Are We Appreciating Art Properly?

“In order to appreciate art, we need bring with us nothing from life, no knowledge of its ideas and affairs, no familiarity with its emotions.” -Clive Bell

In order to understand this, we must first understand what Bell means by “appreciate”.

Bell says that appreciation is not the same as understanding.

He defines appreciation as the emotions one feels when they look at an art piece. He says that for one to appreciate a painting, one need not delve into the depths of understanding a painting by studying its technicalities.

He says that the best way to appreciate art is by only looking at it aesthetically. Bell believes that one just needs enough knowledge of representation so as to recognise three dimensional space, which according to him is a form of representation in itself.

Bell further stresses that the understanding of the context of paintings isn’t important in appreciating it. One doesn’t always have to find recognisable objects in paintings in order to appreciate it.

He justifies this by saying that people that do not appreciate art just for its forms, end up trying to understand its context and relating it to their world of “human interests”, just in order to acquire something from it.