!

What are the methods of critical reading of the arts?!

How do critical categories help us further flesh-out and
inform the issues of the arts and society?!

Keywords!
Semiotics!
Form, content, context!
Stuart Halls Encoding-decoding method/approach!
Power, mode of production, subjectivity and
representation!

ART STUD REVIEWER!

SUBJECT: Critical exploration of the art in !
dynamic interaction with society !
relationship of the language of art and
humanities to our society !
!
FIELD STUDIES ABOUT ART & SOCIETY!
1. Art and the Artworld!
2. Dimensions of Art!
3. Methods of Critical Engagement and Reading of Art!
4. Art and Critical Categories!
5. Unsettling Art Canons!

!!

WHY DO WE HAVE TO ASK THE QUESTION WHAT IS

ART?? WHAT ARE THE ARGUMENTS THAT THIS
CLASS POSITION?!
what is art? > we are always in constant
negotiation & cultural positioning !

!
!

ARTWORLD!
Guide Questions!
How do objects become a candidate for consecration
and status of art? !
How does power enable and disenable an object as
art?!
Who are the actors of art and what are their roles?!
How do they achieve their authority to interpellate
something as art?!
Is there such thing as good or bad art?!
- there is no bad art, only bad critics/readers!

!
!

Keywords!
Institutional theory of art, art world!
Art World!
evaluate art, legitimizing power, industry of art, it is a
constructed world (imagined community & invented
traditions)!
producers of canon, provider of license !
- support system & networks!
- producers, circulator, disseminator !
privileges specific norms & tastes!
governing & regulating the production of art !
Symbolic Capital/Cultural Capital > Authority !
anyone who critics !
core personnel of the art world > every person who
sees himself as a memberr of the art world is thereby a
member!

Autopoetic !
self producing system!
imagined community !
you only see what you need!
create a system that you need !

METHODS OF CRITICAL ENGAGEMENT & READING

OF ART !
ART AND CRITICAL CATEGORIES !

Guide Questions!
What does is mean to handle the critical in reading &
engaging with the art?!

!
!

Understanding Art!
Form !
- understand the language > what do you see!
Content!

- concept/meaning/representation/interpretation!
- what does it mean, meaning of color?!
Context!
- how was the artwork made?!
- who made it?!
- why did they make it?!
- social matrix!
- social factors that affect the art work !
- deeper meaning !

3 Kinds of Readings!
1. Ideal/Dominant!
- you 100% agree with it!
2. Negotiated!
- partially agree & partially disagree!
3. Oppositional Reading!

ART AND SOCIAL AND CRITICAL FIELD!

!
Guide Questions!
How does art cue us of the social condition?!
How does art critically shape and make our
understanding of human beings and being human both
in theory and practice?!
Or how does art make humans more human?!

Required Reading!
Datuin, Faludette, Critical Categories as Social
Categories Art Criticism Workshop: Context in Writing,
Writing in Context!

!
!

ART AND RACE/ETHNICITY!

Guide Questions!
How is race/ethnicity represented int he arts?!
What is the role of colonial history in the construction
of race and ethnicity?!
How do we view our national identity/ies after
colonialism and how does it affect the production and
representation of art? !

Keywords:!
power!
colonialism!
internal colonialism!
- fellow Filipinos colonising us !
post
colonialism!

- knowledge/set of knowledge!
practive !
condition!

 who we are/how we are!

- temporal condition!
- strategy !

orientalism!
- Orient (East)!
- Mediterranean (Middle East) > define east &
west !
- west: advanced, civilized, superior, aware,
intelligent, hardworking, masters, Truth about being
human, I, familiar!
- east: delayed, barbaric, inferior naive, stupid,
copycat, lazy, feminine, laborers, others, exotic !
- White love - voluntarily loving the whites !
decolonizing > going back to being natives !
- Indigenization movement!
- Silokohiyang Pilipino !
- Pnatayong Pananaw!
- Pilipinohiya !
nationalism
!

skin chromaticism!
exoticism, nostalgia & travel!
native, indigenous, primitive, decolonization!
authenticity, original & paleogenesis!
Filipinos after being colonized (can be both productive
& repressive)!
- hybrid!
- mimicry!
- ambivalent !
splitting!
you love something but at the same time you
hate it !
resistance, subversion (re & de)!

!!

Race & Art!

- race: grouping of people, reliant on skin > skin
chromatation (color of the skin)!
- 3 races (west perspective)!
Caucasian: superios!
Negroid!
Mongoloid !
- Darwin !
survival of the fittest!
natural selection !
Caucasian: most likely to survive!
- Races have genetic explanation !
- Color: no genetic explanation !
- Race 0 reason for the west to colonize the east !
Westerners think highly of themselves >
advance > need to colonize and to educate
people from the east !
- Manifest Destiny !
project that Americans are superior > need to
civilize Philippines!
- Outing Number Judge!
image of the baptism of jesus!
Filipinos: infantile people > do not know
anything, wild !
cleansing of Filipinos !

