READING THE IMAGE

At every turn, we are surrounded by images on billboards, paintings, sculptures,

drawings, illustrations, prints, cartoons, posters, murals, photographs, film, and
computer graphics. They are conveyed through various media - oil, acrylic, watercolor
sculptural materials, film, mixed media, and others, all of which have their own
techniques, processes, and technical approaches to image-making. Understanding art
has to do with "reading" the visual work as a re-presentation of the world, an artistic
construct and signifying practice conveying a complex of ideas, feelings, values, attitudes,
moods, and atmospheres that derive from world views and ideologies.
Since art is a vital part of our lives, it is important for us to know and understand it
better. Exposure to different kinds of art forms and the practice of writing on art can
lead to the formulation of methods of analyzing it. Thus, this introductory essay is an
effort at shaping a method of analysis. It is basically a semiotic approach, which is able
to show how the material and ideational aspects are closely interlinked, if not fused,
in the work of art. Likewise, this simple semiotic approach goes beyond the formalist
view, which limits itself to the formal premises of the work; rather, it advances a broader
aesthetics in which the work is situated within the coordinates of society and history in
a dynamic relationship of engagement.

Each visual art form has its own technical standards of excellence, involving the
choice and use of a medium with its particular properties and suitable techniques.
Because of this, it is necessary to familiarize oneself with the different art mediums
and techniques through the observation of processes. It is essential to understand the
mediums and processes involved in art-making because these enter into the meaning of
the work.
One can take a practical approach for a preliminary understanding of the visual work,
such as a painting. We can begin by going through the basic documentary information
about the work. This kind of information is provided by museums, galleries, and some
other exhibit venues in catalogues, brochures, and artist folios.
Title of the work. The title may be significant or immaterial to the meaning of the
work; it is a textual element that may or may not contribute to its meaning. What is
the relation of the title to the work? It can be a simple label identifying the subject,
in which case it is merely a convenient naming device. At times, however, it bears an
ironic relationship to the work or may carry a sly or witty comment about the work or its
subject. If significant, the title adds a literary dimension to the work in the interplay of
the visual and the literary.
Artist's name. This brings in biographical data: To what generation does the artist
belong? Who are his peers? What were the (dominant artistic trends during his active
years? What is his personal background and training? Did he keep records, diaries, or did
he publish statements which may shed light on his art?
Medium and techniques, First of all, this requires that the work be identified as a two-
dimensional or a three-dimensional work. Two-dimensional works include drawings,
illustrations, paintings, prints, posters, flat tapestries and wall hangings, mosaics, mats,
textile paintings (such as batik, glass drawings, or paintings), and any other work which
is reckoned in terms of length and width. All these forms resist academic hierarchization
since they each have their own standards of artistic excellence.
Three-dimensional forms include sculptures in various materials, such as wood,
stone, metal, glass, or they may be assemblages of found objects or junk parts.
Installations made of different materials composed within a defined space also fall under
three-dimensional works. Much of folk art, such as clay pottery and baskets combining
design and function, are three-dimensional in form. This is also true for indigenous
ritual objects made by wood carving, such as the Ifugao bulul.
The documentation identifies the medium and sometimes the techniques. Is the
medium academic or conventional, or does it involve artistic choice to a greater degree,
as in mixed media or multimedia? Likewise, there should be a keen awareness of the
painting, sculpture, print, or any other form not just as a completed work but also
as artistic process involving particular materials and techniques and produced under
particular social conditions of productions, both personal and social. It is also necessary
to have knowledge of the properties and limitations of the different kinds of media and
their techniques. For materials and techniques are also conveyors of meaning and not
just superficial or incidental aspects of the work. Technical innovations do not or should
not exist only for themselves in the sheer interest of novelty, but should be part of the
work's total meaning. The use of indigenous materials evokes the natural and familiar
environment and precludes the sense of alienation experienced by ordinary viewers
before artworks made from inaccessible specialist materials.
A note must be added regarding the ground of a painting. There are occasions in
which description of the ground requires greater specificity than merely canvas, paper,
or wood panel. Different kinds of cloth, canvas, and wood have been used as ground at
different periods and, as such, they aid in situating the work in a particular time and
place. It is also useful to identify the particular kind of paper used, such as the different
(art papers and hand-made paper produced from a wide variety of organic materials.
