HUMANITIES Comes from the word humanus which means human, cultured and

refned. To be human is to showed quality like rationality, kindness and tenderness.

They are academic disciplines which study the human condition, using methods that
are primarily analytic, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the
mainly empirical approaches of the natural and social sciences.
The humanities are the stories, the ideas, and the words that help us make sense of
our lives and our world. The humanities introduce us to people we have never met,
places we have never visited, and ideas that may have never crossed our minds. By
showing how others have lived and thought about life, the humanities help us
decide what is important in our own lives and what we can do to make them better.
By connecting us with other people, they point the way to answers about what is
right or wrong, or what is true to our heritage and our history. The humanities help
us address the challenges we face together in our families, our communities, and as
a nation.
ART APPRECIATION imply means being able to look at works and form your
own opinions.
!". #rawing is not simply putting ob$ects onto paper, there needs to be life, even in
inanimate ob$ects that enables you to form your own opinion.
ART
The !nglish word %rt comes from &atin noun 'ars( which means 'skill( and
ultimately comes from the )*! roots +ar,ti,, +ar, is also akin to the !nglish 'arm( and
it-s meaning is to ft together or $oin.
%rt stimulates di.erent parts of our brains to make us laugh or incite us to riot, with
a whole gamut of emotions in between.
%rt gives us a way to be creative and e"press ourselves. /or some people, art is the
entire reason they get out of bed in the morning. 0ou could say 1%rt is something
that makes us more thoughtful and well,rounded humans.1
Creativity is always inside you, but life sometimes gets in the way and covers it up.
2owever, it is life that is the inspiration for art.
3n the other hand, art is such a large part of our everyday lives, we hardly even
stop to think about it. &ook at the desk or chair where you are, right this minute.
omeone designed that. *t is art. 0our shoes are art. 0our co.ee cup is art. %ll
functional design, well done, is art. o, you could say 1%rt is something that is both
functional and 4hopefully5 aesthetically pleasing to our eyes.1
*n other words, %rt is a study, therefore, of what it means to be human.
Art is form and content" means: All art consists of these to thin!s"
#orm means6
475 the elements of art,
485 the principles of design and
495 the actual, physical materials that the artist has used. /orm, in this conte"t, is
concrete and fairly easily described , no matter which piece of art is under scrutiny.
"Content" is idea,based and means
475 what the artist meant to portray,
485 what the artist actually did portray and 495 how we react, as individuals, to both
the intended and actual messages.
%dditionally, 1content1 includes ways in which a work was in:uenced , by religion, or
politics, or society in general, or even the artist;s use of hallucinogenic substances ,
at the time it was created. %ll of these factors, together, make up the 1content1 side
of art.
THE NATURE O# ART
$" Art is e%er&here *t is very much part of our lives. <e fnd them in our
clothes, accessories we wear, designs in our furniture and furnishings, in the
style of our houses, and vehicles we use. !verything man has created is a
work of art.
'" Art as E()ression and Comm*nication <e e"press our emotional state
by some visible signs and activities. <e burst into song when we are happy,
or we dance, for it is pleasant to e"press $oy through rhythmic body
movements. <e likewise sing out our love ou our despair, or try to convey our
deep emotions in poetic language.
+" Art as Creation =an has also been led by an innate craving for order to
create ob$ects that are delightful to perceive.
," Art and E()erience %t least three ma$or kinds of e"perience are involved
in the artistic activity. *t usually starts as an e"perience which the artist wants
to communicate. Then the act of e"pressing this e"perience , that of creating
the art ob$ect or form. /inally, when the work is done, there is the artist-s
gratifying e"perience of having accomplished something signifcant.
-" Art and Nat*re %rt is not nature. The colorful sunset over =anila Bay, the
sky full of stars on a summer evening, the sounds of the birds singing in the
felds these are natural things. % work of art is man,made, it may closely
resemble to nature, it can never duplicate nature.
." Art and /ea*t& The desire for beauty and order around us is another basic
human need. omehow these provide the much needed comfort and balance
to our lives.
