Art Appreciation
I have never been one to analyze art or why I might like a particular work. I have always liked art, but I have never thought about why . I have learned a great deal about myself over the past two weeks in this class. I have come to see that my own experiences, personality, and beliefs effect the way I see art, just like someone else's experiences, personality, and beliefs effect the way he or she sees art. The same picture may have to different perceptions, neither of which is incorrect. According to Sayer in World of Art, art can be broken down into three steps: reception, extraction, and inference. When one looks at a piece of art, the eyes stimulate the nervous system. As one continues to study the work, he or she as an individual pulls a meaning out of the work, based on his or her own life experiences (13). The inferences made by people are yielded by the work's aesthetic nature. For example, I, as a non-practicing Catholic, when I look at Piss Christ and am shocked, but I still consider it art. This reaction to it is based on my own system of beliefs. However, someone like my mother, who is a devout, practicing Catholic, would look at that work and be deeply offended and outraged and consider it trash. Although she may consider it as something offensive and not a piece of art, her emotional reaction to it demonstrates the aesthetic value of the photo.
In reading about the different types of art, I have come to realize that I favor abstract art, as opposed to representational or non-objectionable art. Abstract art causes one to think about what the artist is trying to portray through the colors and lines of the...