Subject: Art Appreciation Lesson 1: What Is Art: Introduction and Assumptions

Subject: Art Appreciation In the Ancient world, they did not
Lesson 1: What is Art: Introduction and have any notion of art in the same
Assumptions way that we do now.
Art is something that is perennially In the Medieval Latin, Ars in came to

around us. We cannot deny that we mean something different. It meant
have nothing to do with it. “any special form of book learning,
such as grammar or logic, magic or
Example: clothes to wear, music astrology.
choices, marvelling of church designs
and cheering your favourite dance During the Renaissance period that
team the word was reacquired a meaning
that was inherent in its ancient form of
Plato dignified, during the craft. Early Renaissance artists saw
“Symposium”, that beauty, the their activities merely as
object of any love, truly progresses. craftsmanship, devoid of a whole lot
of intonations that are attached to
One can never be totally content the word now.
with what is just before him. Human
beings are drawn toward what is Focusing on the 17th century, the
goof and ultimately, beautiful. problem and idea of aesthetics, the
study of beauty, began to unfold
This lesson is about this yearning for distinctly from the notion of technical
the beautiful, the appreciation of all workmanship, which was the original
the consuming beauty around us, conception of the word “art”.
and some preliminary clarifications
on assumptions that people normally Finally, in the 18th century, the word
hold about art. has evolved to distinguish between
the fine arts and the useful arts. The
Why study HUMANITIES? fine arts would come to mean “not
ART - came from the Latin word ars delicate of highly skilled arts, but
which means “craft or specialization beautiful arts”.
form of skill, like carpemntry pr
smithying or surgery” (Collingwood, Human history has witnessed how
1938). man evolved not just physically but
- capacity to produce an also culturally, from cave painters to
intended result from carefully men of exquisite paintbrush users of
planned steps or method the present.
Source: Caslib, Garing and Casaul (2017), Art Appreciation, Rex Bookstore
ASSUMPTIONS OF ART C. Art involves experience - when
A. Art is universal – In every country one says that he has an experience
and in every generation, there is something, he often knows what the
always art. Art has always been something is about.
timeless and universal, spanning
generations and continents through Art focuses on a posteriori rather than
and through. a priori.
Age is not a factor in determining art. Unlike fields of knowledge that

An “… art is not good because it is involve data, art is known is known by
old, but old because it is good”. experiencing.
The first assumption then about the A work of art then cannot be
humanities is that art has been abstracted from actual doing. It must
crafted by all people regardless of be sensed, see or hear it, AND see
origin, time, place and that it stayed and hear it.
on because it is liked and enjoyed by
people continuously. An important aspect of experiencing
art is its being highly personal,
Art will always be present because individual, and subjective.
human beings will always express Philosophically speaking, perception
themselves and delight in these of art is always a value judgement. It
expressions. Men will continue to use solely depends on who the perceiver
art while art persists and never gets is, his tastes, is biases and what he has
depleted. inside of him.
B. Art is not nature – art is man’s Degustibus non disputandum est

expression of his reception of nature. (Matters of taste are not matters of
Art is a man’s way of interpreting dispute). One cannot argue with
nature. It is made by man, whereas another person’s evaluation of art
nature is a given around us. What we because one’s experience can never
find in nature should not be expected be known by another.
to be present in art too.
Finally, every experience with are is
For instance, movies are not meant to accompanied by some emotion.
be direct representation of reality. One either likes or dislikes, agrees or
They may, according to the disagrees, that a work of art us
moviemaker’s perception of reality, beautiful. Feelings and emotions are
be a representation or even distortion concrete proofs that the artwork has
of nature. been experiences.
Source: Caslib, Garing and Casaul (2017), Art Appreciation, Rex Bookstore

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Subject: Art Appreciation In the Ancient world, they did not

Art is something that is perennially In the Medieval Latin, Ars in came to

Age is not a factor in determining art. Unlike fields of knowledge that

B. Art is not nature – art is man’s Degustibus non disputandum est

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