How to look at art?

During her insightful interactions with one of India’s foremost art historians, Brijendra Nath Goswamy, The Mint columnist Shoba Narayan gathered the secrets of viewing and appreciating art. She shared some of them in her new essay ‘Look at art intently, and with patience’. Here are excerpts from it:

“I have been allowed to take him (Brijendra Nath Goswamy) out for an hour. Where does one take a man who is arguably? I take him to The Taj West End, mainly because it is close to art collector Abhishek Poddar’s house, where he is staying; and because it has an ‘Art Corridor’. Over cups of cappuccino, we talk about his lecture on rasas or aesthetic emotion that the Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA) has helpfully uploaded on YouTube.

How can my readers learn to be connoisseurs like you, I ask. Professor Goswamy spells out a few Sanskrit words in explanation. To appreciate art, you have to be an adhikari, he says; an adequate viewer. You have to be sahruday, or of the same heart as the maker.

“It is not just empathy but much more than that,” he says. If you are able to cultivate this sensibility of “looking intently and with patience” at a work of art, it will speak to you. Look at all parts of a painting, he says. You never know where the artist has slyly left his stamp. Be aware of your reactions when you observe a work of art: What emotions does it evoke? Perhaps it brings to mind a piece of music, or poetry.

I then take him on a walk through The Taj West End’s Art Corridor, where a number of contemporary paintings are displayed. I want to see art through his eyes and he obliges. He stands before a Shuvaprasanna owl drawing that he likes. “The artist sees something in birds that you and I don’t ordinarily see,” he says.

“There is something sinister and wise about this owl, and I like the fact that he hasn’t covered the entire painting with black and allowed some room for the painting to breathe.” Thota Vaikuntam’s three paintings are dismissed with a “if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. It’s too labored; all surface.” Before we know it, we have an audience which trails us…

(Courtesy: The Mint)