A short presentation about the Visual Arts that discusses the meaning of visual arts, the types, philosophical perspective, its subject, sources, and levels of meaning. This presentation was created for the subject Humanities: Art Appreciation.

1. The Visual Arts
Report by: Veronica Baje

2. The Visual
Arts
• Visual Arts are art
forms that create
works that are
primarily visual in
nature, such as
ceramics, drawing,
painting, sculpture,
printmaking, design,
crafts, photography,
video, film making, and
architecture.

3. Visual Arts include:
• Fine Arts – refers to an art form practiced
mainly for its aesthetic value and its
beauty rather than its functional value.
• Contemporary Arts – include number of
modern art forms such as: assemblage,
collage, mixed-media, conceptual art,
installation, happenings and performance
art, along with film-based disciplines
such as photography, video art, and
animation, or any combination thereof.

4. • Decorative Arts and
Crafts – includes
ceramics and studio
pottery, mosaic art,
mobiles, tapestry, glass
art, and others.
• Other – graphic
design, fashion design,
and interior design.
New types of body art
may also fall in this
category which
includes tattoo art,
face painting, and
body painting.

5. Philosophical Perspective of
Arts

6. Art as mimesis (Plato)
• Mimesis is derived from the Greek word
“mimos” meaning to imitate. It is a critical
and philosophical term that carries a wide
range of meanings, which include
imitation, representation, mimicry,
receptivity, similarity, the act of
resembling, the act of expression, and the
presentation of the self.

7. Art as
representation
(Aristotle)
• Similar to Plato’s
writings about
mimesis, Aristotle also
defined mimesis as
the perfection, and
imitation of nature

8. Art of Art Sake
• "Art for art's sake" is
the usual English
rendering of a French
slogan from the early
19th century, "l'art pour
l'art“.
• Used to convey the idea
that the chief or only
aim of a work of art is
the self-expression of
the individual artist
who creates it.

9. The Subject of Art

10. Representational of
Objective
• Representational art or figurative art
represents objects or events in the real
world, usually looking easily
recognizable. It uses form and is
concerned with what is to be depicted
in the artwork.

11. Non-representational
or Non-objective
• These are those arts without
any reference to anything
outside itself. It is non-
objective because it has no
recognizable objects. It is
abstract in the sense that it
doesn’t represent real
objects in our world.

12. Sources of Subject Art

13. Primary Sources
• Provide first hand
testimony or direct
evidence concerning a
topic under
investigation. They are
created by witnesses or
recorders who
experienced the events
or conditions being
documented.

14. Secondary Sources
• Interpret and analyze
primary sources.
Because they are often
written significantly
after events by parties
not directly involved but
who have special
expertise, they may
provide historical
context or critical
perspectives.

15. Some of these
sources of art
subject are:
1. Nature
2. History
3. Greek and Roman
mythology
4. The Judaeo-Christian
tradition
5. Oriental Sacred Texts
6. Other works of art

16. Kinds of Subject
1. Still Life
2. Landscapes, Seascapes
& Cityscapes
3. Animals
4. Portraits
5. Figures
6. Everyday Life
7. History and Legends
8. Religion and
Mythology
9. Dreams and Fantasies

17. Different Levels of Meaning

18. Factual Meaning
• The literal meaning or
narrative content in the
work which can be directly
apprehended because the
objects presented are easily
recognized.

19. Conventional
Meaning
• Refers to the special
meaning that certain object
has in a particular culture or
group of people.

20. Subjective Meaning
• Any personal meaning
consciously or unconsciously
conveyed by the artist using a
private symbolism which stems
from his own association of
certain objects, actions, or colors
with past experience.