This also goes for the pigments and coloring substances, their compositions and origins,
as well as the tools used in the technical execution. It is, likewise, important to note
that with the advances in communications technology, art media are continually being
enriched, as in the use of computers in digital imaging.
Dimensions, or measurements. Two-dimensional works are measured in length and
width; three-dimensional works, in terms of length, width, and volume. The dimensions
as now measured in the metric system may be large scale, mural size, big, average, small,
or miniature size. The extreme poles of very large and very small are usually significant
to the meaning of the work. One of the smallest paintings on record is that painted on a grain of rice. In the
nineteenth century, miniature paintings of telizious subjects and
secular portraits enjoyed a fashion. The historical and mythological paintings of the
Buruneanacademies, abstract expressionist works, and ftreet murali, are large in scale
Some large- scale works are meant to envelop and saturate the spectator in color field,
others seek to draw the viewer into the dynamic movements within the painting. Mural;
¿prachave an essentialiy public character seek to address a large open air crowd regarding
issues and concerns of social and political importance. In the case of installations
however, dimensions may be variable in relation to their different sites.
The format of the work is part of its dimensions. The usual rectangular format of
a painting may not hold any significance, Symbolism may come into play, however, in a
square, circular, or irregular format. A modular sculpturè with exchangeable elements
may manifest architectural concepts. (Montage-like, with the influence of the cinematic
image, the painting may consist of several panels in juxtaposition. Some contemporary
works may borrow the format of early Renaissance paintings,)as in diptychs or triptychs
or with a principal image bordered by a predella, or sections portraying a narrative
sequence.
Date of the work, The date, often the year, in which the work was completed situates
the work in a period that provides the historical context of the work. What were the
(predominant issues, concerns, and trends of the period? The work is viewed in relation to
works of the same period by the same artist or by some other artists. Likewise, it provides
information as to what period of the artist's development the work belongs, whether to
the early, middle, or late period of his or her career. Finally, the date of the work situates
it in art history: Does it belong to a particular trend, school, or environment? What does
it contribute to art history?
Provenance. This is indicated by the name of the present owner or collector of the
work; it can belong to a museum, gallery, or part of a private collection. A work, in fact,
should have a record of provenance from the present owner to former owners and to the
artist.
Of course, one may not immediately find the answers to all these questions.
Understanding a work of art may involve a great deal of research. Moreover, the meaning
of an important work can grow with time, as viewing it becomes a process of continual
discovery which is part of the pleasure that art gives.

Let us begin with the basic premise that there are two interrelated aspects in the
study of art. The first is that art has its specificity, that is, its particular language or
vocabulary that has to do with the media, techniques, and visual elements of art and
that constitute it as a distinct area of human knowledge and signifying practice. This is
not just what is commonly called the formal aspect of art, but it is what constitutes art
as a particular human activity different from the others. The other aspect is that art,
while it has its specificity, is at the same time historically situated and shaped by social,economic, and political
forces. Both these aspects need to be taken into account to be
able to fully understand and appreciate art. For a study of the formal elements alone
will not lead to a full understanding of the work, in the same way that the exclusive
study of the social determinants risks collapsing the artistic into the sociological. A
visual work as an iconic or pictorial sign has a unique and highly nuanced meaning, and
this uniqueness and semantic richness arise from the original use of the elements and
resources of art. Needless to say, the meaning, signification, or system of significations
of a work is not statemental, nor is the understanding of a work a reductive process that
reduces meaning to a summary, statement, or single insight or message. Meaning in art is
a complex of intellectual, emotional, and sensory significations, which the work conveys
and to which the viewer responds, bringing in the breadth of his cultural background,
artistic exposure and training, and human experience in a dialogic relationship with the
artwork. One may speak of a work's "horizon of meaning" (Eagleton, 1991), implying
a range of possible significations that a work may accommodate, the same time that it
suggests semantic parameters.
The analytic study of the various elements and material features of the work should
lead to a more stable and consensual field of meaning, away from erratic, whimsical,
purely subjective, and impressionistic readings.
