ARTS 1100
I n str u cto r : J o h n P h i l i p R. . Ve n t u r i n a
WHAT IS
ARTS?
WHY STUDY ART
AT ALL?
Art is all around us. Some people
may think or say that they are not
engaged into the field of arts but it
is certain that encounters in art are
inevitable. A student who puts his
earphones on and listens to the
Kpop playlist stored in her phone
while walking through the nooks of
Definitions or notions of art, from various writers
and artists:
1. “Art is not a thing — it is a way.”
- Elbert Hubbard in a 1908 volume of Little
Journeys to the Homes of Great Teachers
2. “Art is the most intense mode of individualism
that the world has known.”
- Oscar Wilde in The Soul of Man Under Socialism
3. “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose
ourselves at the same time.”
Definitions or notions of art, from various writers
and artists:
4. “Above all, artists must not be only in art
galleries or museums — the must be present in
all possible activities. The artist must be the
sponsor of thought in whatever endeavor people
take on, at every level.”
- Michelangelo Pistoletto in Art’s Responsibility
5. “Let each man exercise the art he knows.”
I. “ARS” – a craft or specialized form
of skill, like carpentry or smithying
or surgery.”
The word “art” comes from the
ancient Latin ars which means a
“craft or
specialized form of skill, like
carpentry or smithying or surgery”
II. ART is “any special form of book-
learning, such as grammar or logic,
magic or astrology.”
Arts in Medieval Latin
• Arts in Medieval Latin came to
mean something different. It meant
“any
special form of book-learning, such
Renaissance Period
• It was only during the Renaissance
Period that the word reacquired a
meaning that was inherent in its
ancient form of craft. Early
renaissance artists saw their
activities merely as craftsmanship,
devoid of a whole lot of intonations
Seventeenth Century
• It was during the seventeenth
century when the problem and idea
of aesthetics, the study of beauty,
began to unfold distinctly from the
notion of technical workmanship,
which was the original conception of
the word “art”.
Eighteenth Century
• It was finally in the eighteenth
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 as cited in Caslib et. al., 2018).
“The Galloping Wild Boar” found in the cave
“The Galloping Wild Boar” found in
the cave of Altamira, Spain
• It was discovered that there were
attempts where man did not just
create tools for survival but also for
expression of his thoughts and
emotions. It is shown in history that
man did not only evolve in the
physical sense but also in the
Assumptions of Art
1.Art is universal
• Art has always been timeless and
universal, spanning generations and
continents through and through.
• In every country and generation, there is
always art.
• Art will always be present because
Assumptions of Art
• As mentioned in the book Introduction to
the Humanities by Sanchez et. al. (2012),
art is vital in life. Art is comprised of one of
the earliest and most vital ways created by
man to express himself. In every place man
has set his foot on; art was also there as the
language imbedded with emotions and
undertones. There is a strong force among
humans to produce this language which has
also been seen in the ancient times.
2. Art is not nature
• Art is man’s expression of his
reception of nature. Art is man’s way
of interpreting nature.
• What we find in nature should not
be expected to be present in art too.
• Movies may be a reinterpretation
based on an individual’s subjective
experience of nature.
2. Art involves experience
• Unlike fields of knowledge that involve
data, art is known by experiencing.
In order to know what an artwork is, we
have to sense it, see or hear it.
The Role of Creativity in Art Making
(based on Art Appreciation by Caslib
Jr., B., Garing, D. C., & Casaul, J. R.,
2018, p.13- 15)
It takes an artist to make art. Not
every beautiful thing that can be
seen or experienced may truly be
called a work of art. Art is a product
The Role of Creativity in Art Making
In art, CREATIVITY is what sets apart
one artwork from another.
A creative artist does not simply
copy or imitate another artist’s work.
He embraces ORIGINALITY, puts his
own flavor into his work and calls it
his own
