- 5 min
When we are at the museum looking at a piece of art we often ask ourselves a simple question: WHAT THE HECK?
Art can surprise us. It happens to all of us, regardless of whether we know anything about art or not.
Let’s face it, art history is not a super popular subject. At school, art history lessons are rare, not obligatory, or not deep or interesting enough. Art history is not considered to be as important as economics, law or mathematics. You can live without it. And because of all this, sometimes, when we find ourselves in front of a masterpiece, we may feel powerless (or stupid), as we don’t know how to perceive art.
We often think that, in order to feel comfortable in front of a piece of art, we need to know and understand:
- Its history,
- Everything about the elements the masterpiece depicts,
- The biography of the artist,
- Everything about the style of the piece,
- All the technical details: technique, composition, use of colours, use of chiaroscuro…,
- Everything about the period it was created in: history, economics, politics, culture, religion,
- All the additional stuff like myths or literature.
I’m an art historian and I know how intimidating this vastness of knowledge you’re supposed to have (but don’t) can be.
Indeed, all these things are quite useful to know. But if you are not a professional art historian, they are not NECESSARY.
Sandro Botticelli, Primavera, 1477–1482, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy.
This painting is one of the most complex and mysterious in the entire history of art.
Or there is another scenario. We are at the museum taking a pleasant stroll – we are walking, looking at the paintings and we spend 3 seconds on each of them. We nod and move on to the next piece. In those 3 seconds, our brain is not even able to realise that we have actually seen something. We thought we had seen something but in fact, we hadn’t. Art needs time. As well as your intellectual and emotional engagement.
In this very short course we will give you some tips that will help you to look at art and actually see it. After this course you will be able to find by yourself that, even if you don’t know anything about the piece you are looking at, you are still able to do something with it. You can look at it with your own eyes and enjoy it. We will also give you some hints about how to make looking at art a process that is a bit like meditation – how to open yourself up to art so it can resonate with you.
And when it comes to hardcore knowledge about genres, movements, artists and so on, we invite you to try out our other courses available on this platform. But for now let’s start from the very beginning.
We warn you, this course will be short but you will need some time to finish it and you will need to ask yourself some questions. This course will require some practice. But you know how that cheesy saying goes: “Practice makes perfect!”
- 5 min
When we are at the museum looking at a piece of art we often ask ourselves a simple question: WHAT THE HECK?
Art can surprise us. It happens to all of us, regardless of whether we know anything about art or not.
Let’s face it, art history is not a super popular subject. At school, art history lessons are rare, not obligatory, or not deep or interesting enough. Art history is not considered to be as important as economics, law or mathematics. You can live without it. And because of all this, sometimes, when we find ourselves in front of a masterpiece, we may feel powerless (or stupid), as we don’t know how to perceive art.
We often think that, in order to feel comfortable in front of a piece of art, we need to know and understand:
- Its history,
- Everything about the elements the masterpiece depicts,
- The biography of the artist,
- Everything about the style of the piece,
- All the technical details: technique, composition, use of colours, use of chiaroscuro…,
- Everything about the period it was created in: history, economics, politics, culture, religion,
- All the additional stuff like myths or literature.
I’m an art historian and I know how intimidating this vastness of knowledge you’re supposed to have (but don’t) can be.
Indeed, all these things are quite useful to know. But if you are not a professional art historian, they are not NECESSARY.
Sandro Botticelli, Primavera, 1477–1482, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy.
This painting is one of the most complex and mysterious in the entire history of art.
Or there is another scenario. We are at the museum taking a pleasant stroll – we are walking, looking at the paintings and we spend 3 seconds on each of them. We nod and move on to the next piece. In those 3 seconds, our brain is not even able to realise that we have actually seen something. We thought we had seen something but in fact, we hadn’t. Art needs time. As well as your intellectual and emotional engagement.
In this very short course we will give you some tips that will help you to look at art and actually see it. After this course you will be able to find by yourself that, even if you don’t know anything about the piece you are looking at, you are still able to do something with it. You can look at it with your own eyes and enjoy it. We will also give you some hints about how to make looking at art a process that is a bit like meditation – how to open yourself up to art so it can resonate with you.
And when it comes to hardcore knowledge about genres, movements, artists and so on, we invite you to try out our other courses available on this platform. But for now let’s start from the very beginning.
We warn you, this course will be short but you will need some time to finish it and you will need to ask yourself some questions. This course will require some practice. But you know how that cheesy saying goes: “Practice makes perfect!”
