GE 116

ASIAN DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION COLLEGE

TACLOBAN CITY
S.Y. 2021 – 2022

ART APPRECIATION
MODULE 1

The following are some reminders in using this module:

1. Please read and understand the lessons in this module.
2. Read the instruction carefully before answering the activity.
3. Observe honesty and integrity in doing the tasks.
4. Submit the ACTIVITY SHEET on or before the deadline in the
GOOGLE CLASSROOM.
5. If you encounter any difficulty in answering the activity in this module,
do not hesitate to consult your teacher. Always bear in mind that you
are not alone.
We hope that through this material, you will experience meaningful learning
and gain deep understanding of the relevant competencies.

YOU CAN DO IT!

Prepared by:
Jallica Celia A. Cabelin, LPT
INSTRUCT
 LESSON 1

Introduction and Assumptions

Learning Outcomes:

a) Understand the role of humanities and arts in man’s attempt at

fully realizing his end;
b) Clarify misconceptions the art;
c) Characterize the assumptions of arts; and;
d) Engage better with personal experiences of an in art.

Art is something that is perennially around us. Some people may deny having to
do with the arts but it is indisputable that life presents us with many forms of and
opportunities for communion with the arts. A bank manager choosing what tie to wear
together with his shirt and shoes, a politician shuffling her music track while comfortably
seated on her car looking for her favourite song, a student marvelling at the intricate
designs of a medieval cathedral during his field trip, and a market vendor cheering for
her bet in a dance competition on a noontime TV program all manifest concern for
values that are undeniably, despite tangentially, artistic.
Despite the seemingly overflowing instances of arts around people, one still finds
the need to see more and experience more, whether consciously or unconsciously. One
whose exposure to music is only limited to one genre finds it lacking not to have been
exposed to more. One, whose idea of a cathedral is limited to the locally available ones,
finds enormous joy in seeing other prototypes in Europe. Plato had the sharpest
foresight when he discussed in the Symposium that beauty, the object of any love, truly
progresses. As one moves through life, one locates better, more beautiful objects of
desire (Scott, 2000). One can never be totally content with what is just before him.
Human beings are drawn toward what is good and ultimately, beautiful. 
This lesson is about this yearning for the beautiful, the appreciation of the all-
consuming beauty around us, and some preliminary clarifications on assumptions that
people normally hold about art.
Why Study the Humanities?
For as long as man existed in this planet, he has cultivated the land, altered the
conditions of the fauna and the flora, in order to survive. Alongside these necessities,
man also marked his place in the world through his works. Through his bare hands,
man constructed infrastructures that tended to his needs, like his house. He sharpened
swords and spears. He employed fire in order to melt gold. The initial meaning of the
word "art” has something to do with all these craft. 
The word “art” comes from the ancient Latin, ars which means a “craft or specialized
form of skill, like carpentry or smithying or surgery” (Collingwood, 1938). Art then
suggested the capacity to produce an intended result from carefully planned steps or
method. When a man wants to build a house, he plans meticulously to get to what the
prototype promises and he executes the steps to produce the said structure, then he is
engaged in art. The Ancient World did not have any conceived notion of art in the same
way that we do now. To them, art only meant using the bare hands to produce
something that will be useful to one’s day-to-day life.
Ars in Medieval Latin came to mean something different. It meant “any special
form of book-learning, such as grammar or logic, magic or astrology” (Collingwood,
1938). 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 that are attached
to the word now. 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.” 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). This is something more akin to what is now
considered art.
“The humanities constitute one of the oldest and most important means of
expression developed by man” (Dudley et al., 1960). Human history has witnessed how
man evolved not just physically but also culturally, from cave painters to men of
exquisite paintbrush users of the present. Even if one goes back to the time before
written records of man’s civilization has appeared, he can find cases of man’s attempts
of not just crafting tools to live and survive but also expressing his feelings and
thoughts. The Galloping Wild Boar found in the cave of Altamira, Spain is one such
example. In 1879, a Spaniard and his daughter were exploring a cave when they saw
pictures of a wild boar, hind, and bison. According to experts, these paintings were
purported to belong to Upper Paleolithic Age, several thousands of years before the
current era. Pre-historic men, with their crude instruments, already showcased and
manifested earliest attempts at recording man’s innermost interests, preoccupations,
and thoughts. The humanities, then, ironically, have started even before the term has
been coined. Human persons have long been exercising what it means to be a human
long before he was even aware of his being one. The humanities stand tall in bearing
witness to this magnificent phenomenon. Any human person, then, is tasked to
participate, if not, totally partake in this long tradition of humanizing himself.
 Assumptions of Art
Art is universal
Literature has provided key works of art. Among the most popular ones being
taught in school are the two Greek epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Sanskrit
pieces Mahabharata and Ramayana are also staples in this field. These works,
purportedly written before the beginning of recorded history, are believed to be man’s
attempt at recording stories and tales that have been passed on, known, and sung
throughout the years. Art has always been timeless and universal, spanning
generations and continents through and through.
In every country and in every generation, there is always art. Oftentimes, people feel
that what is considered artistic are only those which have been made long time ago.
This is a misconception. Age is not a factor in determining art. An “...art is not good
because it is old, but old because it is good” I (Dudley et al., 1960). In the Philippines,
the works of Jose Rizal and Francisco Balagtas are not being read because they are
old. Otherwise, works of other Filipinos who have long died would have been required in
junior high school too. The pieces mentioned are read in school and have remained to
be with us because they are good. They are liked and adored because they meet our
needs and desires. Florante at Laura never fails to teach high school students the
beauty of love, one that is universal and pure. Ibong Adarna, another Filipino
masterpiece, has always captured the imagination of the young with its timeless
lessons. When we recite the Psalms, we feel in communion with King David as we feel
one with him in his conversation with God. When we listen to a kundiman or perform
folk dances, we still enjoy the way our Filipino ancestors whiled away their time in the
past. We do not necessarily like a kundiman for its original meaning. We just like it. We
enjoy it. Or just as one of the characters in the movie Bar Boys thought, kundiman
makes one concentrate better.
The first assumption then about the humanities is that art has been crafted by all people
regardless of origin, time, place, and that it stayed on because it is liked and enjoyed by
people continuously. A great piece of work will never be obsolete. Some people say that
art is art for its intrinsic worth. In John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism (1879), enjoyment in
the arts belongs to a higher good, one that lies at the opposite end of base pleasures.
Art will always be present because human beings will always express themselves and
delight in these expressions. Men will continue to use art while art persists and never
gets depleted.

