OPOL COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Education Department
Learning Activity Package
LAP Code: No. of Hours: 3 hrs/meeting
LAP Subject Title: Art Appreciation

LAP- 3
FUNCTIONS AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ART

A. Topic Outline
Content Assignment
Unit Learning Objectives Activities
Standard
Unit 1: The learner ● Distinguish between 1. Artwork 1. Art
Lesson 3: will directly functional and indirectly Analysis Exploration
Functions and understand functional art; 2. Answer Guide
Philosophical the functions ● Realize the function of Questions
Perspectives on and some art
Art philosophical forms in daily life; and
perspectives ● Apply concepts and
on art. theories on beauty and aesthetics
in real life scenarios.

● Explain and discuss the

basic philosophical perspectives
on the art.

B. Activity
Instruction: Visit your school or city/town museum. Using the table below, list down as many
different artworks that you have witnessed. On the second column, identify what it is for. You
can either research this or surmise intelligently. Write them down on the corresponding
column.

Artwork What is it for?

Spoliarium Depict Filipino struggle in the hands of
colonizers

Bust of Jose Rizal Remind us of our national hero

Photograph of bahay kubo Give a picture of how Filipino houses once

looked
Painting of GomBurZa Allow us to look back on the 3 Dominican friars
who were executed for subversion
OPOL COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Education Department
Learning Activity Package

C. Abstraction

The Functions of Art

1) Aesthetic Function- through art, man becomes conscious of the beauty of nature. He
benefits from his own work and from those done by his fellowmen. He learns to use, love, and
preserve them for his enjoyment and appreciation.

2) Useful Function- with the creation of the various forms of art, man now lives in comfort and
happiness. Through art, man is provided with shelter, clothing, food, light, medicine, beautiful
surroundings, personal ornamentals, entertainment, language, transportation, and other
necessities and conveniences of life. Art does not only enrich man’s life. It also improves nature
through landscape gardening, creation of super highways, and through propagation and
conservation of natural resources.

3) Cultural Function- through the printed matter, art transmits and preserves skills and
knowledge form one generation to another. It makes man aware of his cultural background,
making him more knowledgeable making his life more enduring and satisfying.

4) Social Function- through civic and graphic arts, man learns to love and help each other.
International understanding and cooperation are fostered and nations become more unified,
friendly, cooperative, helpful, and sympathetic. Art has a unique opportunity to serve as
mechanism for social unity. Art is central to man’s existence because it makes accessible
feelings and emotions of people from the past and present, form one continent to another.

5) Political Function- Art reinforces and enhances a sense of identity and ideological
connection to specific political views, political parties and politicians.

6) Educational Function- the art symbols and signs to illustrate knowledge and attitudes that
are not expressed in words.

7) Spiritual Function- some art works express spiritual beliefs, customs, ceremonies and rituals
about the meaning and destiny of life. These artworks may have religious significance.

Philosophy of Art
Philosophy of art refers to the study of the nature of arts, its concepts, interpretation,
representation, expression, and form. Philosophy of art is close related to aesthetics, which is
the study of beauty and taste.
There are four (4) philosophical perspectives of art. These are:
OPOL COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Education Department
Learning Activity Package
1) Art as Mimesis (Imitation)
The word mimesis is a Greek word which means “imitation” or “copying”, although it may also
mean representation. The philosophers Plato and Aristotle spoke of mimesis as the
representation of nature.
Plato believed that all artistic creation is a mimesis. It exists in the “world of ideas” and is
created by God. The concrete things that man created are just shadows created by man’s mind.
All artists are imitators of nature.
Aristotle speaks of tragedy as an “imitation of an action” –that of a man falling from a higher to
a lower estate. Thus, when an artist skilfully selects and presents a material, that artist is
purposely seeking to imitate or copy the action of life.

2) Art as Representation
For Aristotle, all kinds of art, including poetry, music, dance, painting, and sculpture, do not
aim to represent reality as it is. What art endeavours to do is provide a vision of what might be
or the myriad possibilities in reality. Unlike Plato who thought that art is an imitation of another
imitation, Aristotle conceived of art as representing possible versions of reality.
When artist uses signs and symbols to take the place of something else, he is using art as a
representation of such signs and symbols. It is through representation that people organize the
world and reality through the act of naming its elements. Signs and symbols are arranged in
order to form semantic constructions and express relations with the other things.

3) Art as Disinterested Judgment

In the third critique that Immanuel Kant wrote, the “Critique of Judgment”, Kant considered
the judgment of beauty, the cornerstone of art, as something that can be universal despite its
subjectivity. Kant mentioned that judgment of beauty, and therefore, art, is innately
autonomous from specific interests. It is the form of art that is adjudged by one who perceives
art to be beautiful or more so, sublime. Therefore, even aesthetic judgment for Kant is a
cognitive activity.
Kant recognized that judgement of beauty is subjective. However, Kant advanced the
proposition that even subjective judgments are based on some universal criterion for the said
judgment. For Kant, when one judges a particular painting as beautiful, one in effect is saying
that the said painting has induced a particular feeling of satisfaction from him and that he
expects the painting to rouse the same feeling form anyone. There is something in the work of
art that makes it capable of inciting the same feeling of pleasure and satisfaction from any
perceiver, regardless of his condition. So when the same person says something is beautiful, he
does not just believe that the thing is beautiful for him, but in a sense, expects that the same
thing should put everyone in awe.

