Art and confusion

A colleague of mine explained to me how to appreciate art. He said that while looking at a painting, one should try to experience what feelings this painting evokes in you. I liked this approach. I still do not get any modern painting, but I can feel good or bad about some of them. A lemon evokes tangy feeling in me and blue evokes I-do-no-what feeling.

There are two paintings in one of the meeting rooms in my office. When I looked at them analytically, I found them ugly. Last week I was sitting in the same room with the colleague who had explained art to me and I repeated my observation on these paintings. I asked him if he knew the person who painted them. He said, ‘I created them. You have no sense of art. Try to feel them. What do they make you feel?’

‘Confused.’

‘Try to experience colours in them. It’s about ruggedness and aggression. What do you see?’

‘They contain an obscure car, and there are streaks of ugly yellow, red and black colour. The greenish yellow is somewhat girlish or childish. Tell me what it is that you wanted to convey with them?’

‘You know there was a group which always opposed Da vinci. Do you know that Van Gough never got recognition during his lifetime?’

‘That’s fine. But, until you reach at that level, you will have to answer tough questions from stupid people like me. What is that you wanted to convey in these paintings?’

At this moment he spoke the truth. He said, ‘You know, they are really very ugly. I was under terrible pressure to do something very urgently and I created them. It is no way close to what you call art. But, funny thing is that some people visit this room and say ‘wow, it is amazing.’ I am sure they do not know what they like about them, and they admire the paintings thinking if they do not they will be taken for dumb.’