Search for
Search for
Search forArt appreciation lessons
Tuesday, July 22, 2008, 14:28
As a rule, I'm not the art gallery visiting type. I don't have a problem with them as such, nor with people who go to them. However, I'm not the kind of person who engages with pictures, no matter how well drawn they are (is 'drawn' is the word I'm looking for).
I wander around, looking at the paintings, thinking to myself 'that's nice' or 'I bet it took him a long time to do that' or, in the case of modern art galleries, 'Is that a piece of art or have the decorators left their stuff behind?
Then I get distracted by the people in the gallery. I see how engaged they get. How they look at a piece at different angles and spend ages just staring at it. I can't do that. I end up looking at my shoes, thinking of football or naked women.
I'm not averse to using art galleries for ulterior purposes. There was a stage in my life when I went to exhibitions for two reasons only: Because I wanted to impress a girl by showing her how culturally sophisticated I am and because, having succeeded, I'm compelled to continue going in order to keep up the charade.
Being an old lefty I've always been struck by working class/socialist art. Or should I say I've always been struck by the idea of working class/socialist art.
I bought a book once called Modern Political Ideologies while at University and it had this picture of a mass of workers and their families from sometime in the nineteenth century marching toward you. I really liked it and came across it again very recently while rummaging around the internet.
Turns out the picture was part of the Italian Divisionist movement and that it was on display at the National Gallery right here in swinging London. I only work around the corner from Trafalgar Square so I thought 'sod it' and went last Wednesday evening at the end of my shift.
It was fab. The picture was enormous. I'd already spent some time looking at the paintings leading up to the one I came to see (mainly because I'd paid to get in so wanted to get my money's worth).
However, when I actually saw this picture I was genuinely taken aback. It was something that I'd associated with a textbook for a long forgotten University module made real and hanging there before me.
I stared at it, examined it at different angles, walked away from it and walked back again. For the first time ever, I think I actually appreciated a piece of art, or at least understood what it means to appreciate art.
I can't say with complete certainty that I've turned a corner here and am about to enter a new period of my life, which involves standing around looking at pictures. However, the exhibition goes on until September so I may go back and have another look.
'The Living Torrent' by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo can be seen at the 'Radical Light' Exhibition at the National.
You can get in for a fiver on Wednesday evenings if you're interested. Click on the top link to the right for more details.