Having taken note of the information provided by the basic documentation of the
work, we then proceed to the four planes of analysis: the basic semiotic, the ionic, the
contextual, and the evaluative planes.
THE BASIC SEMIOTIC PLANE
Semiotics here is used in its basic formulation for the study of "signs." Here the work
of art is the iconic or pictorial sign. A sign consists of a "signifier," or its material / physical
aspect, and its "signified," or nonmaterial aspect, as concept and value. Related to these
is the "referent," or object as it exists in the real world. A visual work, whether it be a
two-dimensional pictorial plane or a three-dimensional body, is an embodiment of signs
in which all physical or material marks and traces, elements, figures, and notations, are
signifiers that bear a semantic or meaning-conveying potential and which, in relation
to each other, convey concepts and values which are their signified. Their semantic
potential is realized in the analysis or reading of the integral work
The basic semiotic plane covers the elements and the general technical and physical
aspects of the work with their semantic meaning-conveying potential. It includes (a)
visual elements, (b) choice of medium and technique, (c) format of the work, and (d) any
other physical properties and marks.
Visual elements. These refer to line, value, color, texture, shape, composition in
space, movement- and how they are used. Each element has a meaning potential that is
realized, confirmed, and verified in relation to the other elements forming the text of the
work. While elements usually reinforce one another, there can also exist contrasting or contradictory
relationships, which may be part of the meaning of a work. The elements
and all material features are, thus, to be viewed in a highly relational manner and not
isolated or compartmentalized.
Choice of medium and technique. In a contemporary art, medium enters more and more
into the meaning of the work. While the European academies or salons of the nineteenth
century decreed the choice determined less by its availability as by its semantic potential.
For instance, handmade paper with its organic allure, irregularities of texture, and
uneven edges is favored by a number of artists because it bears significations conveying
the uniquely personal, human, and intimate, in contrast to mass-produced standard
paper. Technique, of course, goes hand in hand with the nature of the medium. Likewise,
there are techniques that valorize the values of spontaneity and the play of chance and
accident while there are those that emphasize order and control.
Format of the work. The very format of the work participates in its meaning. Again,
in contemporary art, format is no longer purely conventional but becomes laden with
meaning. For instance, the choice of a square canvas is no longer arbitrary but enters
into the meaning of the work as a symbolic element, the square signifying mathematical
order and precision.
Other physical properties and marks of the work. Notations, traces, textural features, marks
(whether random or intentional) are part of the significations of the work.
Theelements of the visual arts derive their semantic, or meaning-conveying potential,
from two large sources, namely, (a) human psychophysical experiences (psychological and
physical / sensory), which are commonly shared; and (b) the sociocultural conventions
of a particular society and period (Matejka & Titunik, 1976). As human beings, our
sensory and physical experiences in general are intimately fused with our psychological
conditions and processes. Among our basic psychophysical experiences involve those of
the changing light of day and night, of warmth and cold, of weight or gravity, relative
distance, pleasure and pain, with the complex intellectual and emotional associations
that go with these. Because of these humanly shared experiences, it is often possible to
arrive at a general agreement of what these elements and their usage convey in a work
of art.
The semantic potential of line, for instance, does not merely lie in its orientation as
horizontal, vertical, diagonal, or curvilinear, but also in its very quality, its thickness
or thinness, density and porosity, regularity or irregularity, its production by even or
uneven pressure on a surface, as well as qualities determined by the instrument producing
it. A line made by a technical pen signifies a set of concepts and values different from
that made by a stick of charcoal. Likewise, the different orientations of line derive their
meaning from the positions of the body. A sleep or at rest, one is in a horizontal position;
in readiness, vertical; and in action, diagonal. In dance, one creates curved lines in space
with one's body and limbs.