!
!

ART AND LANGUAGE!

Guide Questions!
How does art re-create reality/re-presentation?!
How does language construct the representation of
art?!

Is the language of art neutral?!

Keywords:!
representation!
semiotics!
- study of meanings!
- a work of art is called pictorial or iconic sign!
- is a construct !
- ex: signifier: material or physical aspect of the sign !
traffic light = green !
- Signified: concept behind the signifier. non material
aspect of the work !
green = go !
- there is no connection between colored light & the
rules!
- the rules underlying these color & observed
because of social conventions!
- signifier without signified = no meaning (signifier) !
- Nothing exists outside the realm of language!
- Nothing meaningful exists outside the realm of
language!
- something does not exists when you cannot
describe it with worlds/language !
- Ineffable: something that cannot be explained !
- Art as Language!
representation !
name/word = reality/existence/representation !
naming: how we communicate > should have
structure !
words should be structured !
language = knowledge, science !
representation !
- the process by which reality is represented &
transformed into form through the language
& technology of art !
- objective !

!!

structuralism!
- structuralism <> binarism !
- binary oppositions are paramount !
- binary: to close a culture !
- rules binding binary oppositions can be best
studied by freezing time!
- structure of language is dominant to people !
- positive - negative!
- truth!
- one should be positive!
- one needs the other to exist as positive !
post-structuralism!
- do not settle to binaries!
- binary phobia !
- language for them is equal to art!
- truths!
- oen to possibilities !
- always in between or outside binary !
- open a closed culture!
- occupy the in between !
- something outside the positive & negative !
deconstruction!
- a practice of post struct!
- de: to oppose, to undo!
- pagbasa (g) > know more knowledge!
- you deconstruct to discover more, to understand it
better, for improvement to see the mistake!
- you create another thing > reconstruct!

- you have a stand!

- everything is a lie > why do you have the rights

- if not repressed: leaders clean ! !

to deconstruct something !
- method of reading !
- breaking/cracking something !
- you need to sacrifice a claim and trace whatever
you want to prove !
Epistemic Violence !
persuasion - brought by authority = Truth (relay on
knowledge) !

ART AND THE NOTION OF I!

Guide Questions!
What is the relationship between the self and the
artwork?!
How can we understand the subjectivities of the
artists?!

Keywords!
subjectivity!
psychoanalysis!
- Subjectivity (pansariling pananaw) & gaze!
conjuncture, unconscious ways of seeing,
feeling & thinking !
- Based on the field of Psychoanalysis!
study or theories of person/configured between
the self !
- tells us to do whatever feels good!
- to subordinate pleasure to what needs to ___ us to
channel the energy elsewhere !
iceberg!
- no validity !
- Psychoanalysis & Art!
art rediversion of something!
art: window to the inner self of the painter !
agency!
subjectivity!
Sublimation/Diversions!
- when you cant get the real thing!
- desires that cant be fulfilled or shouldnt be fulfilled
& turn it to something useful !
slip of the tongue!
dreams !

!-

I > society!
no society:!
chaos!
only think of self!
what is pleasurable!
desire > lack of pleasure !
I & society: interplay between desire & ___ !
Sigmund Freud !
id!
- I: live, survive & pleasure (NOT ALLOWED)!
Ego!

- conscious self !
Superego!
desire <-> pleasure !
too much of something = self destruct !
Stages of Pleasures !
1. Oral Pleasure!
child - need to suck to survive (breastfeeding)!
- should not be repressed cause it
might manifest in the future!
- if repressed: talkative in the future,
likes to smoke, drink, gullible !

associated with incorporation with taking

things in, with knowing no boundaries
between self & others !
2. Anal Pleasure (toilet training)!
associated with expelling things with learning
between inside & outside and with aggression
& anger!
youre having a notion of who you are!
anal retentive - obsessions with cleanliness,
perfection & control !
anal expulsive - messy !
3. Phallic Pleasure !
gateway to adult sexuality!
develop sexuality & desires!
talks about identification!
phallous - symbol of power !

Self & Art!

- Oedipus Complex!
- I & Identity!
- Self & Society!
- Jacques Lacan!
Idea of Pre-Oedipal Self as Mirror Image from
Nature (female) to self realisation (libidinal) to the
Law of the Father !
Oral - nature!
- for him baby girl & boy are all girls!
Anal - mirror stage!
- division of self & other !
rules
& morals > done outside!

- boys are usually outside the house !

