental conception of beauty, a
standard of perfection, which means idea. It is the tendency to represent things as aesthetic
sensibility would have them rather than as they are - perfection.
D. STYLIZATION - refers to representing something in a non-naturalistic, but conventional form.
In the context of art it refers to conforming to a particular style or being consistent. It is to
represent or design according to a style or stylistic pattern rather than according to nature or
tradition.
IMPORTANCE OF REPRESENTATIONAL ART
1. It provides a standard by which artistic merit can be judged. For example, a portrait can be judged
according to the likeness it conveys of the sitter; a landscape can be assessed according to its similarity
with a particular scene; and a street-scene can be compared with real-life; a painting of a darkened
scene can be judged according to how well it depicts light and shadow.
2. It serves an important foundation for all visual art, because it depends upon an artist's proficiency in
drawing, perspective, use of color/tone, portrayal of light and overall composition: skills which
underpin numerous forms of visual art.
3. Representational images are easily recognizable, and thus appreciable, they help to make art
accessible to the general public. In contrast, abstract or non-representational artworks may require
considerable knowledge on the part of the spectator before they can be 'truly' understood.
4. Irreplaceable role in the creation, assessment and enjoyment of fine art.
2. NON-REPRESENTATIONAL ARTS
It does not make a reference to the real world, whether it is a person, place, thing or even a
particular event.
It is stripped down to to visual elements such as shapes, lines and colors that are employed to
translate a particular feeling, emotion and even concept.
It does not represent or depict a being, place, or thing in the natural world.
Rather than directly portray something recognizable, the artist will use form, shape, color, and
line—essential elements in visual art—to express emotion, feeling, or some other concept.
It is highly subjective and can be difficult to define. We can focus on the elements of the artwork
(form, shape, line, color, space, and texture) in terms of the aesthetic value of the work, but
the meaning will always be personal to the viewer unless the artist has made a statement about his
or her intentions.
3. ABSTRACT ART
The big old clap by Lee Ellis
also called nonobjective art or nonrepresentational art, painting, sculpture, or graphic art in
which the portrayal of things from the visible world plays little or no part.
to “abstract” means to “extract or remove” one thing from another.
uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a
degree of independence from visual references in the world.
means the distancing of an idea from objective referents - pulling a depiction away from any
literal, representational reference points.
Abstraction can be traced to Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and Cubism. All three helped
realize the idea that art could be non-representative.
“Abstract art has been with us in one form or another for almost a century now and has proved to be
not only a long-standing crux of cultural debate but a self-renewing, vital tradition of creativity. We
know that it works, even if we’re still not sure why that’s so, or exactly what to make of that
fact.” -Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art Since Pollock by Kirk Varnedoe
Abstract art, non-figurative art, non-objective art, and non-representational art, are closely
related terms. They are similar, but perhaps not of identical meaning.
SOURCES AND KINDS OF SUBJECT
NON-REPRESENTATIONAL ART - a higher level of perceptiveness and insight might be
required to fully grasp the feeling, emotion, or concept behind the work
REPRESENTATIONAL ART - it is easier to infer the subject matter because from the figures
depicted in the artwork, there is already a suggestion as to its inspiration.
SOURCES OF SUBJECT
Nature
History
Greek and Roman Mythology
Judeo-Christian tradition
Sacred Oriental texts
TYPES OF SUBJECT
objective/represenational
non-objective/non represenatatiional
KINDS OF SUBJECT
Animals
Still life
History
Figures
Nature
Landscape
Seascape
Cityscape
Mythology
Myth
Dreams
Fantasies
CONTENT IN ART
Content in a work of art refers to what is being depicted and might be helpful in deriving a basic
meaning. A still-life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically
commonplace objects that may be either natural or man-made.
Portraits
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic
representation of a person, in which the face and its expression
are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,
personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in
photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a
composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often
shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer in
order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer .
Philip Burne–Jones Holding a Cat : George Grantham Bain
Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Landscapes
Landscape painting, also known as
landscape art, is the depiction in art
of landscapes—natural scenery such
as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers,
and forests, especially where the
main subject is a wide view—with
its elements arranged into a coherent
composition . In other works,
landscape backgrounds for figures
can still form an important part of the
work. Sky is almost always included
in the view, and weather is often an element of the composition. Detailed landscapes as a distinct
subject are not found in all artistic traditions and develop when there is already a sophisticated tradition
of representing other subjects.
Henri Matisse. Landscape at Collioure (1905): Oil on canvas. 38.8 x 46.6cm. Museum of Modern Art,
New York. Matisse was a member of the Fauves (French for “wild beasts”), who used bold colors to
convey emotions.
Still Lifes
A still life (plural still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly
inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects that
may be either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants,
rocks, or shells) or man-made (drinking glasses, books, vases,
jewelry, coins, pipes, and so on). Early still-life paintings,
particularly before 1700, often contained religious and
allegorical symbolism relating to the objects depicted. Some
modern still lifes break the two-dimensional barrier and
employ three-dimensional mixed media, and use found
objects, photography, computer graphics, as well as video and
sound.
Maria van Oosterwijk. Vanitas Still-Life (1668): Oil on
canvas. 73 x 88.5cm. Kunsthistorisches Musuem, Vienna.
Genre Art
Genre art is the pictorial representation in any of
various media of scenes or events from everyday
life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors,
parties, inn scenes, and street scenes. Such
representations (also called genre works, genre
scenes , or genre views) may be realistic, imagined,
or romanticized by the artist.
Nicolaes Maes. The Idle Servant (1655): Oil on
canvas. National Gallery, London. Dutch Baroque
genre scenes often have important moral lessons as
their subtexts.
Narrative Art
Narrative art is art that tells a story, either as a
moment in an ongoing story or as a sequence of
events unfolding over time. Some of the earliest
evidence of human art suggests that people told
stories with pictures. However, without some
knowledge of the story being told, it is very hard
to read ancient pictures because they are not
organized in a systematic way like words on a
page, but rather can unfold in many different
directions at once.
Hagesandros, Athenedoros, and Polydoros. Laocoön and
His Sons (First century BCE): Marble. Vatican Museum,
Rome. This marble sculpture depicts a scene from Virgil’s
epic The Aeneid, in which the Trojan seer Laocoön foresees
the Trojan Horse and the destruction of Troy by the Greeks.
Before he can warn his fellow townspeople, the sea god
Neptune (an ally of the Greeks) sends his serpents to kill
Laocoön and his sons.
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PRELIM ACTIVITY #3
(20 points)
1. Using a piece of Oslo paper, draw your “ideal teacher” (representational or
abstract)
PRELIM ACTIVITY #4
(10 points)
1. Why did you choose to represent your ideal teacher in that way?
2. What quality/s of a teacher your painting/drawing portray?
