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Like other fields of study, the arts have their own specialized vocabulary. The artist’s distinctive use of the vocabulary of formal elements (discussed in this module), materials and techniques (Module 5), composition (Module 6)—together with the various contexts of the production of art (Modules 7, 8, 9)—contribute to the meaning of the work (Guillermo 47-48, 111, 126; Kleiner 7).
Although these aspects are discussed in separate modules, they are not isolated in practice but are dynamically interrelated thereby producing a complex structure (Guillermo 30).
Such dynamics among elements, medium, technique, and context in the production of meaning hold true for the visual arts, architecture, music, cinema, theater, dance, as well as the traditional arts (Guillermo 30).
Learning Objectives
Learning Objectives
After completing the module, you should be able to:
Describe the capability of the formal elements to convey meaning;
Explain the terms representational and abstract with reference to art; and
Discuss the emergence and development of various “styles” (-isms) in art.
Forms
Forms
In visual art and architecture, the term form refers to its purely visual components such as line, shape, color, light, texture, and space. These components are known as formal elements (Stokstad and Cothren xxii; Adams 51). They are building blocks used to create an artwork (Getty Museum).
Formal analysis is the visual analysis of artistic form (Kleiner 7, 868). The emphasis on the formal elements rather than the subject and context of an artwork is formalism (Kleiner 790, 868; Stokstad “Vocabulary” 4).
Activity 4.1. Read Guillermo's “Elements"
Activity 4.1. Read Guillermo's “Elements"
Allot 1 hour
Read Alice G. Guillermo, “Elements,” in Art and Society (Quezon City: [Department of Art Studies, College of Arts and Letters,] University of the Philippines, 1997), 47-87. (Available on MyPortal)
Provide your own local examples illustrating the significations of different kinds of line, colors, value, texture, and shapes.
Pick a piece of crayon from a crayon box. Describe your chosen color to a congenitally blind person.
What did the activity reveal about the value of the non-naturalistic use of color? How does this relate to the remark of the Post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh that, “Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I see before me, I make more arbitrary use of colour to express myself more forcefully.”
Styles
Styles
Style is the particular manner of expression typical of a certain artist or of a school or period (Stokstad, “Glossary,” 9). It is the combination of form (see Module 4 Topic 1) and composition (see Module 5) that makes a work distinctive (Stokstad and Cothren xxiv; Adams 51).
There are different kinds of style in art history. Period style is the characteristic traits of works of a particular historical era, such as the High Renaissance. Regional style is the style of a specific geographical area, like the art from ancient Egyptian. Personal style is the distinctive manner an individual artist produces an object (Gardner 3-5, 873; Stokstad and Cothren, xxiv). Stylistic analysis helps us recognize individual artists, places, and times (Stokstad 14).
Furthermore, in relation to subject matter, styles may either be representational or abstract. Representational styles have a subject matter recognizable from the world of people and nature. Figurative images may vary from verisimilitude to extreme distortions but all are considered representational provided the subject matter is identifiable. In contrast, abstract or non-figurative styles make no reference to the natural world but focus instead on formal elements (Guillermo 112). Its “subject” is the artwork itself— its lines, colors, shapes, and textures, etc. (Guillermo 112; Kleiner 5).
Note however that even for works with no recognizable subject matter, all have expressive content or meaning (Taylor 51-52) because they convey ideas, feelings, and values of the artists, patrons, and viewers. Content includes subject matter but may also derive, among others, from the visual or aural form as well as the socio-political contexts in which the work was created (Stokstad and Cothren xxiv; de Leon 83).
