the art in the MoMA was abstract, and very hard to understand. it's easy to appreciate a piece of monet, or degas, even without having had a lesson in art history. i like monet's impressionism and degas' ballerinas because they make pretty paintings. maybe there's more to it that is lost on the amatuer eye, but the uninformed can still appreciate it for what it is on the surface. modern art on the other hand, takes a little more effort to view. anybody can paint a canvas blue. i dont think the artist uses a special brush stroke to apply the paint. but how is a blue canvas a piece of art if that's all there is to it? thus, modern art is more consuming and mind boggling. i was exhausted just after three hours in moma, though i no doubt enjoyed what i saw. thinking about it, i came to the conclusion that art is not just another language; but in order to appreciate it we need a sixth sense. because if art were a language, it had to be communicated and interpreted in the same way all the time. but a few bold strokes of the brush could be understood differently by various audiences, and could be intended to convey different messages if painted by different artists. each and every piece of work is beautiful in its own way, but whether or not we see it depends on how in tune our sixth sense is.
chris and i have this thing we do - whenever we have good food together, we will try to describe what we taste, so that we understand how each other interprets the wine, or the piece of salmon, or the cheesecake. this sensory experience goes beyond the taste buds, it engages the person's background, experiences, character, and so in understanding how one tastes the food, we also understand more about each other. the wine was elegant and fleeting; the scallops, exquisite and vivacious; and the cheesecake, existential. this white chocolate drink with lavendar and lemon tasted like spring. and perhaps in doing so, we are engaging our sixth sense, to sense the beauty in the delicacy.
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