Our sense of tonal values from light through shades of gray to dark comes from our
experience of the cycle of night and day, from early dawn through the gradual series of
light changes in the course of the day until evening to darkest night. These changes in the
light and dark or our environment have always affected us psychologically; in general,
dawn ushers in bright optimism, while(night creates a sense of mystery, melancholy,
and respite. In our perception of color around us, (warm hues)that seem to advance are
associated with human warmth, congeniality, openness, and spontaneity, while cool
hues that seem to recede are associated with remoteness, self-containment, quietness,
and restraint. Shapes are also linked to our physical experiences. Geometric shapes,
whether two- or three-dimensional, are measurable and circumscribed (Organic shapes)
are drawn from natural living and growing forms, while free shapes project, expand, and
contract in all directions. Texture is associated with experiences of pleasure and pain,
pleasantness and unpleasantness, in tactile sensations of hard and soft, smooth and
rough, silky and gritty. Movement in the visual art, whether implied or actual, parallels
human experiences of movement with our own bodies or in relation to things around us.
Rhythm is part of the body's processes as an organic whole. Our sense of composition is
affected by gravity and the relative weights of things, as well as our physical experience
of bodies massing, crowding, or in isolation and apartness. It is also determined by our
sense of the relationship between figures or objects, as well as between figures or objects
and their ground, as well as the intervallic spaces within a given design or field. While
allowing for a range of differences in sense perception caused by geography and climate
(tropical or temperate), it is possible to assume a certain degree of universality in the
human response to the elements of art.
Just as important, the meaning-conveying potential of the elements also comes from
their sociocultural context with its conventions involving social codes and symbolic
systems commonly shared by members of a society or group. Codifying systems include
those of color, for instance, where apart from the significations drawn from the basic
psychophysical associations, they acquire socially derived meanings. The various hues
possess differential semantic inflections in different societies. A common example is
black, which is the color of mourning in Western or Western-influenced societies, while it
is white in many Asian societies. Likewise, groups and societies have their own chromatic
codes that have to do with the range of hues with their tones and saturations that operate
in their art with prevalent or favored color combinations. For instance, the chromatic
code used by artists in urban areas has been largely determined by the standard sets of
colors industrially produced in the West. On the other hand, the chromatic codes of the
cultural communities are determined by their lore of local dyes derived from available
plants and minerals. Each cultural community has its own particular chromatic code
because it has its own lore of dyes, although there may be general similarities between a
number of communities. By bringing out the distinctiveness of each, one does not lump
(indigenous artistic qualities into one homogenous category.
Conventions may also include formats, as in the Chinese horizontal or vertical
hanging scroll. The different writing conventions in different societies may influence
composition in space, Also important are cultural conventions in the use of space that
is linked with world views. There is, for instance, the dialogue between figure and space
in the arts of China and Japan, on one hand, and the phenomenon of horror vacui in the
arts of India and Southeast Asia, on the other. In abstract art, it is the basic semiotic
plane, which alone operates in general, but in figurative art, one proceeds to two other
planes.
According to de Saussure (1974), meaning is produced from the interplay of the
signifiers of the work. Following this, a number of observations arise. The first is that
artistic amalysis takes into account not only the elements but also the other material
'aspects, such as (dimension, format, medium, frame, and techniques, as signifiers or
conveyors of meaning. The second is that there is developed a finer and more sensitive
perception of the elements as they are specifically and materially found in a particular
work. Line, for instance, is not just seen in its vertical, horizontal, or diagonal orientation,
but is examined in its particular properties of density, porosity, relative sharpness,
and any other such matters. Third, the elements are not studied in a sequential and
compartmentalized manner but in a highly relational and interactive way in which the
use of line, color, texture, and composition in space confirms or verifies meanings or
create semantic relationship of similarity or contrast. And fourth, the signifiers go hand
in hand with their signifieds, and, thus, one does not limit oneself to a description of
the elements in the way they are used; one, instead, links their particularities of usage
with their primary significations based on human psychophysical experiences, as well
as their intellectual and emotional associations within the society. In the images of
the art and the media, the use of the elements affects us subliminally or unconsciously
and, especially in the media, is part of what have been called the "hidden persuaders"
that influence choice and behavior. However, it is in art criticism that we become highly
conscious of the means and their effects and what they signify. It is also in semiotic
analysis that we work within the specific language of art. In contrast, the classical
approach often overlooks the basic language of art and bears heavily on the image, its
iconography and descriptive details, as well as its iconology and its narratives.