Activity 4.2. Read the section on Styles of Figuration from the chapter on "The Image and Its Context"
Activity 4.2. Read the section on Styles of Figuration from the chapter on "The Image and Its Context"
Allot 1 hour
Read the section on Styles of Figuration from the chapter on "The Image and Its Context" in Alice G. Guillermo's book, Art and Society (Quezon City: [Department of Art Studies, College of Arts and Letters,] University of the Philippines, 1997), 112-120. (Available on MyPortal)
Distinguish the terms ‘representational,’ ‘naturalism,’ and ‘realism.’ Contrast the variations of realism such as Social Realism, Magic Realism, Hyper-realism, or Photorealism, Miniaturismo, and Surrealism.
Why is classical art considered representational but not realist? Discuss why Realism and Impressionism challenged Neoclassicism.
Why did contemporary artists move away from the modernist styles of the 20th century such as Expressionism, Cubism, and Pop Art?
Activity 4.3: Celebrity look-alike
Activity 4.3: Celebrity look-alike
Allot 1 hour
Place a recent picture of yourself side by side with a picture of a person (preferably a celebrity who is not your relative) who closely resembles you in appearance. You may cosplay, and/or edit your picture, and/or edit the picture of your look-alike to enhance the similarity. (Format: 4 inches high x 6 inches wide. Insert a caption in your work to identify yourself and your look-alike. See the examples on on this page.)
Grade your work and the works of your classmates based on the style of naturalism. The more accurate the representation, the higher the grade.
5 pts = Uncanny resemblance
4.5 = Strong resemblance
4 = Good resemblance
3.5 = Fair resemblance
3 = Passing resemblance
2 = Faint resemblance
1 = No resemblance
0 = No Submission
How does it feel to grade and be graded solely on imitation? What artistic values or concepts are de-emphasized in imitation? Please explain.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Although there are many forms and styles, what is important is their ability to express certain values or concepts that are integral parts of the work’s meaning (Guillermo 119-120).
Module 4 Supplement
Module 4 Supplement
Activity S4.1: A brief history of Western art
Activity S4.1: A brief history of Western art
Allot 90 minutes
Part 1
Read Mary Velmonte's (2019) Form & Style (embedded below) which provides a brief guide to the history of Western visual art.
Velmonte-2019-Form&Style.pdfPart 2
Watch these short TikTok videos by Australian art historian Mary McGillivray on how to recognize examples of particular art movements. The videos are tongue-in-cheek; don't take them as a definitive guide, but they're funny and often don't miss the mark!
Part 2
Watch the Art 1010 videos from Khan Academy. (Two of the videos, on Twentieth Century Art and on Contemporary Art, are embedded below as Videos 4.1 and 4.2 as examples.)
As you watch the videos and consult the guide, consider the following:
What were some of the key artists and artistic movements in twentieth century art and contemporary art? To help you answer this question, you can also refer to Appendix 1 (pages 9-14) of the GCE AS and A level history of art document by the UK Department of Education (2016), as well as the Supplementary References listed at the bottom of this page.
Choose an art movement that seems particularly interesting, confusing, or even disagreeable to you. (In making and appreciating art, there is a lot of value in confronting what you don’t like!) And then do the following:
Collect examples of art works that represent this art movement. Remember, these examples could be not just from the visual arts, but also music, film, literature, dance, fashion, the culinary arts, etc. There are often close correspondences between different art forms.
Discuss what political, technological, and social developments at the time contributed or influenced the emergence of this art movement.
Videos 4.1. Some features of 20th Century Art (Nancy Ross, 2013b)
Video 4.2. Some features of Contemporary Art (Nancy Ross, 2013a)
Activity S4.2. Similarities across types of art
Activity S4.2. Similarities across types of art
Allot 30 minutes
In this module, you learned about different formal elements and styles within the visual arts (Activities 4.1 and 4.2). However, stylistic and formal elements present in one art form are often found or echoed in another art form, especially if they were created around the same historical period. (See Supplementary Activity S4.1.) For example, some elements in Impressionist paintings can be found in Impressionist music, as argued by this writeup by Shari Mathias (2017), among others. To illustrate this correspondence, Video 4.3 juxtaposes the music of composer Claude Debussy with some paintings in the Impressionist style.
