How to Stop Pretending and Enjoy Art
You can roll your eyes when your relatives want to visit an art gallery. You can also get anxious and start thinking about what to say so as not to look stupid. But art shouldn’t be a chore. Here’s how you can better perceive art for a chance to enjoy it.
Read interpreters and pay for voice guides
Whether it’s painting, writing, sculpture, building, or any other form of art, a work of art is the result of feelings that arose at a specific time and place in history. Even a brief explanation of this story gives us, as a public, an opportunity to better understand and empathize with the artists.
It helps to keep an eye on the experts as they explain their interpretations of the artwork because they’ve spent more time with them and are likely to have studied the area. Just like a chef takes raw ingredients and prepares food, an art expert takes time for a piece and prepares explanations to make the art easier for you to perceive. For example, take a look at Art as Therapy .
Naturally, different art forms will have different explanations. Voice prompts are great for art galleries, books can be useful for visual art. It can also be more specific: Genius.com is great for hip-hop culture and music and is rapidly expanding to other music genres.
If you have a friend who is very knowledgeable about the art form you want to see, go with him. This makes a huge difference. I went to an art gallery with a friend who was studying art history and she shared relevant information that I would not have known about how the artist’s life influenced their paintings.
Remember to balance between getting context and actually feeling the art. I spent a lot of time reading the signatures to solidify my own understanding, but she spent most of her time looking at the real piece and pointing out things that I probably wouldn’t see. While understanding the context is important, in fact, the conscious use of art is just as (if not more) important.
Pay attention to your reaction: consume art consciously and knowingly
Often we try to learn a work of art based on skills (eg, “Wow, I can never do this” or “Oh, my child could do that”). It is important to remember, however, that judging a work of art takes your attention away from your reactions and feelings towards the actual work. Instead, turn your attention to your reaction to art. How do you feel when you hear a piece, or see it, or walk through an incredible piece of furniture or architecture?
This is why studying abstract art can be so difficult. Many people are quick to dismiss abstract art as elementary, vague, and / or pretentious. This makes it an ideal practice for mindfulness while consuming. Don’t judge it. Dive into it and feel it. Quora user Christopher Reiss advises against trying to “see” things in abstract art (“This is not a [Rorschach] test”) and explains how to consume a Jackson Pollock painting :
It’s paint and surface, nothing else. Feel the whirlpools. Their energy. Confusing them. Pollock walks to the very edge of the canvas, where he is as busy as the center. Feel the tension: wherever the eye looks, you are missing something. It’s hard to understand.
It can be difficult to balance the time spent understanding context and history, yet being patient and attentive enough to learn about the art and how you react to it. To find a balance, ask yourself a few questions without judging or comparing art.
Think Art: Ask Leading Questions
Questions can be a great guide to focusing your mind while processing a piece of art. There are different things to consider in each art form. For example, in the visual arts, you need to look for symbols. Consider color palettes and combinations. As you walk through an architectural site, ask yourself why the artist developed certain details or nuances. I’m not an architectural genius, but take a look at the concrete blocks outside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House . When listening to a live performance or soundtrack, think about the changes in rhythm, tempo, and mood in the songs. In some cases, listen to the text and think about their possible meanings (or double and triple meanings).
When art academic Terry Smith is confronted with a piece of art, he describes four questions he tries to answer :
- What am I looking at? (Are you listening, or are you walking?)
- How was it done?
- When was this done and what was happening in the world at that time?
- What does it say? What is its significance for the artist and for us now?
There are many guiding questions you can ask, and each art form has its own specifics. For example, here are dozens of questions you can ask whilelooking at a piece of fine art . You can tweak some of these questions to be more in line with another art form (for example, Edit: “How would you describe this painting to a person who didn’t see it?” To “How would you describe this song to a person who might see it? ? “). don’t listen to this? “).
Learn how people create art
The end product of art may seem easy to make. However, you will never truly understand the intricacies and nuances of the process until you learn about it – and eventually try -. For example, rap can sound nothing more than simple rhyme patterns and poetry. However, as Noah Callahan-Bever, Editor-in-Chief and Content Director of Complex Media writes :
If you’re going to give a shit about someone’s rhyme, you should try to sit down and write 16 at least once. It’s hard. Don’t get me wrong, everyone is entitled to their opinion as a listener and consumer, but a little respect for the complexity of the process can help you understand how you are expressing your grievances.
A good first step to understanding how people create art may be to just watch the process. For example, one of my favorites is seeing how much work goes into creating whatsome call the “simple” beat .
If you are particularly interested in learning about a particular art or form, consider signing up for a class. This is a step that will almost certainly further improve your taste, understanding, and empathy for the art. Quora user Joshua Engel explains how to understand Shakespeare, but his advice can be applied to all forms of art :
It’s no secret, nor is it a secret to learning how to enjoy food while eating and cooking, rather than reading cookbooks without even trying. Yes, language creates a speed bump, but that’s not as big of a problem as it sounds, because that’s not the point of the exercise. Watch the plays, enjoy the plays, then read the plays to see how the words influenced the enjoyable experience.
Once you explore the process behind art, you can even more appreciate the dedication and hard work that goes into each piece.
You might even fall in love with art over time.
Hopefully some of these techniques will allow you to hate art less (and maybe even learn to appreciate certain forms). Enjoying art doesn’t require a completely different mindset. Instead, it takes a little empathy and understanding, and much more attention and attentiveness to the experience. In today’s fast-paced world, simply devouring art can be challenging, but also very rewarding.