Phallogo Centric!
- Phallos!
- logo: study!
- kamalayan - centered in the phallous !
- Pleasure Principle: tells us to do whatever feels good!
- Reality Principle: transfer/channeling = art, poetry.. !
- Objectification: product of men not getting what they
want > channeling desires !

!
!

ART, SEX, GENDER & SEXUALITY !

Guide Questions!
Is there such thing as gendered and sexed aesthetics/
reading of the art?!
Why do we need to study art based on these
categories?!
How are there categories represented in the arts?!
How does art become transformative & interventive in
understanding sex, gender & sexuality?!

Keywords!
subjectivity!
feminism!
- female: biological!
- Feminine: traits!
- Feminist: advocate/action !
gay
& lesbian studies!

queer!
- sexual category!
- ex: pleasure with leather, animals, bandage!
- pleasures/desires not captured by LGBT!
- odd/weird desires: UMBRELLA TERM!
- rise of HIV AIDS!
- early 1990s!

- querer- to move!
- marriage: also part of queer !
- No fixed identity !

what queer fights for!

gender is fluid !
gender is construct/social construct!
- it is a choice (genetic) > culture (science
nature) > determined (predetermine)!
- they dont want to be defined/specific !
gender is performed: it is the doing that defines
our gender (who we are)!
sex for them is construct!
- biological/genetic/nature!
- goes beyond sex!
- sex: girl & boy: neglected to others!
- birth of baby - you gendered it already !
masculinism & patriarchy!
Feminization of the orient!
Feminization of global labor!
- can be manipulated!
- will do anything for their family !
Self Orientalism !
1896 - notion of heterosexuality!

- homosexuality - disease for Freud !

- No great Female artists???!
- Waves of Feminism !

!-

First Wave!
- started during the late 1800s - 1900s!
- right to vote!
- where were the men: colonialism!
Second Wave!
- late 1960s - early1970s!
- right to equality labor & education and
political representation !
- where were the men: war (cold war in
Vietnam)!
Third Wave!
- 1993!
- right to manage own body & domestic issues!
- rape, abortion, reproductive health, domestic
issues !
- where were the men: house (watching tv porn & disney channel > happily ever after)!
Post Feminist - reaction to all the waves !
- celebrate feminist!
- dialogue !
- ex: Madonna !
Females for 500 years!
object of desire!
neck = sexual desire!
2nd class citizen = oppressed!
5% female artists !
Female Artists!
not represented!
not great!
- genius = males only > god given talent
given to men only !
Artist before !
- middle class!
- father artist!
- abandon being an artist when you have a
child !
women cant go out of their houses before !
Women Empowerment !

you should take note of: class/labor: lower class

no equality > cheap labor !
- Oppressed Women - coloured, eastern/non-west,
labouring women !
Kinds of Feminist!
- Radical Feminist!
man hater!
- Liberal Feminist!
we need men: involved in the political/economical
representation !
- Colored/Black Feminist!
- Marxist Feminist!
- Nature Feminist/Mother Earth/ Ecological!
follow the natural pattern !
- Cyborg Feminist !

Lesbians/Gays !
- became invisible!
Compulsory Heterosexuality!
- norm, stereotype!
- developed through requirement!
- render lesbians as invisible so that men would not
have any competition with women !

Homosexuality !
- 1896: the term emerged !
- rendered as a disease!
- homophobia & homosexual panic!
- Freuds reading of Da Vincis artworks validated
Homosexuality as a disease!
- 1969 - Stonewall Riot !
a bar in NY where LGBT stays!
raid!
resulted to a rally in NY > fight for the rights of
LGBT > emancipation & sexual polities >
same rights with heterosexuals !

Gays, Lesbians, Queer & Art!

- Compulsory heterosexuality !
- Gay & Lesbian sexual revolution !
- Camp!
- Homosocial & Homosexual!
- Homosocial Continuum of desire!
end/extreme: to die for someone of the same sex!
ex: soldiers, frat !
- Coming out of the closet culture!
forced to come out > USA!
important in the US: so that the government would
be aware > protection from HIV AIDS !
- Bakla & Gay!
Gay!
- attracted to other gays!
- still consider themselves as masculine!
Bakla!
- attracted to straight men !
- Feminized !
- Homophobia & sexism!
- Panic & rivalry !
- Gender Performativity !
- Pederastic Relationship!
mentorship, bromance!
pederastic courtship!
homosocial activity/practices!
- norm!
- Greek Mentorship!
sexual relationship between the mentor & menthe !

!
!

passing of power !
norm!

ART AND CLASS!

Guide Questions!
What is social realism?!
How are material conditions/ class issues represented
in the arts?!
What is the role of art in understanding and changing
the fate of class struggle?!
How do we understand the political-economy of art?!