Identify a specific pair of examples of different types of art works, where formal or stylistic elements in one are echoed in the other. Share this pairing in class and use the material in this module to discuss the formal or stylistic elements that they share. Since the focus of this module was the visual arts, use a work of visual art as half of the pair. A few examples of such pairings:
A poem + dance
Musical work + architecture
Culinary dish + a performance
Discuss this pairing in class and use the material in this module to discuss the formal or stylistic elements that they share. Feel free to use other resources in order to properly use the language describing formal or stylistic elements in other art forms.
In choosing and discussing your pair, be specific as you can. For instance, you might find similarities between Ken Bushe's landscape painting The Wakening in Leopold Stokowsko's orchestral version of Debussy's piano composition, The Sunken Cathedral. You might observe that they both use lush washes of color (Bushe) or sound (Debussy); blur the distinction between background and foreground (Bushe) or melody and harmony (Debussy); and evoke a sense of something emerging and brightening through the visual imagery of a sunrise (Bushe) or through increasingly sonorous and majestic chords (Debussy).
Video 4.3. Juxtaposing Debussy's music with Impressionist paintings (neuIlaryRheinKlange, 2013)
Activity S4.3 (COVID-19 Special Activity): How new forms and styles emerge from crises
Activity S4.3 (COVID-19 Special Activity): How new forms and styles emerge from crises
Butoh is a dance form that was emerged in Japan during the 1950s partly as a reaction to the horrors of World War II and out of the desire to find a new, authentically Japanese performance practice that was not merely an imitation of Western styles and which uncovered the hidden or unspoken aspects of Japanese society at the time (Sanders, 1988; C.W., 2017; Goldberg, 2017). From the ashes of a global crisis, a new and compelling art form was born.
Drawing from resources that you can find on the Web and from your own experiences, can you...
... identify other examples in which not merely a new artwork but an entirely new style or form of art has emerged from a period of profound crisis?
... find art styles or forms that have emerged out of health crises in particular?
... suggest if any new styles or forms of art are emerging from the COVID-19 crisis specifically?
Readings, References, and Resources
Readings, References, and Resources
Guillermo, Alice G. (1997). “Elements” in Art and Society. Quezon City: Department of Art Studies, College of Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines, 47-87.
________________ . (1997). “Styles of Figuration” in Art and Society. Quezon City: De-partment of Art Studies, College of Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines, 112-120.
References
Adams, Laure Schneider. (2012). Exploring Art. London: Laurence King Publishing.
Bungalow, T. M. (2015, December 5). Debussy: The Genius Who Painted Music. Retrieved January 30, 2019, from https://medium.com/@BungalowBlog/debussy-the-genius-who-painted-music-5eea5e09fdf7
Datuin, Flaudette May V., Roberto Paulino, Eileen Legaspi-Ramirez, and Louise Marcelino. (2016). “Elements of Art and Principles of Composition.” In Philippine Contemporary Art in the Regions, 101-111. Manila: Rex Book Store.
de Leon, Felipe M., Jr. (1978). “The Elements and Principles of Organization in the Arts.” In On Art, Man & Nature: Selected Readings in the Humanities, edited by Felipe M. de Leon Jr, 83-96. Quezon City: Jingle Clan Pub.
de Leon, Felipe M., Jr. (1978). “The Elements and Structures of Music.” In On Art, Man & Nature: Selected Readings in the Humanities, edited by Felipe M. de Leon Jr, 99-107. Quezon City: Jingle Clan Pub.
De La Paz, Cecilia. (2014). “Ang Anyo ng Sining.” In Sining at Lipunan, 1-50. 2nd ed. Edited by Cecilia De La Paz and Patrick D. Flores. Quezon City: Sentro ng Wikang Filipino, Unibersidad ng Pilipinas.
