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February 17, 2006
Good art doesn’t wear out.
Good art stands the test of time.
Good art can take a lot of looking at.
The crap stuff wears out.
Some images look exciting at first glance.
I'll be honest, this does it for me
But then, after a while, the excitement wears off as you become familiar with the subject and you are left with nothing.
What happens here is that you were excited by the difference. The image was triggering the recognition centres of your brain which release substances that would, if available on the open market, be controlled by governments. So we like looking at the image. Until we become familiar with it and the brain stops shooting us up with endorphins or whateverthehell they are.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the world of advertising, glamour and pornography.
get those magazines off the shelves.
These images excite us [well some of them do – to corrupt a worthy axiom : you can excite some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but you can’t excite all the people all the time]. They are glimpses of a world which in a way we want, whether it’s a new car or a brief moment of gratification.
Something to do with the predominance of undergrowth and trees in our early evolutionary state means that we are attracted by these glimpses of the unattainable. Which in turn means, because our evolutionary development hasn’t yet caught up with the invention of either the printing press or the digital camera, the brain releases a couple of shots of the old Feel Good chemical, when we see a sexy [and I use the word in its broadest sense] image.
People expect this when they see any picture. They expect a shot of WOW! That’s why they buy crap to put on their walls.
glamour on canvas
That’s why posters of some silicon-enhanced siren in a tight bikini and a layer of baby oil adorn so many bedsit walls. But that’s it, there’s no more to it. You Blu-tac it to the wall and after a couple of moments of WOW! it melts into the background and you don’t notice it any more.
Looking at Art is a different business.
People are often disappointed at first glance, because there is no hit, no high, no: WOW! It’s a slow burn. Look, then look again, then keep looking. You see more each time. You begin to experience stuff, you begin to understand things. You feel good for longer. Honest.
Just try it and see.
[real paintings now available in the foyer]
Posted by john at February 17, 2006 05:17 PM