This gets to the nub of things for me. Whilst many people can enjoy art for just what they see, art appreciation increases dramatically when you know a bit about what you’re looking at - like any subject really.
I went to art college and took many classes in art history. I remember spending about 10 months studying Italian Renaissance art at school, at the end of which we went on an art study trip to Florence. Suddenly seeing all these amazing artworks in real life after reading about the artists for months just blew me away. There’s no way it would have had such a profound effect on me if I knew nothing about the paintings.
My girlfriend was always a bit ‘meh’ abut art until I started seeing her. Now, when we visit a gallery, I tell her about the painting, why it’s important, how it fits with the broader development of certain movements, etc. She gets a LOT more enjoyment from it now.
As to why Giotto, Michaelangelo and the like are so priceless compared to their contemporaries - it’s because they changed art for ever. Others just copied what they were doing. There’s one thing being a good decorator, it’s quite another being an innovator. Before Giotto, for e.g., people painted like this, for example. He painted like this, using shading and realism to give his work much more depth. Whilst it looks pedestrian today, it was revolutionary at the time. Bit like comparing the original Sony Walkman with an ipod. Looks rubbish now, but back in the 80s…wow!
Every art form is trying to accomplish the same thing at the end of the day–a brief expression of the human condition. I appreciate paintings in a broader, historical way for the most part, but starting with the Impressionists and moving right into Modern art, I feel a real connection with what they’re attempting to accomplish.
Edward Hopper is one of my favorites. He manages to tell you a person’s entire lifetime with what he captures on canvas, like this or this. Painting is a lot like poetry. It’s creating the perfect image, the perfect moment, and putting it together just so to convey something…real. Even if it’s something simple like “We’re all very lonely” or “This mountain is very pretty in the sun” or “Jesus is here to save us all.”
I’ve been lucky enough to see some really amazing paintings and museums. But none of my experiences compare to being in the same room with Picasso’s La Vie. It’s unbelievable. The link doesn’t even begin to do it justice.
Every now and then you see something that floors you. One that really struck me when I saw it in person was Georges de la Tour’s The Repentant Magdalene. I think it’s the oppressive darkness and the single flame. When it comes to modern art, I find my self somehow drawn to Piet Mondrian. Yeah, a bunch of lines and squares. Can’t help but stare at them, though.
Maybe paintings just aren’t your thing. How do you feel about sculpture?
One I have a lot of affection for is Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party. What I was unprepared for when I saw it in real life was the fact that it’s ENORMOUS. The textures and the scale of it just hammer home what an amazing piece it is.
Seeing a painting live can add a whole new dimension to the experience.
My parents, both artists, always had a reproduction of Picasso’s *Guernica *in the house. I pretty much grew up with it, and it just struck me as something really ugly. I knew that is was about the destruction of the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, and that it was supposed to be ugly . . . but it never really moved me.
Then, a couple of years ago, I saw the original painting in Madrid, and was totally blown away. The painting is HUGE, and is in a room all by itself. And there are other things in the painting that Picasso had changed his mind and painted over. I must have stood there for 20 minutes, sometimes getting close to it to examine a detail, and sometimes standing back. It was an extremely moving experience.
…and you were doing so well - yes, if you’re not moved by the Great Mssters, you’re not moved (although I have to say, if you haven’t seen them in person, you haven’t really had a chance)…but this statement? It’s just bullshit. No, you couldn’t do it.
The power of a great work of art comes not from what it tells you, but what it prompts you to tell yourself.
If you approach a painting (or a movie, or a symphony, or any work of art, really) as though the goal is to figure it out and decode the message … then you’re missing the point. There’s not going to be much there.
But if you approach it as a starting point for thinking about something in a new or different way, then there can be A LOT there. Most of it will come from inside your own head, not from what’s on the canvas, but that’s okay. The work is a seed, a catalyst, nothing more. It’s a small part of the total experience, but an essential one.
Seeing Guernica in the flesh floored me, almost literally. I somehow didn’t realize that the painting was in that particular museum. I enter a new gallery, turn around, and there it is in front of me. The effect was so overwhelming, my knees started to buckle. I had to go back into the hallway and sit down for a couple minutes before I went back in. I’ve never reacted that strongly to a painting before or since.