Think for a minute. #o you like every piece of music you hear, every book you read
or every food you taste> %rt is a sensuous e"perience. #espite what others may
have implied, not every work you see or every artist you 1meet1 is going to electrify
your senses. That is as it should be, or you;d be roaming the earth in an unbearably
heightened state of awareness. 0ou don;t need anyone;s approval to react as you
do, positively or negatively, to the art you view.
The more &o* 0no1 the less m&sterio*s art 2ecomes" , The language of art,
for an unknown reason, tends to make it seem awfully unfriendly to outsiders, but
there;s truly no secret code one must crack. Think of %rt peak as you would any
other foreign language. *f you were headed to Bei$ing, you wouldn;t have to be
:uent in tandard =andarin, but you would probably want to know enough to ask
where a restroom or ta"i stand was located, right>
Chisel away at the lingo at your own pace. ?ot all of the terms, mind you, $ust those
, such as the elements of arts , that have universal application.
The benefts here are twofold. 475 @nderstanding the elements, with which every
artist grapples in order to create, is helpful in understanding what the composition
is all about and 4possibly, but never always5 understanding what the artist was
attempting. %nd 485 as with anything else, familiarity brings with it a certain level of
rela"ation. 2ard to appreciate , let alone like , that which has got a person uptight
and intimidated. o learn, always learn.
THE SU/3ECT O# ART Aefers to any person, ob$ect, scene or event described or
represented in a work of art. 4some arts have sub$ect others do not5
The arts that have sub$ect are called representational or objective arts. )ainting,
culpture, graphic arts, literature, and the theater arts are generally classifed
represetational, although a good deal of paintings, prints and sculptures are wBo
sub$ect.
=usic, %rchitecture, and many of the functional arts are non,representational. The
non,ob$ective arts do not present descriptions, stories or references to identifable
ob$ects or symbols. They appeal directly to the senses.
4a&s of Re)resentin! S*25ect The manner of representing sub$ect matter
varies according to the inventiveness and purpose of each artist. 2e may employ
realism, abstraction, or distortion.
The Artist and His Choice of S*25ect )ractically everything under the sun is
raw material for the artist to draw his sub$ect from. =ost, if not all, of the visual arts
are representations of what the artists thought and felt about the world they lived
in. 3r they are representations of things the artists imagined or dreamed about.
6inds of S*25ect:
7. &andscapes, seascapes and cityscapes
8. till &ife
9. %nimals
C. )ortraits
D. /igures
E. !veryday &ife
F. 2istory and &egends
G. Aeligion and mythology
H. #reams and fantasies
S*25ect and Content AecogniIing the sub$ect is not necessarily grasping the
content of a work of art.
a" S*25ect refers to the ob$ects depicted by the artist.
2" Content refers to what the artist e"presses or communicates on the whole in
his work. ometimes it is spoken of as the 'meaning( of the work.
THE #UNCTIONS O# ART /rom one point of view, we may consider art as having
the general functions of satisfying6
7. 3ur individual needs for personal e"pressions.
8. 3ur social needs for display, celebration, and communication, and
9. 3ur physical needs for utilitarian ob$ects and structures.
THE PERSONA7 #UNCTION %rts are vehicles for the artists e"pression of their
feelings and ideas. *n the same way arts also serves as means of e"pression for us.
=usic, for instance, and literature, at times have a way of e"pressing our emotions
for us. %s we listen to certain musical compositions, we feel that they re:ect e"actly
what we feel and thus release the tension such emotions create in us.
SOCIA7 #UNCTION O# ART 3ne cannot conceive of a society without art, for art
is closely related to every aspect of social life.
%rt performs a social function whenJ
7. *t seeks or tends to in:uence the collective behavior of a people,
8. *t is created to be seen or used primarily in public situations, and
9. *t e"presses or describes social or collectice aspects of e"istence as opposed
to individual and personal kinds of e"periences.
PH8SICA7 #UNCTIONS O# ART Tools and containers are ob$ects which function
to make our lives physically comfortable. /unctional works of art may be classifed
as either tools or containers. % spoon is a toolJ so is a car. % building and a
community are containers, as is a ceramic vase or a chair.
9i%isions of Art
Kisual %rts, architecture, sculpture, painting, photography, digital art and
installation art.
%uditory %rts, poetry and =usic
Combined %rts, performing arts 4dance, opera, drama, cinema