THE ICONIC PLANE, OR THE IMAGE ITSELF
This level is still part of the semiotic approach since it is still based on the signifier-
signified relationship. Here, however, it is not the material elements of the work that are
dealt with as in the semiotic plane; it has to do with the particular features, aspects, and
qualities of the image, which are the second-level signifiers. The image is regarded as
an "iconic sign," which means - beyond its narrow association with religious images in
the Byzantine style - that is unique sign with a unique, particular, and highly nuanced
meaning, as different from a conventional sign, such as traffic or street sign that has a
single literal meaning agreed upon by social convention.
The iconic plane includes the/choice of the subjeet, which may bear social and political
implications. An example in art history is the French realist artist Gustave Courbets'
choice of workers and ordinary people in his paintings, instead of the Olympian gods
and goddesses or heroes from Greek and Roman antiquity that were the staple of classical
and academic art up to the nineteenth century. We can ask the questions: Is the (subject
meaningful in terms of the sociocultural context? Does it reflect or have a bearing on
the values and ideologies arising in a particular place and time?
One proceeds to consider the presentation of the image and its relationship to the
viewer. If the subject is a human figure, does it address the viewer directly or is it self-
contained or self-absorbed? What kind of subject-viewer relationship is implied by the
subject through his facial expression, body language, costume and accessories, natural
or social background? Is it a relationship of peers or one of dominance and subordination?
Is it a friendly, ironic, aggressive, or hostile relationship, and all possible nuances
thereof? Most examples of Philippine genre, for instance, are based on the concept of the
stage or tableau that is oriented toward a large public audience, which it seems to address
directly --- a mark of the social cohesiveness of the rural peasant society, as well as of the
extended Filipino family system in which all members of the society have their kinship
appellations. John Berger, in his Ways of Seeing
(1972), has an engrossing study of the paintings,
with the female nude as subject, in which he
demonstrates sexist attitude toward women from
the implied male viewer.
Also part of the iconic plane is the positioning
of the figure or figures, whether frontal, in profile,
three-fourth, and so forth, and the significations
that arise from these different presentations. Does the painting show strong central focusing with the principal
figure occupying the center space, or is it decentered and the painting asymmetrical in composition? How do
these presentations
contribute to different meaning? Does the subject or
subjects have formal or a casual air? How does one
describe the central figure's stance: poised, relaxed,
indifferent, provocative, or aloof? How
much
(importance is given to psychological insight into
character by the artist? To costume and accessories?
To the setting-_natural, social, or domestic? What
is the relative scaling of the figures from large to
small? What bearing does this have on the meaning
of the work? Luna's Tampuhan (1895) brings to the
fore the artist's sensitivity to body language, How
do the postures of the man and the woman convey
their emotional attitudes?

In portraits, where is the gaze of the subject directed? This is important not only
in defining the relationship of subject and viewer but also in describing pictorial space.
Degas's Woman with Chrysanthemums, for example, shows a middle-aged woman beside
a large vase of the flowers. More important, her intense and scheming look projects an
imaginary line to a figure or figures that are the objects of her(gaze outside the pictorial
field of the painting into an implied open and expanded space.
Is there cropping of the figure or figures? What is the significance of the kind of
cropping used? Some kinds of cropping are intended to create a random, arbitrary effect
as against the deliberate and controlled. Other kinds isolate a segment of the subject,
such as the hand or the feet, in order to draw attention to its physical qualities-when a
part stands for the whole, a peasant's bare feet can tell us about an entire life of the labor
and exploitation. Likewise, some artists use cropping as a device to imply the extension
of the figure into the viewer's space.
Here one also takes into account the relationship of the figures to one another,
whether massed, isolated, or juxtaposed in terms of affinity or contrast. A painting may
expand or multiply its space by having not just one integral image but several sets of
images in montage form, from the same or different times and places. These may occur
in temporal sequencè to constitute a narrative or may take the form of simultaneous
facets or aspects of the reality. Serial images showing an image multiplied many times,
as in Andy Warhol's Campbell Soup cans, convey significations arising from the blatant
consumerism of advanced capitalist societies.
