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Book: Appreciating contemporary art
How to visit a contemporary art gallery
Get your mind in gear!
‘What angle on reality — what unusual experience — is this artist inviting us to share with them?’
A detailed explanation of this key conception required for the appreciation of contemporary art will follow below, but just before that, a tiny bit of important historical background:
Traditional vs modern
This remains an important distinction, even after 150 years of modernity in art, because you need a completely different frame of reference if you are to be able to go beyond traditional modes of thought and find yourself able to understand and enjoy contemporary artworks.
Visiting a ‘traditional’ art gallery or art museum is about expecting to be presented with highly crafted objects which, given a certain educated refinement on the part of the viewer, are to be appreciated as ‘beautiful’ and ‘wonderfully skilfully made’. There are of course gradations of ‘beautiful’ and ‘skilful’, and these can be explored in detail and at length, but the primary objective is to be able to appreciate the beautiful craftsmanship on display; one can then go on to explore secondary features such…