Art is the seed of an idea or an emotion. It often isn’t rooted in what is logical, but it’s an attempt to stimulate the right hemisphere of your brain. People who drive in the left lane is not art, but performance artists who deliberately drive slowly in the left lane for an audience is art. It may not be good art, or even meaningful art, but it would be art. The problem is that there’s a lot of bad art in the world and since art is so subjective, what’s good and bad often aren’t obvious. Just find something you enjoy.
Maybe you just don’t like painting since it’s not your medium? Try some other types of art. Maybe you could try photography, sculpture, or even performance art. Or it could be that you’re lacking context. I find that the lack of context to be one of the drawbacks of most modern museums since they seem to want you to experience the art by itself. Understanding the time period the art was produced in and sometimes the use of colors, technique, and symbolism can all enhance your experience. Maybe you could go to your local art museum and take a guided tour. That way, you could ask questions as well if you’re lost.
One small correction to your observations is that it’s a sunrise, the beginning of the workday. Jules Breton was out early one morning and heard a lark singing. Trying to spot the bird, he looked around and saw a peasant girl who was just as spellbound as he was by the bird’s song. That’s what inspired this painting.
But it does speak to a work ethic, definitely. Can you imagine a workday like that peasant girl is about to have? A day of bending over scything wheat? Doesn’t your back ache just thinking about it? What a miserable thing to look forward to.
But just for that moment in the painting, the sun is rising, and the lark is singing. One can take that single moment to forget one’s labor, and revel in the beauty that surrounds us.
Yes, the sunrise is the focal point of the painting, and not the girl. No one labors to bring the sun up every morning. No one must work to teach the lark to sing.
There is no scientific need for these things to be beautiful. But they are. It just so happens that human beings have the capacity to recognize beauty and appreciate it. Never forget to do that, and if your labor isn’t lighter for it, at least remember to see the beauty in the world. Or all you will see is your labor.
You don’t have to appreciate art. I don’t. Maybe its something about color perception, or just a lack of visual orientation, but I don’t find my life diminished in any way as a result. There are plenty of other things in life to appreciate. I don’t know why more people don’t appreciate professional wrestling, or Godzilla documentaries. But some people are just closed minded.
Reading these posts should show you how easy it is to pretend that you appreciate art. Not that any of the posters are doing that, but it might help you get laid some day.
I did not mean to imply that any particular person or group of people claiming appreciation of art were phonies. Some are. That’s all. I see my wording, and anyone familiar with my congenital snarkiness might assume otherwise. I apologize to anyone who actually appreciates art and felt I was referring to them.
There are pretentious assholes in the world, but I didn’t get that impression about anyone in this thread.
If you are interested or passionate about anything, I think it’s hard to imagine others NOT being interested in the same thing and motivated to learn more about it. However, I always considered art my glaring blind spot when it came to the humanities. So over the past six months or so, I looked through this art encyclopedia and just wrote down the name of every painting I liked with no rhyme or reason; I wasn’t looking for historical influences or critical importance or anything, just the paintings I liked.
In my system of doing this, the next logical step is reading more about these paintings and trying to determine more about why I like them and why others do too. But I think it’s a worthwhile starting point. For argument’s sake, my list was
Rivera - The Flower Seller
Chagall - Above the Town
Manet - The Balcony
Goya - Colossus/Saturn devouring his son
David Teniers - Leopold Wilhelm in his picture gallery
Van Ruysduel - River Landscape with fisherman
Gericault - Heads Severed/Raft the Medusa
Altdorfer - The Battle of Alexander the Great at Issus
Gentileschi - Judith and Holofennes
Hubert Robert - Egyptian Fantasy
Casper David Friedrich - Winter Landscape
Carot - La Solitude Souvenir de Vigen
Frederick Edwin Church - Cotopaxi
Pissarro - Le Boulevard Montmartre
Whistler - Harmony in Gray/Temps de Pluie/Chelsea in Ice
Hassam - Flags/Afternoon on the Avenue
I was very happy to see this thread and it’s a very appropriate first post for me.
I don’t get it either. The only things that give me that soaring sense of wonder are scientific. Being able to see the hidden connections between phenomena that superficially should have none of any kind. For example, realizing that plants exploit quantum superposition in order to harvest sunlight in the most efficient way possible.
That’s the sort of thing that overwhelms me to the point of breathlessness.
No art form has ever come close to creating that feeling - with the possible exceptions of the Gothic cathedral and in rare instances, music. Otherwise, the distinction between a bill board and an old master is vanishingly small.
