Now I understand modern art

What do you love now, that you hated when you were younger?

When I was young, I was all for art that looked pretty and looked like it was depicting something. It’s probably another one of my mother’s aesthetic choices that influenced me (she also hated tattoos, and while I don’t love them, I appreciate some of them). Mom was an artist and she had strong, if (now I realize) kind of bourgeois preferences.

She did like florals, and I’ve stuck with that, more because I love flowers than because I love still life.

When I was learning as much as I could about art, music, and literature in college, I was more fond of painting and sculpture up through Impressionism. After that, I could intellectually appreciate those Picasso shapes and angles, and the Mondrian squares, but I didn’t enjoy them. I could read about interpretations, but nothing moved me emotionally.

I can still remember the day it finally clicked. I was with a friend visiting museums in Houston in the 2000s. We went to the Menil Collection, which is housed in a modern building surrounded by a sculpture garden. First, I was so entranced by a large installation outside that I could barely go in.

Then, as we walked around I came to be standing in front of a painting by Mondrian of white, yellow, and blue rectangles. I could see every detail, and was fascinated by its depth and warmth. This abstract piece moved me. I got how the simplified presentation could help your subconscious form its own associations. Ah.

So, now I’m more far ranging in my art appreciation, and that’s good at least for me. I’m not an art historian or connoisseur, so I could be making stuff up, of course. But I did enjoy the whole collection of “modern” art that day.

By the way, I’m reading a novel that’s also an art history class. I’ll review it when I’m done, but Mona’s Eyes is quite fascinating!