Art is not nature

In the Philippines, it is not entirely novel to hear some consumers of local movies
remark that these movies produced locally are unrealistic. They contend that local
movies work around certain formula to the detriment of substance and faithfulness to
reality of the movies. These critical minds argue that a good movie must reflect reality
as closely as possible. Is that so?
Paul Cezanne, a French painter, painted a scene from reality entitled Well and Grinding
Wheel in the Forest of the Chateau Noir. The said scene is inspired by a real scene in a
forest around the Chateau Noir area near Aix in Cezanne's native Provence. Comparing
the two, one can see that Cezanne’s landscape is quite different from the original
scene. Cezanne has changed some patterns and details from the way they were
actually in the photograph. What he did is not nature. It is art.
One important characteristic of art is that it is not nature. Art is man’s expression of his
reception of nature. Art is man’s way of interpreting nature. Art is not nature. Art is made
by man, whereas nature is a given around us. It is in this juncture that they can be
considered opposites. What we find in nature should not be expected to be present in
art too. Movies are not meant to be direct representation of reality. They may, according
to the moviemaker’s perception of reality, be a reinterpretation or even distortion of
nature.
This distinction assumes that all of us see nature, perceive its elements in myriad,
different, yet ultimately valid ways. One can only imagine the story of the five blind men
who one day argue against each other on what an elephant looks like. Each of the five
blind men was holding a different part of the elephant. The first was touching the body
and thus, thought the elephant was like a wall. Another was touching the beast’s ear
and was convinced that the elephant was like a fan. The rest were touching other
different parts of the elephant and concluded differently based on their perceptions. Art
is like each of these men's view of the elephant. It is based on an individual's subjective
experience of nature. It is not meant, after all, to accurately define what the elephant is
really like in nature Artists are not expected to duplicate nature just as even scientists
with their elaborate laboratories cannot make nature.
Once this point has been made, a student of humanities can then ask further questions
such as: What reasons might the artist have in creating something? Why did Andres
Bonifacio write “Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa"? What motivation did Juan Luna have in
creating his masterpiece, the Spoliarium? In whatever work of art, one should always
ask why the artist made it. What is it that he wants to show?

