HUMANITIES 101 – Comprehensive Study Notes

Course Description

• Study areas: Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Cinema, Literature.
• Exposure to:
  • Classical & contemporary artists.
  • Their personal / socio-historical environments that inspired creation.
• Learning experiences augmented by on-site activities:
  • Visits to galleries, museums, studios, cinemas, and other relevant venues.

General Objectives

• Understand the meaning and importance of art.
• Identify & appreciate diverse art forms by studying:
  • Elements, media, techniques involved in creation.
• Enhance enjoyment of the arts, especially:
  • Works by local artists.
  • Creations rooted in students’ own cultural heritage.

Definition & Scope of the Humanities

• Term derives from Latin “humanitas.”
• Disciplines emphasize human subjectivity & individual expressiveness:
  • Art, literature, music, architecture, dance, theatre.
• Humanities investigate the nature of humankind as beings of:
  • Purpose, values, emotions, ideas, vision (sometimes “seer” or “prophet”).
• Ultimate goal: Education and cultivation of the human spirit.

Art Appreciation: Four Essentials

• Must be human-made.
• Must be creative (original, imaginative, innovative).
• Must benefit & satisfy humanity by embodying practical use of:
  • Artistic principles, taste, skills.
• Must be expressed through a medium/material that conveys the artist’s intent.

Major Branches of the Arts

• Literature.
• Visual Arts.
• Performing Arts.
• Cinema (film).

Iconic Examples (Visual Recognition Drill)

• Vincent van Gogh, “Starry Night,” $1889$, oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York.
• Pablo Picasso, “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon,” $1907$, oil painting, MoMA.
• Leonardo da Vinci, “Mona Lisa,” circa $1503\text{–}1506$, oil painting, Louvre Museum, Paris.
• Performing-Arts illustration (unnamed slide).

Leo Tolstoy – “What Is Art?” (Key Points)

• Art is a vital condition of human life, not merely a source of pleasure.
• Every artwork creates relationships between:
  • Creator ↔ receiver.
  • Receivers among themselves across time.
• Art parallels speech: both transmit thoughts/experiences & unify people.
• Mechanism: One person intentionally reproduces an experienced feeling via external signs ➔ audience is “infected” & experiences the same feeling.
• Artistic activity spans cradle songs to monuments; everyday life is saturated with art.

Why Humans Make Art

• Persistent, vital aspect of existence.
• To impose order on chaos; shape form from formlessness.
• Desire for posthumous remembrance (legacy).
• Desire to preserve likeness after death (portraits, statues).

Values Attributed to Art

• High-value historical epochs correlate with cultures that nurture art.

Material Value

• Artwork valued for precious substances (e.g., Greek bronzes melted for weapons in Medieval Europe).
• Example: Benvenuto Cellini salt cellar, $1540\text{–}1544$, gold, enamel, ebony, $26 \times 33.5\text{ cm}$, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
• Example: Ed Defensor, “Lin-ay kang Iloilo,” bronze, $15\text{ ft}$, Iloilo Capitol.

Intrinsic Value

• Quality not solely based on material content.
• Varies across cultures & eras (“Is it art?” dilemma).
• Example: Constantin Brâncuși, “Bird in Space,” $1928$, bronze, $54 \times 8.5 \times 62\text{ cm}$, MoMA.

Religious Value

• Visual storytelling for largely illiterate populations (sculpture, painting, stained glass).
• Works become communal spiritual symbols.

Nationalistic Value

• Art expresses pride & achievements of a culture or nation.

Psychological Value

• Art elicits the full spectrum of emotions: pleasure, fear, amusement, outrage, etc.
• Attraction vs. repulsion independent of aesthetic beauty.

Form, Content & Subject

Form

• Tangible aspects:
  1. Elements of art (line, shape, color, texture, value, space, form).
  2. Principles of design (balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, pattern, rhythm, unity).
  3. Artist’s chosen medium.
• Objective, directly describable.

Content

• Idea-based aspects:
  1. Intended message.
  2. Actual portrayal.
  3. Audience’s individual response.
• Influenced by religion, politics, social context, psychological state, substances, etc.

Subject

• The “about-ness” of a work; representational imagery.
• Some arts are non-objective (no recognizable subject): architecture, music, many functional arts.

Common Sources of Artistic Subject Matter

• Nature: landscapes, animals, human activities; prime, enduring inspiration.
  • Example: Fernando Amorsolo, “Sunset,” $1950$, oil on canvas.
• History: artworks reflect & memorialize their periods; rulers commissioned commemorative pieces.
  • Example: Carlos V. Francisco, painting of the $1898$ Philippine Revolution.
  • Example: Francisco Goya, “The Executions of the Third of May, $1808$.”
• Greek & Roman Mythology: staple of Renaissance inspiration, forming part of Western cultural inheritance.
• Religion: massive driver across ages; during the Renaissance, artisans became self-conscious “artists.”

Methods of Presenting the Subject (Artistic Styles & Movements)

Realism

• Depicts objects as they naturally appear.
• Focus on ordinary life without exaggeration/idealization.

Abstraction

• Artist isolates a phase/essence; simplifies, reorganizes, distorts reality according to personal expression.

Symbolism

• Uses symbols to intensify meaning; subjective, esoteric, dream-like.
• Key example: Edvard Munch, “The Scream,” $1893$ – visualizes neurotic panic.
• Gustav Klimt, “Death and Life,” $1908$ & $1911$ – contrasts voluptuous life imagery with looming death.

Fauvism (Les Fauves – “wild beasts”)

• Vivid, non-naturalistic, exuberant colors; color freed as expressive purpose itself.
• André Derain: clashing yellows/blues/greens/reds; distorted perspective.
• Henri Matisse: composition as decorative arrangement for feeling; warm vs. cool color contrasts, curving vs. straight lines.

Dadaism

• Founded $1916$–$1917$ in reaction to WWI; embraced nonsense & anti-art.
• Intention: offend sensibilities, reject aesthetics.
• Hannah Höch, “Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife…,” $1919$, photomontage $90 \times 144\text{ cm}$.
• Marcel Duchamp (R. Mutt), “Fountain,” $1917$ – readymade urinal questioning art’s definition.

Futurism

• Glorifies speed, technology, youth, violence, industrial city, modern vehicles.
• Example: Umberto Boccioni, “Unique Forms of Continuity in Space,” bronze, $1913$, MoMA.
• Architectural vision: Antonio Sant’Elia’s futuristic designs.

Surrealism

• Emphasizes surprise, dream logic, unexpected juxtapositions; art as artifact of philosophical movement.
• Belief in superior reality of dream & unconscious associations.
• Salvador Dalí, “The Persistence of Memory,” $1931$ – melting clocks in barren landscape; time at an end.
• Marc Chagall, “Crucifixion,” $1943$ – juxtaposes terror of war with symbols of faith & hope.

Expressionism

• Depicts subjective emotions rather than objective reality.
• Utilizes distortion, exaggeration, vivid colors, fantasy.

Impressionism

• Aims to capture forms bathed in light & atmosphere.
• Discovered that “local color” is modified by lighting, reflections, adjacent colors.
• Technique: short, choppy brushstrokes to convey vibrating light.

Additional Artists & Nude Studies (Slide References)

• David Raderstorf, “Nude Abstraction.”
• Gustav Klimt, Symbolist nudes (overlapping with Symbolism section).
• Mark Webster, Felicia $1424$.
• Henri Matisse, “Redlining Nude.”
• Budanov Valery, “Dream.”

Practical, Ethical & Philosophical Implications Discussed

• Art’s role in education, cultural identity, and moral storytelling.
• Ethical reminder: societies that value art often reflect higher human achievement.
• Material vs. intrinsic valuation sparks debate on cultural priorities (e.g., melting Greek bronzes for weapons).
• Psychological effects of art can influence social behavior (e.g., propaganda, catharsis, outrage).

Connections to Foundational Principles & Previous Lectures

• Humanities study complements broader liberal-arts curriculum (history, philosophy, sociology).
• Understanding form/content/subject parallels literary analysis (structure/theme/reader response).
• Tolstoy’s infection theory echoes communication models in linguistics & rhetoric.

Quick Reference: Key Dates & Measurements (LaTeX Notation)

• Van Gogh “Starry Night”: $1889$.
• Picasso “Demoiselles”: $1907$.
• da Vinci “Mona Lisa”: $1503\text{–}1506$.
• Brâncuși “Bird in Space”: $1928$, $54 \times 8.5 \times 62\text{ cm}$.
• Cellini salt cellar: $1540\text{–}1544$, $26 \times 33.5\text{ cm}$.
• Munch “The Scream”: $1893$.
• Klimt “Death and Life”: $1908$ & $1911$.
• Duchamp “Fountain”: $1917$.
• Boccioni sculpture: $1913$.
• Dalí “Persistence of Memory”: $1931$.
• Chagall “Crucifixion”: $1943$.