"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."
-- Anais Nin
It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon last month when my wife and I decided to treat ourselves to lunch at Eleven, the restaurant at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
I was eager to try the chicken and waffles they had added recently to the eclectic menu they advertise as "High South" modern comfort food. Say what you want about me, but I always try to support our local arts.
But I digress.
It was the couple at the next table that drew my attention as I pushed my now-empty plate to the center of the table. "Come on honey," the woman implored to her husband. "We're already here. Let's go tour the art museum!" The man stared down at his shoes, "No, I don't want to. You know I hate all the modern crap."
It's a sentiment many people share. Except perhaps for a Norman Rockwell painting or two, art in a museum is something they find distant and very uncomfortable.
There is a reason for that, according to the British philosopher Alain de Botton. He argues that in the 19th century, art replaced Scripture as our culture's chief object of worship. Botton goes on to explain we are no longer allowed to bring our fears and anxieties to this modern cathedral.
"We are very vulnerable, fragile creatures in desperate need of support and we generally don't get it. ... Art [can be] a source of help with our problems -- our innermost problems -- the problems of the soul." In plain English, Botton is saying art can be excellent therapy.
And unlike an expensive analyst or un-read self-help book, this treatment is free if you want to take advantage of it.
Part of this concept starts with what exactly art is to many people.
For Tolstoy, the purpose of art was to provide a bridge of empathy between us and others. For some, art has been hijacked by the elite as a hobby for the rich.
But for art historian John Armstrong, art plays an important physiological function in that it helps us remember not only what is important but also can serve as a beacon of hope and understanding in a world full of soul-shaking anxiety and uncertainty. "Art" Armstrong says, "holds out the promise of inner wholeness."
But why do some people find beauty in a Jasper John pop art painting and others can look at a Grandma Moses primitive art picture and say dismissively that their 9-year-old daughter could paint a better picture?
Botton provides one explanation: "Every work of art is imbued with a particular psychological and moral atmosphere: a painting may be serene or restless, courageous or careful, masculine or feminine ..., and our preferences for one kind over another reflect our varied psychological gaps ... We call a work beautiful when it supplies the virtues we are missing, and we dismiss as ugly one that forces on us moods or motifs that we feel either threatened or already overwhelmed by."
This could account for the recent surge of popularity for the works of Norman Rockwell, whose paintings are infused for many with nostalgia and sentimentality. His work is reinforced with the notion of family, friendship and community from a time in America that many feel has gone away.
Looking at his paintings can give the viewer a sense of hope and optimism. As Walter Benjamin has observed: "Our image of happiness is indissolubly bound up with the image of the past." But, he warns, that with mass reproduction of art, it loses its sacredness and becomes based on politics.
For many of us, overcoming our defensiveness about art is the first step.
I remember later that same visit while looking at a modern sculpture, the man next to me blurted out "I wish there was someone here to explain what I'm looking at!"
We have a tendency in today's fragmented world to only listen to viewpoints we agree with and only see things that are familiar to us. But by doing so, we lose sight of what can be right in front of us, making us blind to new information and opportunities of growth, while we search for the imagined attraction elsewhere.
So next time you look at a strange sculpture, don't stress; just think about what the artist was trying to convey and what feelings it evokes in you.
So get on up to Crystal Bridges and sooth your troubled soul, and while you're at it, check out the chicken and waffles.
Commentary on 07/03/2014