Keywords:!
mode of production!
Marxism !
- Karl Marx talks about class !
- Marx vs. Smith !
Smith: Capitalism!
Marx: management of shared resources (public
= state)!
- justice for labours !
- products!
use value!
exchange value (do not yield the value of
products) !
- Marxism & Class Problems!
care about class consciousness > how much
you care about the nature!
do not care about your class origin, what class
you belong to !
Social Justice!
Relation to art!
- use art to show people what is really
happening !
- a medium to help change the social
problems or the society as a whole!
- if you want to change the society you
need to change first the economic base !
social realism !
- problems with race, sexuality!
- problems in our everyday life!
- artworks that are used as catalyst for change !
Capitalism!
- equals to greed !
- no property = only left with labor!
- accumulation by dispossession !
- when you are chained (nakatali) to capitalism you
become alienated from labor!
idea of specialisation !
ex: you will forever do one job so that they can
capitalize the resources !
- Capitalist - the exchange value not the use value/
basic needs > what is important for them !
- Workers under capitalism become alienated from:!
From product, which as soon as it is breated is
taken away from its producer!
- no creativity involved!
- division of labor !
From productive activity (work) which is
experienced as a torment !
- alienated from your race/nationality >
should copy the accent of foreigners !
- ex: call center agents !
From species - beings, for human produce blindly
& not in accordance with their truly human powers!

- ex: pressure from patents to choose

course or to become grade conscious !
From other human beings, where the relation of
exchange replaces human needs!
dialectic!
neocolonialism !
Class Consciousness!
- what Marx targets!
- kamalayan!
- it is not about the rich people becoming poor !

!-

class!
wealth (what determines clas) > material > finite
natural resources !
natural reasources: own it > property!
- public!
- private > capital, greed !
idea of capital = expand !
people with no private property need to work (labor/
service) to be able to live !
- labor > robotic/alien nation >
dehumanization !
bloody revolution is need to return public goods >
requires people/collective action of labourers !

1.

Historical Materialism!
- acquireing something connected with history/
past!
- future: everyone is rich !
- communism: end & final stage !
2. Dialectical Materialism !
**Historical & Dialectical Materialism come together !

!!

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.
6.

!-

!!
!

Primitive Society!
- nomads!
- hunting & gathering!
Settle!
- there is a leader already!
- produce: seasonal!
fail of one season = fail of the whole group!
- Metal+ Horses = expansion !
- expand: because they need more/other
resources!
Agricultural !
- landlord-tenant relationship!
- forced labor = slavery !
- master-slave relationship!
- over production: anti-thesis !
Industrial Capitalism !
- capitalist-laborers!
- Anti-thesis!
alienation !
shortage of resources !
Socialism !
Communism !
Culture is the product of the ruling class!
power is wielded by the one who controls the
means of production > capitalist, landlord !
greed in capitalism is seen in surplus !

UNSETTLING ART HISTORIOGRAPHY !

Guide Questions!

- Lower body: cloth = democracy !

Why is there the need to critically reread art history?!

What can we resurface in the rereading the art history?!
Why do we need to question & unsettle the official
history of art by looking at art historiography?!

Readings!
Art History Timeline!
Art History for Dummies!

Ancient Greek Period (classical)!

850 B.C. - 323 B.C.!
DOMINANT TRUTH: IDEA!
Mimesis > imitation !
- Theory of Mimesis (Plato)!
art of mimetic by nature !
art is an imitation of life!
art imitates ideas & so it is imitation of reality !
social class: Crafts men > Military > King!
Art should not be part of the society > Plato !
- they believed that there is a subjective world
outside > the world of forms (Ideas)!
- World of Forms!
on your minds-ideas, Realm of Ideas!
there are proportion, balance, perfection,
symmetry & unity !
Art = copying for them > Fake!
Artists = fakers > should not be part of the society !
they hate art during this period!
no art = perfect society!
want to separate themselves from the animals >
they want to be close to their gods (men only)!
Artists: painted & made their gods in the ideal way
> idealised artwork!
Golden ratio: #of nature > 1.66!
Fibonacci Sequence !
Artworks as fake/copies of the ideas!
Ideal & Form > eternal ideal realities privileged &
dominant notion of truth !
Forms - proportion, harmony & balance = perfection !
Ideal: the truth, the good, unity, beauty, justice!
Platos republic !
Greek statues !
- do not have: pot bellies, zits, receding hairlines
but broad forehead !
- it is all about calm & beauty !
- beyond the common/normal!
- counter pose > stress one side of the body !
- no other emotion but calmness !
- Man > Woman !
man: naked > more powerful than those
with clothes !
woman: with clothes !