Art involves experience

Getting this far without a satisfactory definition of art can be quite weird for some.
For most people, art does not require a full definition. Art is just experience. By
experience, we mean the "actual doing of something* (Dudley et al.. 1960). When one
says that he has an experience of something, he often means that he knows what that
something is about When one claims that he has experienced falling In love, getting hurt
and bouncing back, he in effect claims that he knows the (sometimes) endless cycle of
loving When one asserts having experienced preparing a particular recipe, he m fact
asserts knowing how the recipe is made. Knowing a thing is different from hearing from
others what the said thing is A radio OJ dispensing advice on love when he himself has
not experienced it does not really know what he is talking about. A choreographer who
cannot execute a dance step himself is a bogus. Art is always an experience. Unlike
fields of knowledge that involve data, art is known by experiencing. A painter cannot
da<m to know how to paint if he has not tned holding a brush. A sculptor cannot
produce a work of art if a chisel is foreign to him. Dudley,et al. (1960) affirmed that “[a]ii
art depends on experience, and if one is to know art he must know 1 not as fact or
information but as experience.”
A work of art then cannot be abstracted from actual doing. In order to know what an
artwork is, we have to sense it, see or hear it, and see AND hear it. To fully appreciate
our national hero's monument, one must go to Rizal Park and see the actual sculpture.
In order to know Beyonce’s music, one must listen to it to actually experience them. A
famous story about someone who adores Picasso goes something like this: “Years ago,
Gertrude Stein was asked why she bought the pictures of the then unknown artist
Picasso. ‘I like to look at them,’ said Miss Stein” (Dudley et al., 1960). At the end of the
day, one fully gets acquainted with art if one immerses himself into it. In the case of
Picasso One only learns about Picasso’s work by looking at it. That is precisely what
Miss Stein did.
In matters of art, the subject’s perception is of primacy. One can read hundreds of
reviews about a particular movie, but at the end of the day, until he sees the movie
himself, he will be in no position to actually talk about the movie. He does not know the
movie until he experiences it. An important aspect of experiencing art is its being highly
personal, individual, and subjective. In philosophical terms, perception of art is always a
value judgment. It depends on who the perceiver is, his tastes, his biases, and what he
has inside him. Degustibus non disputandum est (Matters of taste are not matters of
dispute). One cannot argue with another person’s evaluation of art because one’s
experience can never be known by another.
Finally, one should also underscore that every experience with art is accompanied by
some emotion. One either likes or dislikes, agrees or disagrees that a work of art is
beautiful. A stage play or motion picture is particularly one of those art forms that evoke
strong emotions from its audience. With experience comes emotions and feelings, after
ajl. Feelings and emotions are concrete proofs that the artwork has been
experiences. 
Let's Wrap It Up
Humanities and the art have always been part of man’s growth and civilization. Since
the dawn of time, man has always tried to express his innermost thoughts and feelings
about reality through creating art. Three assumptions on art are its universality, its not
being nature, and its need for experience. Art is present in every part of the globe and in
every period time. This is what is meant by its universality. Art not being nature, not
even attempting to simply mirror nature, is the second assumption about art. Art is
always a creation of the artist, not nature. Finally, without experience, there is no art.
The artist has to be foremost, a perceiver who is directly in touch with art.

References:
Collingwood, R.G. (1938). The Principles of Art. Worcestershire: Read Books Ltd.
Dudley, L., Faricy, A., and McGraw-Hill Book Company. (1960). The Humanities. New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Mill, J.S. (1879). Utilitarianism. 7th Ed. London: Longmans, Green, and Co.
Scott, D. (2000). “Socrates and Alcibiades in the ‘Symposium.”’ Hermathena 168, 25-
37.
ACTIVITY no. 1

NAME: CODE (number):

COURSE & YEAR: SCHEDULE:

1. Answer the following questions as precisely yet as thoroughly as possible.

1. If you were an artist, what kind of artist would you be?

ANSWER:

2. Why is art not nature?

ANSWER:

3. Why is art ageless and timeless?

ANSWER:

4. Why does art involve experience?

ANSWER:
II. Choose ONE CATEGORY below and give ONE ARTWORK under chosen
category that you are familiar with. This can be the last artwork that you have
come across with or the one that made the most impact to you. Criticize each
using the guide questions provided.
Categories:
 Movie
 Novel
 Poem
 Music
 An architectural structure
 A piece of clothing

EXAMPLE
Category: AN ARCHITECTURAL STRUCTURE
Artwork: NATIONAL THEATER – CULTURAL CENTER OF THE PHILIPPINES
COMPLEX

1. What is it about? What is it for? Explain.

ANSWER:
2. What is it made of? Explain.
ANSWER:
3. What is its style? Explain.
ANSWER:
4. How good is it? Explain.
ANSWER:
Category: _______________

Artwork: ________________

2. What is it about? What is it for? Explain.

ANSWER:

5. What is it made of? Explain.

ANSWER:

6. What is its style? Explain.

ANSWER:

7. How good is it? Explain.

ANSWER: