Art: Part 1 - Learning to Appreciate

 

Over the years, I developed an appreciation for art.  I was always impressed with people that could draw, paint, and sculpt.  It was something I was never good at.  I did try, but it never clicked.  In my early days, I loved drawings and paintings that looked realistic.  The more realistic the better.  Clearly, I was not really fond of the abstract.  The more abstract, the less fond I was.  I leaned toward, the point of view that most abstract and modern art was nothing but scribbles, something anyone could do.  In college, I did take some music and film appreciation classes.  I wrote a term paper on classical Chinese painting and calligraphy.  It fascinated me more than I had ever imagined.  I had to admit at that point, I had a burgeoning interest in art.

When I worked in Manhattan, I bought a membership to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).  I specifically chose MOMA for four reasons.  I had a desire to develop and refine my own perspective on fine arts which was sorely lacking.  Secondly, I was in New York City, arguably, the art capital of the US if not the world and I wanted to be able to hold my own in a conversation.  Modern art seemed the place to focus since the abstract nature of it was the very reason I scoffed at art.  Lastly, MOMA was within walking distance of my office at Colgate-Palmolive and thus It was easily visited during lunch or after work.

The membership paid the exact dividend I expect.  The first exhibits I went to was a retrospective of Jaspar Johns and a second was of Robert Ryman.  They were both born in May of 1930.  Johns was born in Augusta, GA and Ryman in Nashville, TN.  Ryman died in 2019 and Johns, 93, is still with us.  Johns painted variations on motifs especially flags and targets.  It was interesting to see variations on these themes differentiated by different colors and textures of the same image.  It is a great glimpse into his focus on these themes, his exploration of various treatments which you don’t get from a few photos of paintings in an art book, and, most importantly, seeing the works, full-sized and up-close, where the textures and meld of colors could really be experienced.

The Robert Ryman exhibit really secured a quantum leap in understanding and appreciation of the fine arts.  Ryman was a master of white.  White? Yes, his paintings were all very shades of white and the off-whites of various hues.  Like Johns, I walked into Ryman’s exhibit knowing nothing about him.  I looked at the first room and saw all the canvases of white.  My first thought was predictable “What the…?”  This was exactly the kind of art I believed anyone, at any age, with no experience could easily slap together.  By the end of the exhibit, I had totally changed my mind.  I saw, realized, and appreciated the same lessons learned in the Johns exhibit.  Ryman dedicated his life to the study of white, near whites of every variety, in a kaleidoscope of textures.  What all looked the same and totally boring at the beginning of the exhibit were subtlety and richly different by the end.

I was happier that I learned this on my own without ever having read a book, taken a class, or watched a YouTube (which didn’t even exist then).  I learned it experientially; observation fueled by curiosity.  I love this method.  In my travels, I was able to spend an afternoon here and there at various museums of art.  My favorites were the Musee des Beaux Arts in Brussels and the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico. 

My education in appreciation continues to this day.  The Art Institute of Chicago is a fantastic place.  My only regret is that I only visited The Metropolitan Museum of Arts in Manhattan once and that was well after I had moved to Chicago.

I will close with a quote Professor Vladmir Peter Goss who was an Art History Professor when I was at the University of Michigan Dearborn.  I never had him in a class, but he was a guest lecturer in a music appreciation class I took.  He closed his presentation with words I will never forget, “Always remember, art is nothing.  So, when you have nothing to do, do art.”

 

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images from Jaspar Johns

 

 

 

 

Robert Ryman images