Contemporary Arts

12- Socrates

What is art?
Art is a diverse range of human activities in creating visual,
auditory or performing artifacts (artworks), expressing the
author's imaginative, conceptual ideas, or technical skill,
intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional
power.In their most general form these activities include
the production of works of art, the criticism of art, the study
of the history of art, and the aesthetic dissemination of art.
Art, Composition

Elements, Principles Composition

Artists and those who study art share their own unique
Nature, Importance language, and learning this language is the first step to not
only truly understanding and appreciating art, but also
being able to talk about it. The first step is learning the rules
Reference of composition. When talking about the composition of a
work of art, we're not talking about the meaning or
message, we're only talking about the physical components.
For many great masterpieces, we can't even begin to truly
appreciate the meaning until we've examined and talked
about the composition. Plus, it's really impressive.

Composition is the arrangement or placement of visual

elements in a piece of artwork. You might consider this
exactly the same as the “layout” of a piece(a term you hear
a lot in graphic design).
Elements

• Line - An element of art defined by a point moving in

space. Line may be two-or three-dimensional,
descriptive, implied, or abstract.
• Shape - An element of art that is two-dimensional,
flat, or limited to height and width.
• Form - An element of art that is three-dimensional
and encloses volume; includes height, width AND
depth (as in a cube, a sphere, a pyramid, or a
cylinder). Form may also be free flowing.
• Value - The lightness or darkness of tones or colors.
White is the lightest value; black is the darkest. The
value halfway between these extremes is called
middle gray.
• Space - An element of art by which positive and
negative areas are defined or a sense of depth
achieved in a work of art .
• Color - An element of art made up of three
properties: hue, value, and intensity.
• Hue: name of color
• Value: hue’s lightness and darkness (a color’s value
changes when white or black is added)
• Intensity: quality of brightness and purity (high
intensity= color is strong and bright; low intensity=
color is faint and dull)
• Texture - An element of art that refers to the way
things feel, or look as if they might feel if touched.
Principles of Art
Balance, emphasis, movement, proportion, rhythm, unity,
and variety; the means an artist uses to organize elements
within a work of art.

• Rhythm - A principle of design that indicates

movement, created by the careful placement of
repeated elements in a work of art to cause a visual
tempo or beat.
• Balance - A way of combining elements to add a
feeling of equilibrium or stability to a work of art.
Major types are symmetrical and asymmetrical
• Emphasis (contrast) - A way of combining elements
to stress the differences between those elements
• Proportion - A principle of design that refers to the
relationship of certain elements to the whole and to
each other.
• Gradation - A way of combining elements by using a
series of gradual changes in those elements. (large
shapes to small shapes, dark hue to light hue, etc)
• Harmony - A way of combining similar elements in an
artwork to accent their similarities (achieved through
use of repetitions and subtle gradual changes)
• Variety - A principle of design concerned with
diversity or contrast. Variety is achieved by using
different shapes, sizes, and/or colors in a work of art.
• Movement - A principle of design used to create the
look and feeling of action and to guide the viewer’s
eye throughout the work of art.
Nature
The essential nature of Art is that it is a largely non-symbolic
form of communication and a primary counterpoint to language.
While almost any language requires considerable education in
the manner in which information is encoded into the symbols it
uses, Art is communicative with very little prior indoctrination.
The languages used by the artists of Chauvet Cave (more than
32,000 years ago) are long since unrecoverable, but the bison
they painted are unmistakably bison and the lions are
unmistakably lions. As such, Art is able to do things language
can’t do very well, such as communicate across language
barriers.

This capacity to communicate wordlessly also makes it possible

to play with visual-emotional associations. Certain colors can
incite given emotions, especially in connection or contrast with
other colors. Shapes have such associations as well as do the
interrelatedness of objects within the conceptual framework of a
work of art. A skilled artist plays all of these elements against
one another in a kind of exploration of how the artist’s sense of
the impact of these elements placed together corresponds with
the responses of viewers.

Importance

Society is affected by the capable elites, the dependent masses,

government and societal action, and the ideas that can be
realized through those actions. From there, the graph is divided
into four quadrants: on one hand, the elites half of the actors
form part of the government (Inside) while the majority of those
actors are members of the public (outside). On the other hand,
the elites have the power to create policy (ideas), while the
masses reflect what society really wants (heart).

Art is very important in society because it is an essential

ingredient to empowering the hearts of people
 Reference
• http://www2.oberlin.edu/amam/asia/sculpture/doc
uments/vocabulary.pdf
• https://conceptartempire.com/what-is-composition/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art
• https://study.com/academy/lesson/composition-in-
art-definition-elements.html
• https://www.quora.com/Why-is-art-important

DELOS REYES, Steve Bitoon

HUMSS 12 – Socrates