Prior to reading The Ways of Seeing, John Berger, and the Barnet reading, going to a museum and analyzing works of art weren’t of any particular interest to me. I couldn’t get past the point that anything that I could see in a museum I could see in picture online or in a book from any library. In my eyes, going to a museum always had led me to the daunting task of interpreting a work of art that frankly had no meaning to me or in the worst case, a work that didn’t even qualify as art in my mind. Why would a man spend days, or weeks, even years painting things that as I see it, were either ordinary moments in time that needed no explanation or on the opposite end of the scale, illustrations so abstract and unrealistic that they didn’t even make sense? I looked at paintings and other mediums in regards to the beauty it possessed and had a very shallow perspective on what really made the difference between a piece that was bad, average or excellent.
Reflecting on the required reading has not only left me questioning whether or not any piece of art can be judged as good or bad, but it has also given me a greater understanding on how to extract different meanings from something that can densely appear to mean nothing. Being aware that different works were meant to be seen in different settings, that they have different contexts and backgrounds and that they are not just things full of mystery, leaves me more inclined to desire a trip to the museum and everything that it has to offer.
The reading has also given me more insight on the reason why many people, as I previously did, don’t find an interest or even relevance in the works of museums. It’s effortless to forget the importance of an original piece that can only be seen in particular settings. While on the surface it seems that one can perceive the same value and meaning from a photograph or reproduction, the readings have helped me to appreciate my future experience at MOMA because I know now that even if I have seen a piece before, given the new context, the information about it presented to me and the new quality, which would be impossible for any reproduction to have, my impression of the painting or sculpture will undoubtedly change.
Art gives you power and is not just for the “cultural hierarchy of relic specialists but for all of the people in a society”. Through attempting to find meaning in it we can begin “the experience of seeking to give meaning to our lives, of trying to understand the history of which we can become the active agents”. Maybe the point of art is not beauty but to help the people of a civilization understand the different perspectives of the past in a way that reading from a textbook cannot. Thinking and reflecting upon these concepts, make going to MOMA more of an exploration than a homework assignment and will make my time there more interesting and ultimately more productive.
I am replying to you Yasmin because I agree with your sentiment about analyzing works of art not being of interest to you. I love going to museums, but prior to now I would just look and not focus on critically analyzing the work what I was feeling.
“What is art?” When thinking of the word “art”, many people associate it with paintings and sculptures etc. What I have come to realize after reading Berger’s Ways of Seeing is that art is everywhere. Buildings, music, fashion, technology, and the like are all looked at by someone as art. Keeping an open mind to what another might look at as beautiful art is essential. Through art comes emotions, and artists want you to feel something while looking at their work, whether it be different from what they were feeling when they created it, or different from another onlooker standing beside you. This universality of art is also touched upon by Berger. He explains that as humans we can never just “look” at art. We always feel the need to relate it back to our lives and take something from it personally.
Before my readings, I thought that writing about art would be an easy assignment. However, through reading Barnet’s A Short Guide to Writing About Art, I have learned so much. It is important to write down everything that you are feeling or wondering or even silly notions that pass by your thoughts, not only just what you think others want you to be writing. These ‘critical analyses’ are for yourself, so that you can reread all the separate things you wrote down to understand the whole of the work.
I will definitely take these ideas with me to the MoMA , and during my analyzation of the art I will remember to take into account my feelings and remember how to write about it. I agree again with Yasmin as she said this is “exploration” rather than homework. This exploration of self and art is an exciting and challenging one. Through reading Barnet and Berger I feel confident that we will all be able to come back to class and have intelligent and meaningful discussions on art and maybe even learn a little something from each other.