CHAPTER 2

THE FUNCTIONS OF ART 3. Social Function

 Art can be generally classified into two:  Art serves this purpose when it bridges
Directly Functional and Indirectly connection among people. Also when it
Functional. encourages unity and good relationship
a) Directly Functional Art – Art that among people. With this, people become
we use in a daily basis and serves a more understanding and could somehow
literal or tangible function in our create a better society.
lives. (e.g. Clothes, Architectural
and Engineering, Structures,
Money, Furniture) 4. Cultural Function
b) Indirectly Functional Art – Art
that are ‘perceived through the  Art serves as an aperture towards skills,
senses.” Not used literally to live knowledge, attitudes, customs, and
but accompanies life (e.g. Painting, traditions of different people. The art helps
Theatre, Literature) preserve, share and transmit culture of
people from one generation to another.

 Both Directly Functional and Indirectly

Functional Arts tend to cross each other’s
paths and change roles or even fuse
purposes. PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES
 Some Directly Functional Art have a sole A. Plato’s Theory Of Mimesis
purpose which is for functionality, but the  In his theory if Mimesis, Plato says
designs incorporated made the decorative that all Art is mimetic by nature;
art transcend from its basic form to a art is an imitation of life. He
highly artistic form of art. believed that ‘idea’ is the ultimate
 Artistic Functions can be classified reality. Art imitates idea and so it is
into 4: imitation of reality.
1. Aesthetic
2. Utilitarian
3. Social
B. Aristotle’s Theory of Representations
4. Cultural
 All the Arts have their own
techniques and rational principles,
and it is through mastery of these
1. Aesthetic Function that the artist/ craftsman brings his
conceptions to life. Yes, the arts fo
 An artwork functions aesthetically when it
copy nature but their
becomes an instrument for mankind to be
representations are fuller and more
cognizant of its beauty where feelings of
meaningful than nature gives us in
joy and appreciation are manifested.
the raw. That is their strength. We
do not therefore need to insist on
some moral purpose for art, which
2. Utilitarian Function is thus free to represent all manner
of things present, past, imagined or
 Art serves this function when it is used to
institutionally-required.
give comfort, convenience, and happiness
to human beings. It served basic functions
such as clothing, food, and shelter, and
other things that make humans live with C. Kant’s “L’Art por L’Art( Art for Art’s
happiness and ease. Sake)
 Kant argued the purpose of art is to
be ‘purposeless’. It should not have
ri justify any reason of existing and
being valued other than the fact
 that it is art. Our experience of art -
the ways we appreciate and
criticize work – is therefore wholly SCALE and PROPORTION
commanded by aesthetic pleasure  Scale refers to the size of an object (as a
and delight, separate to the rest of whole in relationship to another object (as
the world. another whole). In art the size relationship
 Practically speaking, it usually between an object and the human body is
meant that art should avoid social, significant.
political, and moral themes and  Proportion refers to the relative size of
concentrate instead on creating parts of a whole (elements within an
beauty, so it really meant “art for object). We often think of proportions in
the sake of beauty and its terms of size relationships within the
elevating effects.” human body.

D. Art as an escape CLARITY and RADIANCE

 “ The ceremony of art touches the
deepest realms of he psyche and  A clear design values clarity over
he sacred dimension of the artistic novelty. (Clear instead of clever.)
creative process. The sacred level Novel for novel’s sake is for designers
of art not only transforms who create solutions for themselves.
something into art, but also Solutions that don’t value goals or
transforms the artist at the very problems.
core of his or her being. This way of  Radiance is a type of glowing: either
doing and relating to art makes the from a light source like the sun or a
process and context of art-making healthy, beaming person.
infinitely more important than the
product.”
 It’s an escape from the hustle and THE REPRESENTIONAL THEORY
bustle of a long active day of work
and meetings. It’s an escape from  States that the fundamental, definitive
the chaos that our uncertain quality of art is the ability to capture some
thoughts cause within us. It’s an aspect of reality.
escape our unrelating running
footsteps that we focus on more
intensely than reminding ourselves THE SUBJECT
to take magical depths of deep
breaths.  The Subject of art refers to any person,
object, scene or event described or
represented in a work of art.
ARTISTIC INTEGRITY  Representational )e.g. Paintings,
Sculptures, etc.)
 Never settle for anything but your  Non-Representational (e.g. Architectural
absolute best effort – an effort that may Structures)
be exhausting and frustrating but that will  Many contemporary painters have turned
ultimately serve you in good stead as an away from representational to non-
artist and as a human being. objective painting. They have shifted their
attention to the work of art as an object in
itself, an exciting combination of shapes
CONSONANCE and DISSONANCE and colors that fulfills an aesthetic need
without having to represent images or tell
 The impression of stability and repose a story.
(consonance) in relation to the impression  Many modern paintings are like this
of tension or clash (dissonance) making them more difficult to
experienced by a listener when certain comprehend.
combinations of tones or notes are
sounded together. WAYS OF REPRESENTING SUBJECTS
REALISM/NATURALISM ART and BEAUTY

 Generally the attempt to represent subject  “Beauty is in the Phi of the Beholder.”
matter truthfully, without artificiality and  Dr. Stephen Marquardt has studies human
avoiding artistic conventions, or beauty for years in his practice of oral and
implausible, exotic, and supernatural maxillofacial surgery. Dr. Marquardt
elements. performed cross-cultural surveys on
beauty and found that all groups had the
ABSTRACTION
same perceptions of facial beauty.
 The artist selects and renders the objects  1.618:1
with their shapes, colors and positions  This particular relationship is the Golden
altered. Ratio. It is a mathematical ratio that
 In others, the original objects have been seems to appear recurrently in beautiful
reduced to simple geometric shapes and things in nature as well as in other things
they can be rarely identified unless the that are seen as “Beautiful”
artist named in in title.
 Artist’s concern is the rendering of the
essence of the subjects rather than the THE UGLY AND THE TRAGIC IN ART
natural form itself.
 There is nothing that may be considered
DISTORTION as in improper subject when it comes to
art.
 Could mean twisting, stretching or
 The grotesque the ugly, and the tragic are
deforming the natural shape of the object.
all legitimate subjects as the pleasurable
 It is usually done to dramatize the shape and the beautiful are.
of a figure or to create an emotional
 Many, in fact, have often deviated away
effect.
from the stereotyped and beautiful
SURREALISM subjects.
 The greatest play, movies, and musicals
 It is a method where the artist in giving are invariably tragedies.
expression to what it is in the  And many our songs speak about love
subconscious composes dreamlike scenes denied or lost.
that show an irrational arrangement of
objects.
 The images are recognizable, sometimes
CONTENT (LEVELS OF MEANING)
drawn from the nature but they are so
combined in utterly fantastic and Factual Meaning
unnatural relationships.
 The literal statement or the narrative
content in the work which can be directly
apprehended because the objects
KINDS AND SOURCES OF SUBJECTS
presented are easily recognized.
o Nature
Conventional Meaning
o Animals
o Portrait or Human Figures  Refers to the special meaning that a
o History and Legends certain object or color has a particular
o Still Life culture or group of people.
o Religion and Mythology
Subjective Meaning
o Dreams and Fantasies
o Cityscapes  Any personal meaning consciously or
o Seascapes unconsciously conveyed by the artist
using a private symbolism which stems
from his own association of certain
objects, actions or colors with past
experiences.