If you’re like me, perhaps you’ve visited a contemporary art installation, seen a painting of a single plain square or a giant sculpture of a fork, and wondered, how on Earth is this art? I’ll bet you didn’t dare ask this out loud, for fear of looking gauche. Luckily for us, journalist Bianca Bosker is willing to ask the age-old question — What is art? — and go to great lengths, fish-out-of-water style, to find the answer.
But as much as Bosker’s experiences might destroy your faith in art, she relentlessly digs deeper until she redeems it, by discovering the fundamental joy that art can bring to both those who create it and view it. While entertaining, the recounting of her exploits means it takes a while for the book to get to the meaning of art. But once it does, science provides several clues. Some experts theorize that prehistoric humans were compelled to paint on cave walls because it showed off the artist’s skills and potential fitness as a mate. One anthropologist has argued that art bound communities together toward common survival.
One function of art, Bosker writes, is to yank off this filter to reexamine the world with renewed wonder. Art has a therapeutic quality, a fact that’s seized upon by doctors who prescribe patients visits to art museums and the pleasure of hanging wall art. Removing that filter can also help doctors themselves. Over two dozen medical schools require students to study paintings to avert the habit of snap judgment.
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