The style of figuration is an important part of the iconic plane. The figurative style
is not mere caprice, passing fashion, or the artist's personal ecriture; beyond these, it
implies a particular re-presentation of the world, a world view, if not ideology. Classical
figuration basically follows the proportion of 7 and a half to 8 heads to entire figure in
its pursuit of ideal form, as in a formal studio portrait with the subject enhanced by
makeup, all imperfections concealed. Realist figuration is based on the keen observation
of the people, nature, and society in the concern for truth of representation, thus,
creating portraits of individual without glossing over physical imperfections and defects
or exposing the environmental squalor that arises from social inequities. Impressionist
figuration is fluid and informal, often catching the subject unaware like a candid camera.
Expressionist figuration follows emotional impulses and drives, thus, often involving
distortion and clashing colors that come from strong emotion. The viewer, however,
should not be too anxious to find precise stylistic labels, for contemporary art has seen
the development of highly original styles that have gone far beyond the turn-of-the-
century styles of the School of Paris. It is important to be sensitive to the meaning-
conveying potential of highly individual and contemporary styles. In the basic semiotic
plane, which deals with the material aspects of the work, and in the iconic plane, which
deals with the aspects of the image itself, one can see that as the signifier cannot be separated from the
signified, concrete fact or material data cannot be divorced from
value; in other words, as Janet Wolff (1983) asserts, fact is value-laden and value, or
ideological meaning, is derived from material fact.
THE CONTEXTUAL PLANE
Here one proceeds from the basic semiotic and iconic planes and the knowledge and
insights one has gained from these into the social and historical context of the work art.
Resituating the work in its context will bring out the full meaning of the work in terms
of its human and social implications. The viewer draws out the dialogic relationship of
art and society. Art sources its energy and vitality from its social context and return to it
as a cognitive force and catalyst for change. If one does not view the work in relation to
its context - but chooses to confine analysis to the internal structure of the work - one
truncates its meaning by refusing to follow the trajectories of the work into the larger
reality that has produced it. One precludes the work from reverberating in the real world.
As has been said earlier, the meaning of a work is a complex one that involves
(concepts, values, emotions, attitudes, atmospheres, and sensory experiences that arise
from the three planes. The experience of a work cannot be reduced or paraphrased in
a statement, such as a moral lesson or message, but it is a total experience involving
the faculties of the whole person - not just his eyes or his senses, but his mind and
emotions as well. The work of art has its horizon of meaning that is narrower or larger
depending on the degree of visual literacy, cultural breadth, art exposure and training,
and intellectual and emotional maturity of the viewer. Art involves cognition or learning;
it is an important way of learning about people, life, and society. Does the work expand
our knowledge of reality as a whole? Is its experience insightful and transformative with
respect to living in the world?
A broad knowledge of a society's history and its economic, political, and cultural
conditions, past and present, is called upon in the contextual plane. With this comes
a knowledge of national and world art and literatures, mythologies, philosophies, and
different cultures and world views. The work of art may contain references and allusions,
direct or indirect, to historical figures and events, as well as to religious, literary, and
philosophical ideas and values that are part of the meaning of the work.
The different symbolic systems, which are culture-bound, also come into play.
Although we have been strongly influenced by Western symbolic systems, we have to
move toward a greater awareness of our many indigenous and Asian / Southeast Asian,
Malay animist and Islamic symbolic systems that must be valorized as they are part
of our social context. These systems may have to do with color, shape, design, as well
as cultural symbols associated with the belief systems of the different ethnic groups.
Figures may also have rich and distinct intellectual and emotional associations built
around them in the course of the history of a group.
The contextual plane, likewise, situates the work in the personal and social
circumstances of its production. The work may contain allusions to personal or public
events, conditions, stages, as well as influences (such as persons and literary texts) that
have been particularly meaningful to the artist. Themes and subthemès may be derived
from personal life experiences significant to the artist, and particular biographical data
may play an important part in understanding the work and its view of reality.
