The World's Easiest Way to Appreciate Art, by an Ordinary Person
I haven't been able to sleep well these past few days. It's probably because I've been writing notes at night.
If I could, I'd like to finish writing during the bright hours and sleep soundly at night. But it looks like I'll be spending another long, dark night awake.
I tried to think back on what happened today.
Oh, that's right, I went to meet some relatives who are visiting Washington D.C. from the morning. I had only met Michael and Michelle (both pseudonyms) once eight years ago in California. Their middle-school-aged daughter was about kindergarten age back then, so this was practically our first time meeting. I was surprised at how grown up she looked.
They live in California and are people who exude a California vibe. To explain what having a California vibe means: they love nature, they love yoga, their motto is to live as their authentic selves, they love art, and they eat organic food. They fit every one of those descriptions.
Prioritizing the wishes of those visiting from afar, we decided to go around a contemporary art museum in D.C. together.
Our destination was the Hirshhorn Museum.
They seemed to love art, as they walked around carefully, sharing their thoughts with each other. They also engaged me, my husband, and the children, saying things like, "This is interesting," or "The colors are lovely."
As we were wandering around, I found a work by a Japanese artist. I stopped to look at it just because of the Japanese connection, and Michael asked me, "What do you think?"
My answer was obvious, but after thinking for about two seconds about how to respond, I decided to confess honestly.
“I don't really understand the appeal of contemporary art.”
Michael gave me a gentle, "Oh, baby" kind of smile and began to talk about his attitude toward art.
There are some works that you don't really understand at first glance, right? I'm the same way. When that happens, I try looking at various things. If I get interested, I gather related information or try reading books. When I do that, eventually, I start to notice that works I saw in different places, even if their methods of expression don't overlap at all, have similar themes or are tackling the same problem from different directions.
He spoke enthusiastically, using gestures and occasionally peering intently into my face.
“I see. So you love art.”
While listening to this, I remembered something.
When I was a university student, I had a friend who loved art. She was in the art club and would often invite me to go museum hopping on holidays, so I would go with her sometimes.
I believe it was when we went to see a Renaissance exhibition at a museum in Kyoto. There was a massive painting that was about 1.5 times the height of a life-sized human. It was one of the highlights of the exhibition, and there was a small crowd around it.
I joined the crowd and turned my eyes to the work.
A painting of a beautiful boy in the form of an angel gently trying to embrace a naked woman who is sitting down.
I don't know why, but when I saw this painting, the question, “
Why do people paint pictures?” popped into my mind. I had never thought about such a thing before. I thought, they paint because they like it, right? Or, they paint because they are good at it.
But when I saw that painting, I felt something that couldn't be explained just by the reason that they liked it or were good at it. But I didn't immediately understand what that was, so I thought about it for a while.
I don't remember how long it took me to reach the answer, but I still clearly remember the satisfying 'Aha!' moment when I found my own answer.
In other words, people paint pictures because they want to take the 'beautiful things' they have encountered in life, give them form, and preserve them carefully so they don't disappear.
Any beautiful moment, beautiful affection, or beautiful person will eventually fade away with time. I realized that people capture those moments and turn them into paintings to defy that natural law and keep beautiful things beautiful before their eyes forever.
Once written down, it might seem like nothing special. But for me at the time, it was a fairly significant discovery. Things that existed in my consciousness but whose true nature I didn't quite understand became clear through words.
Thinking that far, I realized that music, literature, photography, and everything else that goes by the name of art all start from the same motivation. At the time, I was keeping a diary, and even a diary was an act of giving form to and preserving the 'beautiful things' of daily life.
Wait, does that mean what world-class painters do and what I do (writing) have the same roots?
Ever since I arrived at that thought, art has become much more familiar to me.
Since then, when I appreciate art, I have come to think about what the 'beautiful thing' the artist was trying to capture is. I believe there is no work that lacks that. That's why, when I encounter a work that is hard to understand, I read the explanatory text next to it. I can usually get some kind of hint. Once I understand the true nature of the 'beautiful thing,' I can feel the artist's gaze as they cherish and value it. I either empathize with that or I don't.
However, I couldn't even grasp a hint from today's contemporary art pieces. I even think that compared to art before it, the motivation for creating contemporary art might be different.
Conclusion: Contemporary art is difficult.
[Postscript]
This was the only piece I thought was interesting. I wondered if it represented a human body. I thought the swirling part in the center might be the movement of the heart. It was a three-dimensional piece with a round, raised blue section.
Besides that, here is another one.
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