Module 7: THE FUNCTIONS OF ART

Art can be generally classified into two:

Directly Functional and Indirectly Functional.

a) Directly Functional Art – Art that we use in a daily basis and serves a literal or tangible
function in our lives. (e.g. Clothes, Architectural and Engineering, Structures, Money, Furniture)

b) Indirectly Functional Art – Art that are ‘perceived through the senses.” Not used literally to
live but accompanies life (e.g. Painting, Theatre, Literature)

•Both Directly Functional and Indirectly Functional Arts tend to cross each other’s paths and
change roles or even fuse purposes.

•Some Directly Functional Art have a sole purpose which is for functionality, but the designs
incorporated made the decorative art transcend from its basic form to a highly artistic form of
art.

•Artistic Functions can be classified into 4:

1. Aesthetic

2. Utilitarian

3. Social

4. Cultural

1. Aesthetic Function

•An artwork functions aesthetically when it becomes an instrument for mankind to be

cognizant of its beauty where feelings of joy and appreciation are manifested.

2. Utilitarian Function

•Art serves this function when it is used to give comfort, convenience, and happiness to
human beings. It served basic functions such as clothing, food, and shelter, and other
things that make humans live with happiness and ease.
3. Social Function

•Art serves this purpose when it bridges connection among people. Also when it
encourages unity and good relationship among people. With this, people become more
understanding and could somehow create a better society.

4. Cultural Function

•Art serves as an aperture towards skills, knowledge, attitudes, customs, and traditions
of different people. The art helps preserve, share and transmit culture of people from
one generation to another.

PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES

A. Plato’s Theory Of Mimesis

In his theory of Mimesis, Plato says that all art is mimetic by nature; art is an imitation of life. He
believed that ‘idea’ is the ultimate reality. Art imitates idea and so it is imitation of reality. He gives
an example of a carpenter and a chair. The idea of ‘chair’ first came in the mind of carpenter. He
gave physical shape to his idea out of wood and created a chair. The painter imitated the chair of
the carpenter in his picture of chair. Thus, painter’s chair is twice removed from reality. Hence, he
believed that art is twice removed from reality. He gives first im portance to philosophy as
philosophy deals with the ideas whereas poetry deals with illusion – things which are twice
removed from reality. So to Plato, philosophy is superior to poetry. Plato rejected poetry as it is
mimetic in nature on the moral and philosophical grounds. On the contrary, Aristotle advocated
poetry as it is mimetic in nature. According to him, poetry is an imitation of an action and his tool
of enquiry is neither philosophical nor moral. He examines poetry as a piece of art and not as a
book of preaching or teaching.

B. Aristotle’s Theory of Representations

Aristotle (384-322 BC) was more systematic and down to earth. All the arts have their own
techniques and rational principles, and it is through mastery of these that the artist/craftsman
brings his conceptions to life. Yes, the arts do copy nature, but their representations are fuller and
more meaningful than nature gives us in the raw. That is their strength. We do not therefore need
to insist on some moral purpose for art, which is thus free to represent all manner of things
present, past, imagined or institutionally-required. Correctness in poetry is not correctness judged
on other grounds like politics or morality. The artist's task is to create some possible world which
the audience will grasp and evaluate much as they do the "real" world outside. The artwork needs
to be internally consistent, and externally acceptable. {3}

Form and content cannot be entirely separated. Plays should have a beginning, middle and end
because life itself has these features, but they should also possess a larger significance that
endows the individual representation with deeper human meaning. Where Plato castigated poetry
for bewitching the senses, Aristotle praises it for catharsis and healthy psychological balance.
Both in its creation and reception, art is mode of understanding, and so a civilizing influence.

C. Kant’s “L’Art por L’Art( Art for Art’s Sake)

Before gaining such popularity, German philosopher Immanuel Kant qualified “art for art’s sake”
as a mode of approaching art in The Critique of Judgement (1790). Declaring content, subject
matter, and any other external demands obsolete, Kant argued the purpose of art is to be
“purposeless”. It should not have to justify any reason of existing and being valued other than
the fact that it is art. Our experience of art – the ways we appreciate and criticise work – is
therefore wholly commanded by aesthetic pleasure and delight, separate to the rest of the
world. To Kant, this was the only window through which it could be viewed. Responsible for a
host of core ideas in Western philosophy, Kant’s thoughts on autonomy and transcendental
value have resonated throughout modern thinking to present day.

Practically speaking, it usually meant that art should avoid social, political, and moral themes
and concentrate instead on creating beauty, so it really meant “art for the sake of beauty and its
elevating effects.”

D. Art as an escape

Good art is an escape from our reality for a brief point in time that helps us heal and take a
break. That is probably the most useful purpose of anything I have ever encountered in life. And
that is why art is not only powerful but useful. Without Art we stay stuck in our thoughts, and the
beauty that the world offers disappears into the abyss of our imaginations. Art brings us back and
helps us see that beauty again and be thankful that we’re alive. Art breathes new life into us
during those self-harming thoughts and the inevitable tragedy that we will experience. Art is an
escape, although it’s not a permanent one; rather, it’s a much-needed escape. Without art, life
would be a dreary misery of yearly goals that come true occasionally. Most of life is spent not
getting what we want, and art helps remind us that we can have what we want, just not all the
time. Like art, we need to accept that we can’t binge on it 24/7. We need a break. Sometimes we
get what we want. Sometimes we get to touch good art like I did today. And then other days we
get none of that. The balance of life and art creates a liveable existence with just enough nutrition
for the mind to keep us from giving up.

The ceremony of art touches the deepest realms of the psyche and he sacred dimension of the
artistic creative process. The sacred level of art not only transforms something into art, but also
transforms the artist at the very core of his or her being. This way of doing and relating to art
makes the process and context of art-making infinitely more important than the

product.”

It’s an escape from the hustle and bustle of a long active day of work and meetings. It’s an
escape from the chaos that our uncertain thoughts cause within us. It’s an escape our unrelating
running footsteps that we focus on more intensely than reminding ourselves to take magical
depths of deep breaths.

SUBJECT AND CONTENT

THE SUBJECT
The Subject of art refers to any person, object, scene or event described or represented
in a work of art.
• Representational (e.g. Paintings, Sculptures, etc.)
• Non-Representational (e.g. Architectural Structures)

Many contemporary painters have turned away from representational to non-

objective painting. They have shifted their attention to the work of art as an object in
itself, an exciting combination of shapes and colors that fulfills an aesthetic need
without having to represent images or tell a story.
Many modern paintings are like this making them more difficult to comprehend.
WAYS OF REPRESENTING SUBJECTS
 CONTENT (LEVELS OF MEANING)

Factual Meaning

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

Conventional Meaning

•Refers to the special meaning that a certain object or color has a particular

culture or group of people.

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 experiences.

KINDS AND SOURCES OF SUBJECTS

For non-representational art, a higher-level of perceptiveness and insight might be
required to fully grasped the feeling, emotion, or concept behind the work.
For representational art, it is easier to infer the subject matter because from the figures
depicted in the artwork, there is already a suggestion to its implication.
Nature
Animals
Portrait or Human Figures
History and Legends
Still Life
Religion and Mythology
Dreams and Fantasies