Hellenistic Periods !
created other emotions!
Idea of Pederastic Courtship scene > pedophile !
- moral thing, legal, dominant in their art works!
- homosocial > duties !

Roman vs. Greek!

almost the same!
veristic: realistic (Romans)!

Romans!
Roman Soldiers!
- Upper body: metal = power/military!

Roman Empire - divided by 4 !

Fall of Rome !
- spread of Christianity (Eastern & Western)!
- helped in the transition !

Medieval Period!
DOMINANT TRUTH: GOD!
- Church: manifestation of the dominant truth,
Human face of God !
- God: dominant truth!
all great things came from him !
only one creator!
other people = craftsmen!
everything they do are for God!
believe in the after life!
- Here after!
- favor mosaics > believed to be the gateway to
heaven, should illuminate from within !
There should be the source of light (God) > most
important !
There should be symmetry !
Allegory (symbolism)> should be based on the
body !
does bot focus on the present body !
sculptures !
Beauty in the Medieval Period !
- Dominant & Privileged truth > metaphysical,
trance dental & the Divine God !
- Mans preparation for life after death !
- Beauty is a trance dental & the essential
property of God!
- Beauty is Unity of goodness!
- light, proportion & allegory !
- the bible!
- surface over space!
- Patrons - the church!
- Iconography - the study of symbols (often
religious) > should not change !
- Red = Divine, Blue = Human !
- lips are small = divine!
- Naked = earthly > you will die & decay !
Christianity:
one way & one goal = Salvation !

Secular artwork: non christian !

Gothic/Mediaval Period!
used to restore the faith of the people!
Black plagues, crusades, feudal system!
Gothic Art = Gothic Churches !

Renaissance Period (1400s)!

DOMINANT TRUTH: MAN AS THE CENTER OF
THE UNIVERSE !
- man as the measure of all things!
- Jack of all traits!
- man is also the co-creator of God > God =
Man !
rebirth of ideas of classical Greek Period!
somehow against Greek Ideals!
revival!
7 liberal arts!
Leonarda Da Vinci: embodiment of a Renaissance
Man !
Humanism: DOMINANT TRUTH: MAN !
Humanized Jesus Christ > more emotions!
- there are facial expressions !

- Jesus Christ = Man !

- Darwins Survival of the fittest!

- Presence of competition!
- Replaced the old order of absolute

Start of renaissance: when the door of Ghiberty won

> door with Christs baptism !
Mathematics > important !
Renaissance & Beauty!
- The rise of merchants!
- The Decline of Church !
- Creation of Adam!
Man = God!
balance harmony proportion & intellectual
order as the measure of all things > Math
very important !
- Center of the piece & light/bright!
to show that you are sacred & divine or that
you are an important person !
ex: The Last Supper !
Style of Painting/Art!
- Naturalistic portrayal of man!
- Aerial perspective = depth!
- Linear perspective/vanishing point >
portraying space & depth on a two dimensional
surface !
- Chiaroscuro > shift in color!
- Sfumato > smoke effect !
- **All of these can be seen in Mona Lisa
(1503-1505), da Vinci!
Self Portrait > popular during the renaissance !
Styles of Renaissance!
- Baroque!
drama of the cloth!
foldings > appeal to the emotions!
helped them renew the faith of the people
(Church)!
- Mannerism!
exaggerating/ elongating!
go against the naturalized/nautralistic >
image of humans !
El Greco > The Holy Family with Mary
Magdalene > start of Mannerism !
- Rococo !
favored art of monarchs & aristocrats > to
show their powers!
light, playful, elegant, sensual !

Enlightenment Period !
DOMINANT TRUTH: KNOWLEDGE!
- manifested through reason & rationality !
they hate religion !
Mama Mary > Mother Liberty !
Industrial Revolution/Capitalism (Economic Side) !
- Technological Advancement!
- Process of natural resources > product =
capitalism !
- Origin or Idea of Nation Side > From
monarchy/aristocrats to this!
The voice of the people is the voice of God >
vox populi.. box ju!
Dare to know/Suppere Aude > very motto
during this period !
Caused the rise of science & technology !
Enlightenment & Beauty !
- DOMINANT TRUTH: VALUING REASON !
- rethinking the notion of justice, equality,
freedom, progress. etc.!
- from the heart to mind, from faith to reason !
- I think therefore I am - Descartes!

