EDU403 Highlighted Handouts by VU Topper RM

Lesson No.1

Introduction to Course

What this Course is about?

This course will cover the following areas:

Basic introduction to Art, Crafts and Calligraphy

Fundamentals of theory and Practice such as Elements and Principles

Pakistani Artists

Art Movements

Ways of teaching Art in elementary schools

Interface of Art with other academic disciplines

Objectives of the course:

Develop a basic understanding of art

Enhance Exposure (Historical and Contemporary)

Understand the significance of art in education

Learn meaningful ways of teaching

Lesson No. 2

Defining Arts

What is Art?

There are there components which need to be considered when we try to define art. These three components are as under:

Something that is expressed

The way in which it is expressed

The function that it performs

The definition of art has evolved over time and varies based on context; anything can be made into art, and the term continues to evolve. The nature of art has been described by philosopher Richard Wollheim as:

"One of the most elusive of the traditional problems of human culture"

Richard Wollheim.

Art has been defined as a vehicle for the expression or communication of emotions and ideas, a means for exploring and appreciating formal elements for their own sake, and as mimesis or representation. Art, at its simplest, is a form of communication. It means whatever it is intended to mean by the artist herself, and this meaning is shaped by the materials, techniques, and forms of the art, as well as the ideas and feelings it engenders in the viewer. Anything can in fact be art, and the term continues to evolve.

After the recent collection of definitions some of history’s greatest minds and philosophers define art as:

“We work in the dark — we do what we can — we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art”

Henry James

“Art is not, as the meta-physicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man’s emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity.”

Leo Tolstoy

“Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known”.