How To Appreciate Art

I’ve always found art to be a fascinating form of storytelling and expression. Atlanta’s Swan House gallery (pictured above) was the first art experience I remember treasuring. At that younger age, when I looked at galleries and just thought, “pretty,” or, “weird…” I didn’t know how to really absorb it and appreciate each brush stroke that stands the test of time. Allow us to guide your journey of artistic appreciation!

“Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? …people who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong tree.” — Pablo Picasso

Picasso has a point. Art can’t be explained adequately in words because its influence on people is so personal and speaks to nonverbal parts of our existence. Therefore, art is an experience. You must let go of your need to put things into words and let the artwork take you somewhere.

There is no right or wrong answer to what a work means. Abstract art is open to interpretation, and that is one of the beautiful things about it. Abstract art doesn’t jump out and declare “THIS is what I’m all about.” Instead, abstract art requires you to have an open, inquiring mind; you must enter the painting and see where it takes you. Abstract art gives you the freedom to explore the artwork and assign your own meaning to the piece. This intensely personal process enriches a viewer’s experience of an artwork.

Rather than trying to figure out what the painting looks like, just allow yourself to be taken in by the painting. See what emotions, sensations or memories emerge. Let your eyes relax and travel around the piece without expectation. Examine the colors, forms, materials, surface, and how they interact with each other. Take your time. Let the painting “speak” to you.

Notice how the various elements like shape, color and form affect you. An intricately detailed, vibrant painting will affect you differently than a calm, cool Malevich.

You have to ‘understand’ abstract art with a different part of you, one that you may not normally use or even know about. Essentially, you must accept that it is what it is. Don’t try to pinpoint an exact meaning for an image.

Rather than trying to figure out what the painting looks like, just allow yourself to be taken in by the painting. See what emotions, sensations or memories emerge. Let your eyes relax and travel around the piece without expectation. Examine the colors, forms, materials, surface, and how they interact with each other. Take your time. Let the painting “speak” to you.

Notice how the various elements like shape, color and form affect you. An intricately detailed, vibrant painting will affect you differently than a calm, cool Malevich.

You have to ‘understand’ abstract art with a different part of you, one that you may not normally use or even know about. Essentially, you must accept that it is what it is. Don’t try to pinpoint an exact meaning for an image.

When you listen to music, you don’t try to hold on to the notes – you let them wash over you. Let your eyes wander over the painting the way the notes of a symphony wash over your soul. Let your eyes play with the painting, slipping around corners, following the twirls, twists and turns, dipping in and out of the surface. Let your eyes dance around the piece.

Let a work do its thing — some works are intriguing in subtle ways. A work might grab your attention through its subject matter, it’s use of color, an interesting juxtaposition of objects, it’s realistic appearance, a visual joke, or any number of other factors.

Once you’ve got an overall look at the painting, ask yourself, “what’s this a picture of?” Pondering the subject of the painting/photo might reveal a landscape, a person or group of people, a scene from a story, a building or city scene, an animal, a still life (a collection of everyday items like a bowl of fruit, a pile of books, or a set of tools), a fantasy scene, and so on. Some paintings won’t have a subject — much of the work of the 20th century is abstract, playing with form and color and even the quality of the paint rather than representing reality.

Stop Thinking, “My Kid Could Do That!”

“It is not childish in form, for the child applies himself, presses down, rounds off, sticks out his tongue in his efforts, the child works hard to join the code of grown-ups. [Artists] draw away from it, loosen, lag behind, hands seeming to levitate — as if the word had been written with his fingertips, not out of disgust or boredom but out of a kind of caprice open to the memory of a defunct culture which has left no more than the trace of a few words.”

… Now, could your kid do that?

A large part of the appeal of art is emotional — some artists go out of their way to inspire strong reactions ranging from awe and lust to anger and disgust. It’s easy to dismiss work that upsets our notion of what art could be, and any visitor to a gallery of modern art is likely to overhear at least one person complaining that “any three-year old with a box of crayons could do that!”

Accept the fact that you’re working outside the realm of answers and explanations. Knowing that an artist may be deliberately evoking an emotional response, it pays to take a moment and question our immediate reactions. If a work makes you angry, ask yourself why. What is it about the work that upsets you? What purpose might the artist have in upsetting you? Likewise, if your feelings are positive, why are they positive? What about the painting makes you happy? And so on — take the time to examine your own emotions in the presence of the painting.

Abstract artist Agnes Martin said “Abstract art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings.”

 

Remember, some artists don’t even know what their work means.

Sometimes, artists don’t dwell over why they’re making what they’re making. In a talk at MoMA, famed abstractionist Ellsworth Kelly was asked about his iconic “Chatham Series,” which dates back to 1972. “It’s hard to remember. I’m quite impressed with them now!” He said, gesturing to the works and sighing. “But it’s always a mystery looking back.” If Ellsworth himself is content to marvel at the mystery of his own works, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be also.

Think about the fact that all art is really abstract art. And let your mind be blown.

There’s an old art lovers’ tale about an American soldier telling Picasso his artworks aren’t close enough to life. He pulls out a photo of his fiancee and says: “This is what a picture should look like.” Picasso, in typical Picasso fashion, responds: “Your girlfriend is rather small, isn’t she?” Point being, all art is abstracted from reality, or else museums would take up a lot more space.

Understanding abstract art requires an inventiveness that invites you to discover for yourself the meaning behind the work. It is not easy to grasp, like still lifes, portraits, or other form of representational art, because it is open to interpretation in a way that representational art is not.