sovereignty, injustice, ignorance &

superstition with order based on reason &
rationality !
- The formation of the nation > colonialism !
- Industrial Revolution !
Movements!
- Neoclassicm!
very simple; not excessive!
the simplified version of the Classical Period!
State is stable, strong/nostalgia!
Everything has to be fast > simple !
hated capitalism > showed the suffering of
people > everyone was required to work
under the state of Capitalism !
it was very polluted!
Discovery of Pompeii !
Voltaire: freedom of religion & separation of
church & state!
John Locke: government is legitimate only if it
has the consent of the government & only if it
guarantees natural liberty of life !
Montesque: 3 branches of the government !
Adam Smith: the wealth of the nation,
invisible hand & capitalism !
triangle = stability !
Neoclassical Painting!
- The Death of Marat, 1793!
- faces are peaceful !
- Romanticism !
emotion !
Les Miserable, The Hunchback of Notre Dam,
Frankenstein > all their main characters are
outcasts of the society !
You have to have feelings, sympathy !
Feelings > reason !
shoes irrationality of nature > invoke
feelings/emotions !
- Realism !
what you see is what you get!
not equal to naturalism !
- naturalism: ideas; Greek > picture of
ideals !
Social realism > reality of workers/working
class!
- working class>>!
- socialist countries !
Curism > Europe was the center of the
power of art during this time!
- Impressionism !
camera: invention !
distort reality because of the invention of
camera!
how your reality gives you impression !
no longer realistic > not polished!
tin tubes > where you put paint/pigments
> you can bring it anywhere = you can paint
outside faster > capturing the moment!
- **Theory of Mimesis > copy reality > what
the 4 movements copy !

Modern Art/Modernism !
DOMINANT TRUTH: ________!
Modernity - becomes a state/condition!

 Modernism - becomes a process of achieving

modernity!
- progress, reason/logic, freedom, authentic, real,
order, rational, purity, original, wholeness,
universality, truth > will gear towards unity &
progress !
Modern - not corrupt, no NGOs !
- process to be modern: !
election - accountability !
social services!
spaces to solve our problems !
Expressionism !
- inside out!
- expression from the inside - paint outside !
- Idea of Avant garde > advance guard!
first in line (in wards)!
advance ideas > so they can think that they
can lead humanity !
- new ideas - in, revolutionary !
- strength: color !
Abstract Art!
- dominant or started in NY, USA (center of the world
that time)!
- Minimalism !
Surrealism!
- Surrealist: there will be wars if we are rational & !
- ex: The Persistence of Memory, 1931, Salvador
Dali !
- Unconscious is the home of the irrational !
- art as the channel of dreams !
Dada
Art!

Cubism!
- geometric components !
Action Painting!
Formalism (1990s/ 20th century(!
- art for art sake!
- focus: elements of art (lines, shapes, sizes) !
- at cab only be appreciated formally !
- concept - meaning!
- form !
- very concept: elements of art !
- Formalist Analysis: Abstract Art & Action Painting:
their babies !
what you see!
contect analysis > what does it mean !

Futurism !
- French !

Late 1960s - Early 1970s!

Peak of the reaction against racism > Black
Movement!
LGBT movement/gay pride movement!
2nd wave movement of Feminism !
Vietnam War !
Transition: popular culture & minimalism!
- pop culture: critics and celebrates communism !
- minimalism: critics & celebrates ____ !

Post Modernism !
NO DOMINANT TRUTH !
- all dominant truths can be seen !
started
in architecture !

- form follows function !

- excessive !
temporal !

!!

anything that is not modern is post modern !

condition or state we experience everyday !
can be going back !
nonlinear progress/ anachronistic!
irrational/illogical, chaos/disorder, impure, class A,
fake, unauthentic, unreal, imbalance!
everything is related, connected !
cut & paste = idea of halo-halo!
all are truths !
post nation > boarderless !
Pastiche - cut & paste!

Byzantine Period!
Romanes Period!
Gothic Period !

!!
!

AESTHETIC TERMS!
1. Aesthetics!
- feelings (may hugot)!
- from the Greek word: aisthesis!
- experience, meaning, interpretation & value >
art: experience of art is unique !
- proseso ng pagdama/pagdanas sa mundo
kung paano naapektuhan ng pagdanas, pagiisip & pagkilos Dela Paz!
- Aesthetic Experience !
- Idea of taste > can discriminate !
- Epistemic Violence!
only teaching what is beautiful !
violence against knowledge !
- taste = cultured !
- Anaesthetic > defect of physical sensation !
2. Beauty!
- excelling in grace of form, charm of colouring &
other qualities which delight the eye & call forth
admiration !
- affording keen pleasure to the senses!
- impressing with charm the intellectual of moral
sense through inherent fitness or grace or exact
adaptation to a purpose !
- Beauty > beholder > society !
society!
- has different perspectives!
- notion of beauty: situatedness (something
beautiful before, not beautiful now) !
- barbarism: violence against something to make
something look beautiful !
ex: racism !
- Beauty for Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)!
beauty is grounded in features of artworks
themselves not just in us & out preference!
disinterestedness!
- independent of purpose & pleasurable
sensation it brings !
- art of art sake!
- nude pictures/paintings > they have use
so they do not consider them as an art !
purposiveness without purpose!
role of beautiful things > to be beautiful
only: if it has purpose then it is just good !
beauty if prior > you dont need to
experience it > it exists even before we
existed !

