I travelled to New York and spent the first couple of days gorging on the treasures of Manhattan’s art museums. Met's and MOMA’s collections are enviable - Picasso, Cézanne, Matisse, Klimt, Modigliani - to give you my personal highlights. Taking it all in, I could not help but think about the talk by the philosopher Alain de Botton, I attended earlier this year.
Alain de Botton and art historian John Armstrong wrote a book Art as Therapy, proposing an idea that art has a purpose beyond aesthetic pleasure. Art may serve as therapy and help us with such difficulties as restlessness, stress, anxiety, fear, finding purpose, fulfilment and love.
It goes like this: feeling anxious about your status? Longing for glamour? Consider Johannes Vermeer’s The Little Street 1658. The artist chose to paint simple quarters with women going about their daily work: sweeping the yard, sewing, minding children. There is no glamour on the canvas, instead, Vermeer showed preciousness of the modest life and tranquility of daily chores. If the Dutch painter chose to accentuate the beauty of the ordinary life, might his work help to lessen our status anxiety?
Alain de Botton and art historian John Armstrong wrote a book Art as Therapy, proposing an idea that art has a purpose beyond aesthetic pleasure. Art may serve as therapy and help us with such difficulties as restlessness, stress, anxiety, fear, finding purpose, fulfilment and love.
It goes like this: feeling anxious about your status? Longing for glamour? Consider Johannes Vermeer’s The Little Street 1658. The artist chose to paint simple quarters with women going about their daily work: sweeping the yard, sewing, minding children. There is no glamour on the canvas, instead, Vermeer showed preciousness of the modest life and tranquility of daily chores. If the Dutch painter chose to accentuate the beauty of the ordinary life, might his work help to lessen our status anxiety?
At MOMA I stumbled upon Henri Matisse’s Dance I. I found it impossible not to smile. There is so much joy in that painting, with dancers floating in the air, so much hope and optimism, communicated through the colours of blue and green. It is no wonder Matisse apparently referred to Dance I as "the overpowering climax of luminosity”.
It’s not surprising that MOMA’s visitors choose to sit down and stay a while in the room with Cézanne’s Water Lilies. The painting is so enchanting in its tranquility, it allowed me to time travel through memories of summer, smelling of wild flowers and bathing in warm sunlight. I felt instantly at peace, as if after meditation.
Alain de Botton also thinks that we are subconsciously drawn to works of art, which may help to fill in a hole or re-balance us. A while ago when I was still working in the City, I bought a print by Edd Pearman Too Eager To Please. I saw it at an art fair in London and liked it at once even before hearing its story. The artist interviewed his friends in their 20s who got jobs in the City. He asked them whether the ‘high-flying’ jobs met their expectations and how they felt about their lives. It’s true that one picture says a thousand words.
Do you have a favourite piece of art that talks to you? Share your thoughts here.
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