The work is firmly situated in a particular society and time, "in its social and
historical coordinates" (Wolff, 1983). The work is viewed or studied in relation to its
epoch, to the prevailing word views, ideologies, issues, concerns, trends, and events
of the day. It situates the artist with respect to the debates of his time. The work may
have allusions or references to the personalities and events of a particular period, and
(convey attitudes of espousal, approval, indifference, or rejection with respect to these,
for the work of art conveys values, artistic, religious, social, or political. Art then is not
value free. All art contains values of one kind or another. Abstract art, likewise, may
express world views and values, as Mondrian's abstraction, for instance, conveyed his
neoplatonism, as he considered his paintings symbolic of the underlying harmony and
order in the universe. On the contrary, Pollock's gestural abstraction places value on
spontaneity and the release of kinetic energy and nonrational impulses. Values - such
as spontaneity as against discipline and order, mystery and elusiveness as against clear
definition, informality as against the formal, transitoriness as against permanence
may be found in abstract art, at the same time that these can be viewed in the light of
the intellectual trends of the time.
Finally, a single work of art is often more completely understood when it is viewed
in the context of the artist's entire body of work, when it is juxtaposed and compared
on the semiotic, iconic, and contextual planes with works of artists in the same period,
in different periods of his career, and then with the work of his contemporaries. This
is because the meaning of one work may become part of a larger body of work or of
an integral artistic vision. In comparative intertextuality, the work of art reveals its
numerous ramifications of meaning, at the same time that it related to its referents in
the real world.
THE EVALUATIVE PLANE
The evaluative plane has to do with analyzing the values of a work. After the
understanding of the work is the difficult task of evaluating it. Often, it is facile to say
that evaluation involves the two aspects of form and content. However, this division
is theoretically conservative since the two are regarded as conceptually separate. It is
semiotic analysis involving the basic semiotic plane, the iconic plane, and the contextual
plane that shows how meaning is produced through the interrelationship of the signifiers
(material features) and signified (concepts, values) in the unique pictorial sign that is the work of art. At all
points, meaning is anchored in material form. Again, empirical,
physical fact is value-laden, and value and meaning ensue from material fact. Thus, the
first consideration in evaluation would be to what degree the material basis of the work
conveys meaning or particular intellectual / emotional contents.
The evaluation of the material basis of the work reckons with standards of excellence
in the use of the medium and its related techniques. Some questions may be posed. Is
the (medium (which includes surface, ground, or material block, instruments, tools,
pigments - all these calling for appropriate techniques) used with a high degree of artistic
skill, creativity, and insight? Was the particular medium chosen as most appropriate in
conveying general or specific significations? With respect to (medium, the viewer/critic
(© rejects the traditional hierarchies laid down by the nineteenth-century academies in
which oil on canvas and sculpture in marble were considered superior to other media. For
all visual forms - whether paintings, prints, posters, illustrations, cartoons, and comics
- observe standards of technical excellence to which a work may be on par or below par.
Understanding and evaluating the technical side of the work requires a familiarity with
and sensitivity to the properties of medium. Thus the viewer/critic should devote time
to researching on and observing art-making, even doing exercises or producing his or
her own work. At the same time, one must be open to the transgressing of conventional
processes and norms in the quest for new creative and expressive resources.
The traditional and usual consideration of form touches upon the principles of
organization, which are traditionally identified as rhythm, harmony, balance, and
proportion. One has to bear in mind, however, that these tenets were laid down by the
European classical academies to preserve the hierarchic order of monarchial society. In
their philosophical framework the ideals of harmony, balance, and proportion were not
only aesthetic values but also sociopolitical values, while they retain a continuing but
limited validity, are often erroneously absolutized as the ultimate objectives of art.
As has been stated, the meaning of a work is a complex one consisting of concepts,
values, and feelings, which derive from human life and the real world and have a
bearing upon them. Thus, an important aspect of the evaluation of a work necessarily
includes the analysis and examination of its significations and values that become fully
(3) articulated on the contextual plane, although these had already been shaping up on
the basic semiotic and iconic planes. And since values are expressed in the work that
holds a dialogic relationship with reality, the assessment of these values is a necessary
part of critical evaluation. Now, the values of the artist as conveyed in the work and those
of the viewer may coincide in mutual agreement or may not quite coincide or may even be
contradictory. There exists, of course, a whole range of attitudes on the part of the viewer/
criticto the work, from full espousal and enthusiastic agreement at one pole, through degrees
of appreciation and indifference growing toward annoyance and to vigorous rejection at the
opposite pole.
