by Sangay Glass

Created on: July 02, 2007   Last Updated: February 17, 2009

The term art appreciation is often associated with the highbrow rantings of critics and those unfortunates looking for a way to empty their cash laden pockets.

However, as we became a more global society we are learning to appreciate art for its cultural, historical and evocative, value as well as its aesthetics.

Thanks to the Victorian period in the 1800s art appreciation has gone far beyond popular traditional artist and styles. While Victorians did love a good oil painting done by one of the great masters, they also saw the beauty and significance of everything from hand crafted tile to botanists' field drawings.

To deepen your understanding all things art there are several things in mind when you look at an object or painting that will enhance your viewing experience:

1) Does the piece make you think?

If you're one of many who thinks that "Modern Abstract" art is a farce, picture this example.

You're in a gallery and come across a canvas painted black. You're curious and look at the name of the painting it says "Black Canvas". You shake your head in disgust and walk away. I would do the same myself.

But what if the painting had been called "The Day You Left Me".

Now you might still be disgusted but then you think, Humm, okay" the artist is expressing grief which can feel dark, empty, and alone. I wonder if the artist was experiencing the death of a loved one or a break up with a lover? I remember when..."

Some art is meant to be thought provoking. Instead of showing you a picture of someone sad, the artist is saying this is grief, fill the space and make it your own with memories.

2) Does the piece make you feel?

Some an artist project strong emotion into their work.

My personal favorite, Salvador Dali had a talent for creating fear, paranoia, and anxiety in his most popular paintings which depicted nightmares.

If the name doesn't strike a bell, his most well known painting, "The Persistence of Memory" in which watches melt in a surreal landscape has certainly remained persistent as the embodiment of insanity.

Surprisingly, the watches symbolize the irrelevance of time. The melting flesh figure is a self portrait and the distant hills are of his beloved homeland where he grew up, in his words "a self absorbed and cruel child."

To know this would have been helpful in understanding the piece which brings us to #3.

3) What do you know about the artist and time the work was produced?

Getting a guide or taking a tour adds so much to the museum experience.

Did you know that Vincent Van Gough famous for the "Starry Night " sold only one painting in his lifetime?

Or did you ever wonder what the figures mean in a totem pole stack?

It's good to know.

Researching and learning simple fun facts about the art really brings you closer a sudden intuitive leap of understanding, and with each epiphany we grow spiritually, emotionally and philosophically.

I can appreciate that.

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