Tips for how to start appreciating art

Looking at art is like meeting a person, and having a conversation with them, getting to know them. Think of the art as another human being. After all, some person somewhere made it, and put something of themselves into it, and had some reason for making it, some idea they wanted to put out there in the world for others to see/hear/experience. They can’t respond back to you when you meet their art, but you can respond to what they’ve made.

If you don’t know what to say to a stranger, it helps to prepare an interview, come up with a selection of questions to ask when you meet them.

Pay attention to your first impression, as it can guide you in how to proceed. With most people/art, there might be something familiar you can talk about.

Try to think of something similar you may have seen before that you can compare it to. Is there a person or animal in the painting? Do you recognize anything about them? What are they doing? Are they alone or with others? If with others, how are they relating to each other? If a landscape, is it like any place you’ve ever been? Is it daytime, what season? what’s the weather like? Where’s the sun? Any people or buildings in it? And with all art, you can ask yourself how you feel when looking at it. Could you “enter” the painting, such as by a road or path if a landscape, or a door/window if a building?

Some of them are difficult to talk with. They might be totally unfamiliar, strong colors, strange shapes, odd materials that you’re not even sure what they are. Alien. Maybe it’s a canvas with just one color in it. Why did the artist choose that color? What does the color remind you of? Is there a texture or shine to it? Is it balanced from one side to the other?

Or maybe it’s just a very strange thing… with this kind of art, you can start by asking yourself how you feel when looking at it. Do you want to stare at it? Get closer? Touch it? Or stop looking at it and run away? Does it scare you? Make you feel sick? Why? Is it the odd shapes, weird mix of colors? You might find yourself learning as much about yourself as about the art.

After you have more experiences looking at art, you can more readily enter a conversation, back and forth, with the art. What is it saying, and how are you responding? Over time, the more you look at an individual work of art, you will notice new and different aspects of it that seem to appear from nowhere, which makes you feel like there is a real conversation going on.