3.

4.

5.

6.

beautiful objects do not serve ordinary human

purpose !
Ugly!
- when it does not pass the standards!
- anything that is not beautiful!
- sense of repulsion from the artwork!
- does not affirm life > misery, suffering!
- no balance, harmony, unity > does not pass
the standards of form during the early years!
- noisy, no symmetry!
- mundane reality, irrational, evil, disorder,
irregular, excess, deformity, marginal, the other!
- grotesque, horrific, abject, burlesque, conic,
caricature, formless!
example of abject: passing through flood,
corpse, menstruation !
- everyday life painting: not accepted!
- if contradicts the order, it destroys the value it
derides. The religion it ridicule, the harmony it
breaks up, the heaven it brings down to earth,
the position of classes, races!
- historical > each period has their own
standard of what is beautiful & ugly!
- there is no universal truth of idea on what is ugly
or beautiful !
- canon: what defies/defines beauty !
- horror vaqui !
scared to have space!
negative for the west!
ex: designs of jeepneys, pahiyas festivals !

Sublime!
- can be shared with everyone!
- used as an abject!
- from Latin word: sublimes > on high, uplifted,
raised up !
- described great elevated or lofty thought or
language !
- suggest grandeur, vastness, awe, immense
power!
- associated as well with frightening huge
phenomena in nature > volcanoes, storms &
surging seas!
- Noun refers to a sensation, overwhelming awe,
astonishment, terror-produced an irrational
enhancement in both nature & art !
- something not captured by terms such as
reason, order, proportion & balance !
- renders reception - caused by the power of the
perceiving mind!
- Kants 3 kinds of sublime!
The feeling of terrifying sublime is sometimes
accompanied with a certain dread &
melancholy!
The feeling of the noble sublime is quiet
wonder!
Feeling of the splendid sublime are pervaded
with beauty !
- terror, obscurity, vastness in their dimension,
founds in pain !
Canon!
- what defies/defines beauty !
- standard of art !
Carnivalesque!
- carnival: comic good times marked by special
events !

- esque: resembling, in the style of!

- a form of unofficial culture that resist official

7.

8.

culture, political oppression totalitarian order

through laughter, parody & grotesque, realism,
comic violence, satire!
- licensed transgression at best - but its true
liberated potential can be seen in that set rules
& beliefs were not immune to ridicule or
reconnection at carnival time!
- we allow them to happen > we accept time!
- ex: UP Repratory, Memes, Pugad Baboy!
- Carnival is not a spectacle seen by the people
they live in it & everyone participates because
its very idea embraces all the people. While
carnival lasts, there is no other life outside.
During carnival time life is subject only to its
laws, that is the laws of its own freedom!
- Blur the distinction of power > purpose of
carnivalesque!
- to make issues light > subtle attack !
- parody !
- only occurs when the one in power recognises it !
- blurs & reverses power!
- irony > funny one !
Abject!
- human reaction to a threatened breakdown in
meaning caused by the loss of the distinction
between subject & object or between self &
others !
- ex: horror, vomit, corpse, blood, poop !
- around us > it is already here but we cant do
anything about it!
- ego: wants to be sanitised!
- the state of being cast off!
- connotation of degradation, baseness &
meanness of spirit!
- state of ten marginalised groups, such as
women, unwed mothers, poor & disabled !
- form of defending yourself from who you are!
- referring to a space that abjected things or
being inhabit!
- you see something as negative !
- it is me but that is not me!
Uncanny / Unheimlich !
- a reminder of our psychic past!
- uncanny: german term = unheimlich !
unhominess, eerie, frightening, fearful, a kind
of negative aesthetic!
- fear of the unfamiliar & based on intellectual
uncertainly !
- uncanny as the class of frightening things that
leads us back to what is known & familiar. It is
the mark of the return of the repressed >
Freud !
- repressed ideas, feelings, objects that return
when we are reminded of it!
- Freud: for him the German word unheimlich
turns out to share the meaning on it apparent
opposite hiemlich > its all in your mind !
heimlich: known/familiar to unknown as to
secret unknown to revealed, uncovered !
- anything we experience in adulthood that
reminds us of earlier physic stages, of aspects
of our unconscious life, or the primitive
experience!

