Humanities: Art and Visual Arts Essay

The word humanities comes from the latin humanus, which means human, cultured and refined. To be human is to be have or show qualities like rationality, kindness and tenderness. It has different connotations in different historical eras. Today, however, we know of humanities as a loosely defined group of cultural subject areas. Unlike other subjects, it is not a group of scientific or technical subjects. The Scope of Humanities The humanities is a many-faceted subject. It is consist of the visual arts, literature, drama and theater, music, and dance. 1. Visual Arts The visual arts sre those that we perceive with our eyes. It involve not only painting and sculpture but include such things as clothes, household appliances, and furnishing of our homes, schools, and buildings. They may be classified into two groups; graphic arts (flat or two-dimensional surface) and plastic arts (three-dimensional). a. Graphic Arts Broadly, this term covers any form of visual artistics representation, especially painting, drawing, photography, and the like or in which portrayals of forms and symbols are recorded on two-dimensional surface. Printers also use the term graphic art to describe all process and products of the printing industry. b. Plastic Arts This group includes all fields of the visual arts in which material are organized into three-dimensional forms. 2. Literature The art of combining spoken or written words and their meanings into forms which have artistics and emotional appeal is called literature. 3. Drama and Theater A drama or play is a story re-created by actors on a stage in front of an audience. 4. Music The art of arranging sounds in rhythmic succession and generally in combination. Melody results from this sequence and harmony from the combinations. Music is both a creative and a performing art. The common forms are song, march, fugue, sonata, suite, fantasy, concerto and symphony. 5. Dance Dance involves the movement of the body and the feet in rhythm. Some important types include ethnologic, social or ballroom dances, ballet, modern and musical comedy. Method of Presenting of Arts Subject 1. Realism In painting, this is the attempt to portray the subject as it is. Even when the artist chooses a subject from nature, he selects, changes, and arranges details to express the idea he wants to make it clear. Realists try to be as objective as possible. Here the artist’s main function is to describe as accurately and honestly as possible what is observed through the senses. However, in the process of selecting and presenting his material, he cannot help being influenced by what he feels or thinks. 2. Abstraction It means â€Å"to move away or separate. †Abstract art moves away from showing things as tey really are. The painter or artist paints the picture not as it really looked. The picture is not just like life. It is not â€Å"realistic. † This is used when the artist becomes so interested in one phase of a scene or a situation thet he does not show the subject at all as an objective reality, but only his idea or his feeling about it. 3. Symbolism A symbol in general is a visible sign of something invisible such as an idea or a quality. It can be simply an emblem or sign like: % to represent percent, a lion to represent courage, a lamb to represent meekness. Fauvism This was the first important art movement of the 1900’s. the fauves flourished as a group only from about 1903 to 1907 but their style greatly influenced many later artists. Henry Matisse led the movement and other important fauves included Andre Derain, Raoul Dufy, George Rouault, all from France. 5. Dadaism A protest movement in the arts was formed in 1916 by a group of artist and poets in Zurich, Switzerland. The Dadaist reacted to what they believed were outworn traditions in art, and the evils they saw in society. 6. Surrealism This movement in art and literature was founded in Paris in 1924 by the French poet Andre Breton. 7. Expresionism A manner of painting and sculpting in which natural forms and colors are distorted and exaggerated. This method was introduced in Germany during the first decade of the twentieth century that is characterized chiefly by heavy, often BLACK lines that define form sharply contrasting over the vivid colors. 8. Impressionism A style of painting developed in the last third of the 19th century characterized by short brisk strokes of bright color to create the impressionism of light on objects. It portrays the effect of experienced upon the consciousness of the artist and audience. Elements of Visual Art 1. Line It is an important element at the disposal of every artist. Through the lines of painting or sculpture, the artist can make us know what the work is about. Line always have direction. They are always moving. Lines, as used in any work of art, may either be straight or curved. 2. Color Of all the elements of art, color has the most aesthetic appeal. Delight in color is a universal human characteristics. Color is a property of light. The light of the sun contains all the colors of the spectrum: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. These colors are so blended that they yield no sensation of color. 3. Texture It is a color element that deals more directly with the sense of touch. It has to do with the characteristics of surfaces which can be rough or smooth, fine or coarse, shiny or dull, plain or irregular. Texture is best appreciated when an object is felt with the hands. It is found in all the visual arts. 4. Perspective It deals with the effect of the distance upon the appearance of objects, by means of which the eye judges spatiaql relationships. It enables us to perceive distance and to see the position of objects in space. There are two kinds of perspective: linear and aerial perspective. To get depth or distance, an artist uses both linear and aerial perspective. 5. Space In painting, as in architecture, space is a great importance. The exterior of a building is seen as it appears in space, while the interior is seen by one who is inside an enclosing space. Painting does not deal with space directly. It represents space only on a two-dimensional surface. Sculpture involves verylittle space relationship or perception of space. 6. Form Form applies to the over-all design of a work of art. It describes the structure or shape of an object. Form directs the movements of the eyes. Since form consists of size and volume, it signifies visual weight. 7. Volume The term volume refers to the amount of space occupied in three dimensions. It therefore refers to solidity or thickness. We perceive volume in two ways: by contour lines or outlines or shapes of objects, and by surface lights and shadows.