THE CONTEXT OF

ART
What is context?

■ Context refers to settings, conditions,

circumstances, and occurrences affecting
production and reception or audience
response to an artwork. It is a set of
background information that enables us
to formulate meanings about works of art
and note how context affects form.
 DIFFERENT
CONTEXT OF ART
a. Artist’s Background

■ The artist’s age, gender, culture, economic

conditions, social environment, and
disposition affect art production. The
mode of production, which encompasses
the kind of materials accessible to the
artists as well as the conditions
surrounding labor, also hope the work
produced by the artist.
• Julie Lluch, an artist
who hails from Iligan
City, would often
emphasize her female
identity and personal
experiences in many of
her terracotta works. In
Cutting Onions Always
Make Me Cry, 1988,
Lluch’s self-portrait
presents cooking --- a
role associated with
women in the home ---
as oppressive and
unpleasant.
b. Nature

■ Nature can be seen as a

source of inspiration an a
wellspring of materials
for art production.
The t’nalak for example uses
abaca fibers stripped from the
trunk of the banana tree, and
colored with re and black dyes
naturally extracted from roots
and leaves of plants. Using a
backstrap loom, the weaver
produces t’nalak designs
including stylized forms inspired
by nature: kleng (crab), ‘gmayaw
(bird in flight), tofi (frog), and
sawo (snake skin).
c. Everyday Life

■ Philippine traditional art has always

been an integral part of daily life. Its
significance lies not only in its
aesthetics appearance but also in
its functionality and its value to the
community that produced it.
d. Society, Politics and Economy,
and History
■ Changes in the society, politics
and economy affect artists, the
work that they do, and the
structures that support their
production.
• The painting of National
Artist Benedicto Cabrera
titled Brown Brother’s
Burden, ca. 1970,
approximates the look of
an old photograph which
presents an aspect of
colonial history from the
gaze of the colonized. If we
were to look at the jeepney
on the other hand, we will
see that its style of
ornamentation,
reminiscent of folk
characteristics, has
Appropriation – technique of
transforming existing materials
through the juxtaposition of elements
taken from one context and placing
these in another to present alternative
meanings, structure, and composition
to an art work.
e. Mode of Reception

■ Art is encountered via the museum;

arranged and categorized before a public
for the purpose of education and leisure.
Owning to its longstanding history as an
institution that exhibits arts or other
objects of value, we automatically assume
that what is shown is of value.