- occurs either when repressed infantile

complexes have been revived y some
impression or when the primitive beliefs we
have surmounted seem once more to be
confirmed !
- notion ghostly experience !
9. Sufferance!
- ance- state/condition, an action !
- state of suffering!
- deals with mercy & compassion !
- suffering: act!
- sufferance: state!
- suffer: to endure pain, death or distress!
- the power or capacity to endure or tolerate pain,
distress etc!
- strategic state of suffering !
- use the state of suffering to redeem something !
- Sadomasochism: pleasure from pain !
ex: sports !
- Dr Flores: refashions suffering into sufferance
the act of suffering as a qualifier in the
emotional economy of struggle that engages
the suffering agent!
- Ex: Pieta by Crespi, Christ on Cross, Spolarium
by Juan Luna !
10. Kitsch!
- popularized during the 1940s-1950s!
- kind of bandwagon - copy iconic!
- opposite of art!
- easily enjoyable!
- you dont need to think about it!
- Popular Culture!
universal literacy !
odorless culture (no preference)!
- used to categorise art that is considered an
inferior, tasteless, copy of an existing style. The
term is also used more loosely in referring to
any art that is pretentious to the point of being in
bad taste & also commercially produced items!
- simulacrum of genuine art!
- tends to mimic the effects produced by real
sensory experience!
- presenting highly charged imagery language or
music that triggers an automatic !
- 3 classes of kitsch!
too easy!
too formulaic & too mechanical!
is a lie & therefore evil !
- what you see is what you get!
- literal!
11. Camp!
- opposite of seriousness !
- 1870 term > actors (boys dressed as girls)!
- artifice, naive middle-class pretentiousness,
shocking excess!
- camp as an aesthetic has been popular from
1960s to the present !
- love for awfulness, exaggeration, stylisation of
life, outraeousness, love of decorations, role
playing, cult of the personality, gay (noun &
adjective) seeds to overcome barrier of norms!
- ex: drag/drag queens!
- loud!
- dandyism !
metrosexual!
loves beauty !

intellectual people!
very flamboyant !
12. Simulacra!
- question on reality !
- charactierizes the inability of consciousness to
distinguish reality from fantasy!
- means to characterise the way consciousness
defines what is actually real in a world where a
multitude of media can radically shape & filter
the original event or experience being depicted!
- an interplay between reality, symbols & society !
- simulations are not unreal they close the gap
between the real & artificial !
- For Baudrilard, society has become a simulation
of itself!
- a hyperreal !
- a copy (mimesis) but realer than real !
- filter reality !
- ex: selfie > you alter something !
- sanitization of reality !
13. Fetish !
14. Pastiche!
- idea of cut & paste!
- style of plagiarism, quoting, borrowing from
previous styles with no reference to history or a
sense of rule!
- ahistorical!
- post modernism: exhausted our creativity
because they are running out of ideas/creativity !

!
!

OTHER NOTES!
Greek: knowledge is the highest form > sight most
important for them !
- knowledge = power !
Understanding Art!
- many perspectives!
- no one answer/understanding !
Art:
creative form (elements)!

Medieval!
- not creative!
- God is the only creator > should be the only one
that is creative!
Renaissance !
- creative!
- there is already human intervention !
Art
and Society !

- art: something constructed by humanity > made/

fabricated !
Art: very powerful = can be a propaganda!
Art: focused on the metaphysical !
Raphael !
- painters of painters!
- School of Athens!
Plato: idealism (points Up)!
Aristotle: realism (points down)!
Canon: standard of art !
What is not art?!
- post modern/contemporary period !
Ahistorical!
- notion of beauty from different period not
applicable already !
- you do not trace where if came from !
Unheimliche > unhomey, discomfort !
Idea of 3Cs!
- Critical!

look at things at different perspectives!

idea !
- power !
forces: dominance & resistance!
dominated!
is fluid > can be transferred!
both productive & repressive!
- mode of reproduction!
process of production & conditions >
economic conditions!
circulations, dissemination, reproduction,
exchange!
- subjectivity!
seeing, feeling, thinking human beings
> subject !
sariling pananaw!
opposite: object > that is not moving,
thinking, seeing !
- representation !
utilizes the language of art to represent
the world !
important to make change > both danger &
opportunity (nature of crisis)!
weiji in chinese: Wei = danger, ji = opportunity !
open up to possibilities to change !
to be critical of something is to subject it to the
unsettlement that crisis brings about or is
characterised by. Unsettlement of something, its
breakdown- whether a text, an order of things, a
tradition - is crucial to the opening up, the space
that is required for us to think, to e, to do & to
speak alternatively & to imagine the possible or
that which is, in other words , the other of what
exists, obtains & prevails !
Critique!
form of deliberation !
Crisis !
consequence of critiques !

!- !

ART !
Art is interdisciplinary!
Art cannot be divorced from society !
-!
- !
Art is part of everyday !
Art is a construct !
- gawa gawa lang