Art not for decoration
When talking about visual art as ‘one’ concept is a little like talking about Africa as one country. Most people have some appreciation for esthetically pleasing art or what one Oxford professor refer to as “easy” art. Many people view art as a way of decorating homes. There is of course nothing wrong with decorating your home and creating an environment you find appealing. However, this can also be done with mass produced prints found in a chain store. What is wrong with mass produced prints or assembly line replicas from Dafen, China? I am sure that if they spark joy, Marie Kondo may advise you to keep them. And they are safe. Safe in the sense that friends will likely not discuss, critique (or even notice) them.
If you look at many modern artist’s early work (Matisse, Mondrean, De Kooning, Kandinsky etc.) you will notice a period where the artists were building their skill and depicting their subjects in a realistic, representative way. However, during their later periods, subject matter becomes distorted or unrecognizable. Many struggle to understand Pierre Soulages’ abstracts or Maurizio Cattelan's recent duct taped banana ('Comedian’). This is where art gets more ‘difficult’ to comprehend or appreciate. In a recent conversation with art curator, Pamela Jean Tinnen we discussed that art is becoming inaccessible and an increasing divide is forming between the average person and contemporary art. Often art is seen as more mysterious or complex that is needs to be. Like meeting a new / famous person we may initially be stiff around. Some believe that you have to be an insider to get it. Instead we should view it as a friend and use it for what it’s meant for, to work for us, be support and encouragement for our better selves. So often I hear ‘I know nothing about art’ or ‘what is it for?’
To really describe the purpose of art is much more than the scope of this blog post but I would like to share 5 ideas based on the work of the Swiss born philosopher, Alain de Botton.
1. Art can bring us hope.
The esthetically pleasing art I mentioned before, the beautiful sunsets, happy faces or pretty flowers are symbols of hope that we can tap into when days are dark or we need optimism. These are usually easy to understand and easy to enjoy. Even controversial abstract artist, Gerhard Richter said that ‘art is the highest form of hope’.
2. Art can balances us.
Some believe that we are drawn to art that compensates for what is lacking in our lives. Perhaps we are drawn to a particular piece because it contains qualities that we need more off. Perhaps we appreciate Bierstadt’s ‘Sunglow’ for the peacefulness our anxious minds crave or Hayez’ ‘The Kiss’ for the passion our relationships are currently lacking. According to de Botton the art that a country or person calls beautiful gives vital clues to what is missing in them. He says that a whole society falls in love with a certain style in art because it tries to rebalance itself and he gives the examples of France in the late 18th century that wanted Jacques-Louis David as a corrective to its decadence. Similarly, I think for instance Buddhist art & sculpture often depict peace, compassion and humility, qualities its followers strive for.
3. Art helps us to appreciate things
In a world obsessed with celebrity culture artists like Albrecht Dürer makes grass important, Cézanne apples or Van Gogh sunflowers. Marcel Duchamp or Richard Tuttle got us all to look again at the seeming mundane – the urinal or a piece of rope. ‘Artists are not falsely glamorizing things better ignored but they are teasing out a value that has been neglected by a world with a deeply distorted, unfair sense of what matters. Art returns glamour to its rightful place highlighting what is genuinely worth appreciating.’ -de Botton
4. Art is propaganda for what matters.
“All art is Propaganda” wrote critic George Orwell “on the other hand, not all propaganda is art”
Art could be influential, motivating or persuade us for a cause or idea. Good art can remind us of our best selves. Indira Mallik wrote that ‘It can’t exist outside of the social and political context of its time’ but, it can use it’s persuasive skills to be propaganda for important and positive emotions and attitudes. It can nourish and inform us spiritually or touch us where we are most vulnerable. ‘It may be propaganda about the simple life or that one needs to broaden one’s horizons or a more playful, tender approach to life. It’s a force that stands up for the best sides of human nature and gives them a platform and authority in a noisy, distracted world’ - de Botton.
5. Art can make us less lonely
Art can reassure us that pain and sadness are normal and that we don’t always have to pretend with a cheerful façade. Art can be sad with and for us. it can reassure us that experiencing pain and angst is normal. According to de Botton some of the world’s greatest artworks of all times made the pain that is inside all of us publicly visible and available. Many great works of art like Munch’s scream, Picasso’s blue period or even Hopper’s Nighthawk are loved for their capacity to make the pain or loneliness inside us evident and humane. It can express what words cannot. De Botton also states that similar to putting on a sad piece of music, somber works of art don’t have to be depressing but they can give us the welcome feeling that pain is part of our human condition. These works fight the false pretentious optimism of commercial society and remind us with dignity that every good life also has extraordinary amount of stress, pain, suffering, loneliness and distress. Thinking we must be freakish for experiencing it quite often will simply aggravate our sadness. Personally I find these artworks especially appealing and comforting. Also, I find creating these raw and emotionally honest pieces freeing.
After counseling numerous couples after an affair, Belgian psychotherapist Esther Perel says one thing she always hear the person who was unfaithful says is that the affair made them feel so “alive”. Hearing this made me realize that I am having affairs with good art as it absolutely makes me feel “alive”. And it is often works that I find provoking, that moves something in my gut, something I have not seen before or that swirls around in my mind for days that makes me feel especially alive. I no longer care to decorate my home when I collect art (just as I don’t care about decorating yours with the work I do). I simply ask myself if my life will be better with the piece in it.