4) Art as a Communication of Emotion

Art plays a huge role in communication to its audience’s emotions that the artist previously
experienced. Art then serves as a language, a communication device that articulates feelings
and emotions that are otherwise unavailable to the audience. In the same way, that language
communicates information to other people, art communicates emotions (Tolstoy, 2016).
OPOL COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Education Department
Learning Activity Package

D. Analysis
Instruction: Answer the following questions as precisely yet as thoroughly as possible.
1) What art form/artwork has changed something in your life? Why? Describe your experience.
______________________________________________________________________________
___
______________________________________________________________________________
__ 2) Does art always have a function? Why? Support your response. Provide your own
example.
______________________________________________________________________________
___
______________________________________________________________________________
___
3) If an artwork ceased to have function, will it remain an art? Why?
______________________________________________________________________________
___
______________________________________________________________________________
_

E. Application

Instruction: Look around your house and identify a product of art. In the box below, paste a picture
of that product of art in your household. Trace the beginnings of this item and identify what
functions it has played in history.
 OPOL COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Education Department
Learning Activity Package

LAP Code: No. of Hours: 3 hrs/meeting

LAP Subject Title: Art Appreciation LAP- 4

SUBJECT AND CONTENT

A. Topic Outline
Content Assignment
Unit Learning Objectives Activities
Standard
Unit 1: The learner ● Differentiate 1. Understandin Understanding
Lesson 4: will representational art and g the Artwork. Representational
Subject understand nonrepresentational art; 2. Answer guide Art and
and the ● identify the questions. NonRepresentational
Content difference subject matter and Art
between an content of specific
artwork’s examples of art; and ●
subject and Discuss the difference
its content. between an artwork’s
subject and its content.
● identifies the
sources of the subjects
OPOL COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Education Department
Learning Activity Package
of some of the most
recognizable works of
art in Philippine art
history.

B. Activity
1) Look at the painting below by artists David Bailly entitled “Selbstbildnis mit
Vanitassymbolen” (Self-portrait with Vanitas Symbols). List down everything that you see
within the four corners of the work. List as many items as you can in 3 miutes. Use the space for
your answer.

Figure 10. David Bailly entitled “Selbstbildnis mit Vanitassymbolen” (Self-portrait with Vanitas Symbols)

_____________________________________________________________________________
____
_____________________________________________________________________________
____

2) Based on your answers, write an assumption about what the painting means in the space
below.
______________________________________________________________________________
___
_____________________________________________________________________________
___

C. Abstraction

Meaning of Subject of Art

Subject refers to the visual focus or the image that may be extracted from examining the
artwork. The subject is seen as the “what”. In any art form –painting, music, sculpture,
OPOL COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Education Department
Learning Activity Package
architecture, or dance –there is always a subject that serves as the foundation of the creation
of the work of art. It is varied –it may be a person, object, scene, or event.

Sources of Subjects
●Artwork ●autobiographies ●Film of the artist ●interviews ●diaries
●Speeches ●letters ●photographs ●documents ●nature
●History ●mythology ●Christian tradition ●sacred oriental text

Where to find the Primary Sources:

●Archives ●catalogues ●exhibits ●notebooks ●sketchbooks
●Art galleries ●art museums ●art center ●cultural center

Types of Subjects
1) Representational or Objective Arts
These types of art have subjects that refer to objects or events occurring in
the real world. Often, it is also termed figurative art, because the figures
depicted are easy to make out, recognized, and interpret.

2) Non-Representational or Non-Objective Arts

Non-representational art 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 visual elements such as shapes, lines, and colors that are employed
to translate a particular feeling, emotion, and even concept.
There are artworks that have no resemblance to any real subject, they do
not represent anything and they are what they are.

Content in Art
Content is the meaning or significance, and the feeling imparted by the artist of the artwork.
The content is the “why”. Content of art is inextricably linked with form. Form refers to the
development and configuration of the artwork –“how” the elements and the medium or,
material are put together.

Levels of Meaning in Understanding the Content of Art:

1) Factual Meaning –pertains to the most rudimentary level meaning for it may be extracted
from the identifiable or recognizable forms in the artwork and understanding how these
elements relate to one another.
2) Conventional Meaning –pertains to the acknowledged interpretation of the artwork using
motifs, signs, symbols and other ciphers as bases of its meaning. These conventions are
established through time, strengthened by recurrent use and wide acceptance by its viewers or
audience and scholars who study them.
OPOL COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Education Department
Learning Activity Package
3) Subjective Meaning –these meanings stem from the viewer’s or audience’s circumstances
that come into play when engaging with art. Perception and meaning are always informed by a
manifold of context: what we know; what we learned; what we experienced; and the values we
stand for. A particular artwork may communicate multiple meanings to its many viewers.
D. Analysis
Instruction: Answer the following questions as precisely yet as thoroughly as possible.

1) What are the two (2) types of representing the subject of art? Describe each based on your
understanding.
_____________________________________________________________________________
____
_____________________________________________________________________________
____ 2) Which do you prefer as an artwork, with subject or no subject? Explain your answer.
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
3) How does the content of art differ from the subject of art?
______________________________________________________________________________
___
______________________________________________________________________________
___
E. Application
Instruction: Paste one example of Representational Artwork and one example of
Nonrepresentational artwork. Speculate on the content on the content of the art work based
on its factual, conventional, and subjective meanings.
Artwork Factual Meaning Conventional Subjective Meaning
Meaning
Representational Art
Title: __________
[Pastesample picture
here]

Non-Representational
Art
Title: _____________
[Pastesample picture
here]