The J. Paul Getty Trust. (2016). “Elements of Art.“ The J. Paul Getty Museum. http://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/building_lessons/formal_analysis.html. Accessed 17 Feb 2017.
Guillermo, Alice G. (2001). “Reading the Image.” In Image to Meaning: Essays on Philippine Art, 1-16. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press.
G[uillermo], A[lice] G., and P[atrick] D. F[lores]. (1997). Introduction to “The Text of Art.” In Art and Society, managing editor Patrick D. Flores, 30. Quezon City: [Department of Art Studies, College of Arts and Letters,] University of the Philippines.
Kleiner, Fred S. (2014). Gardner’s Art through the Ages. 14th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Mathias, S. (2017, March 27). Impressionism In Music. Retrieved January 30, 2019, from https://parkersymphony.org/impressionism-in-music
Nancy Ross. (2013a). TICE ART 1010 Contemporary Art. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgKCGwSdCMo
Nancy Ross. (2013b). TICE ART 1010 Twentieth Century Art. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPIAVBv5iH4
neuIlaryRheinKlange. (2013). Claude Debussy - Nocturnes. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obv33I2Kf10
Sontag, Susan. (1966). “Notes on Style,” in Against Interpretation and Other Essays (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux), 15-48. http://www.coldbacon.com/writing/sontag-onstyle.html. Accessed 20 July 2018.
Stokstad, Marilyn. (1999). Art: A Brief History. New York: Narry N. Abrams.
Stokstad, Marilyn, and Michael W. Cothren. (2014). Art History. 5th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Taylor, Joshua C. (1981). “An Analysis of the Work of Art.” In Learning to Look: A Handbook for the Visual Arts, 51-68. 2nd ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
UK Department of Education. (2016). GCE AS and A level history of art (No. DFE-00013-2016). Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gce-as-and-a-level-history-of-art
Supplementary Resources
Butoh—After the Horror I Tokyo Paranormal (10/10) I ARTE Documentary. (n.d.). Retrieved May 24, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8nFCRJ25HU
C.W. (2017, August 16). Butoh: Transcendence of emotions in performance. Japan Experience. https://www.japan-experience.com/to-know/understanding-japan/butoh#_ftn1
Goldberg, J. (2017, November 13). How Butoh, the Japanese Dance of Darkness, Helps Us Experience Compassion in a Suffering World. Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/butoh-japanese-dance-darkness/
Sanders, V. (1988). Dancing and the Dark Soul of Japan: An Aesthetic Analysis of “Butō.” Asian Theatre Journal, 5(2), 148–163. JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25161489
SANKAI JUKU Official digest movie “MEGURI” 山海塾—Butoh Dance 舞踏 -. (n.d.). Retrieved May 24, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTHTPBp842g
Velmonte, M. R. (2019, February). Form & Style. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/velmonte-2019-visual-arts-guid
The CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art
Parts of the CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art are available online on http://digitaleducation.net/epa-web. There are pages on entries for the following Philippine art forms that you might find interesting:
Visual arts (Overview, Sources and Influences, The American Colonial and Contemporary Traditions, The Spanish Colonial Tradition, The Ethnic Tradition, Metalcraft, Mat Weaving, Leaf Art, Komiks and Editorial Cartoon, Furniture, Food Art, Embroidery, Pottery, Photography, Personal Ornaments, Paper Art, Costumes, Book Design, Basketry, and Bamboo Art, among others)
Music (Production, Secular Music, Urban American Music, Ethnic Music, and Pinoy Pop Music, among others)
Film (Overview, Forms and Types, and Production, among others)
Literature (Overview and Forms and Types, among others)
Dance (Production, Forms and Types, Major Works, and Artists and Organisations, among others)
Additional resources for Western art movements
Some good resources to use are the following:
This timeline created by independent art historian Neil Collins
Yet another timeline available from the Encyclopedia of Art on visual-arts-cork.com
A list of areas published in the section on Art History by Oxford Bibliographies.
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