I honestly don't really know how to appreciate art. I go to museums because it's the "thing" to do and I try to force myself to really understand it, but to be honest I just don't. However, I do think I'm getting older and more mature so I'm slowly starting to build a greater appreciation for these types of things (aka museum going). It was over this past weekend in Paris at Musee d'Orsey where I discovered my favorite type of painting/art.
Neo-Impressionism:
The term Neo-Impressionism refers to a pictorial technique where color pigments are no longer mixed either on the palette or directly on canvas, but instead placed as small dots side by side. Mixing of colors takes place from a suitable distance, in the observer's eye, as an "optical mixture". Followers of Neo-Impressionism, in particular, were drawn to modern urban scenes as well as landscapes and seashores. Science-based interpretation of lines and colors influenced Neo-Impressionists' characterization of their own contemporary art. Neo-impressionists used disciplined networks of dots and blocks of color in their desire to instill a sense of organization and permanence. In further defining the movement, Seurat incorporated the recent explanation of optic and color perceptions. As painters, Neo-Impressionists had to deal with colored pigments, so to avoid the dullness, they devised a system of pure-color juxtaposition. Mixing of colors was not necessary. The effective utilization of pointillism facilitated in eliciting a distinct luminous effect, and from a distance, the dots came together as a whole displaying maximum brilliance and conformity to actual light conditions.
Favorite painter: Paul Signac
I think it was my trip through the Van Gogh Museum that really triggered this new appreciation... (;