It becomes clear that, on one hand, the artist is not or should not be a mere technician
but expresses a view of life in his work. On the other hand, the viewer/critic is also not
a mere connoisseur confined to the analysis of the elements, techniques, and processes,
The viewer/critic is one who must have, after long reflection and experience, arrived at
the formulation of his own value system, his view of the world and humanity he has come
to feel deeply and even strongly about. As the artist enjoys artistic independence, the
critic/viewer also enjoys his own autonomy. For, to be sure, the critic is not an appendage
of the artist or a promoter or publicist, but one who vitally contributes to the dynamic
dialogue, interaction, and debate in the field of art and culture as these intersect with
(5)
the other human concerns - the political, social, and economic.
An underlying premise then is that the viewer of art, in particular the art critic, needs
to have thought out fully his own values by which he or she lives as a total human person
The artist, likewise, creates art not as a fragmented human being or purely technical
specialist, but as a total thinking and feeling individual. If the critic simply describes
and appreciates the work's technical excellence, if it is indeed worth appreciating on
this level, and stops short of making value judgments, then he isolates the work from its
larger social environment - in which case, he divorces art from life and its concerns and
promotes the condition of art feeding upon itself. Yet, when the critic evaluates the work
relative to his own philosophy and division of life and the world, he is only fully realizing
the dialogue between the work and the viewer, after completing the process of semiotic
reading, understanding, and contextualizing the work.
Since art directly or indirectly conveys meaning and seeks to influence one's ideas
and values in subliminal ways, then it is but an essential role of the viewer/critic to
be able to recognize these subtle semiotic devices and to articulate these and bring
them to light. As the critic/viewer fully recognizes and respects the prerogative of the
artist to express his ideas and feelings, the former also reservès the right to agree or
have reservations with respect to the work in relation to his own values and view of
the world. It is to be pointed out, however, that it is possible for a critic to understand
and appreciate a work viewed in its specific sociocultural context without necessarily
espousing its ideas, in the same way that one can deeply appreciate a Zen work of art
without being a Zen Buddhist oneself. However, in contemporary art produced in the
context of our time and place, the expression of the critic's differential view is not to be
constructed as a manipulative strategy but as only bringing out alternative viewpoints
in the dialogic relationship of art and viewer, art and reality.
Indeed, the responsible viewer/critic draws from a rich fund of knowledge and
humanism. The Filipino art critic may uphold values reflecting the quest for national
identity and placing premium on the people's interests vis-à-vis foreign interests that
seek to dominate our national life. The democratization of art may be promoted in
themes that enhance the sense of human dignity, especially of those engaged in basic
production and that espouse liberative causes and projects. Democratization can also be carried out in the use
of popular forms and media that make art accessible to the
larger number. There is, likewise, a liberative thrust in themes that espouse the cause of
traditional marginalized sectors, such as women and children, as well as non-Christian
ethnic and Muslim groups in the Philippines. The critic may (uphold the role of art as an
emancipating influence rather than as pure commodity or decoration catering to the
elite.
Yet what if, as may sometimes be the case, interpretations of the work by different
critics do not coincide or are contradictory? Does this mean then that our critical process
is unreliable? There may be general consensus on the basic semiotic and iconic planes, but
differences may lie in the contextual and, especially, in the evaluative plane of analysis.
This is so in all class societies driven by conflicting interests, such as ours, it is only to be
expected that artists and viewers/critics adhere to diverse value systems that coincide,
overlap, or are in opposition, thus, affecting the way they make art or look at art.
Thus, after the critic/viewer has gone through the four planes - the semiotic, the
iconic, the contextual, and the evaluative - it is possible to determine the semantic
focus and parameters of the work and from these project its horizons of meaning, its
boundaries and limitations, its semantic implications and ideological orientations,
its conservative or transformative tendencies with respect to human life and society.
The critic/viewer, thus, arrives at a more focused understanding of the work of art
which, while it has a semantic core, has parameters that are fluid and continually being
expanded and elaborated on in the ever-continuing dialogic experience of art.
This essay is a considerably revised and modified version of "Reading the Image,"
which appeared in Humanities: Art and Society handbook (Quezon City: UP College of
Arts and Letters Foundation, Technical Panel on Humanities, Social Sciences, and
Communication, Commission on higher Education, 1998), appendix A, 255-74.