How to Sound like you Understand Art

#art #arthistory #contemporaryart

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[lunacouer]

I just realized all The Art Assignment videos I've watched snuck into my brain, after watching this video. Story Time:

I took my 14 year-old niece to our local Fine Arts Center this summer, on one of their free admission days. I'd always wanted to check it out, and it was a "I'm soooo bored" summer thing for my niece to do. :)

I was always intimidated of art museums. And it was exactly this kinda stuff - feeling like I needed to have a degree in Art History to "understand" what I was looking at.

But, my niece doesn't have all that. She said "Ooo, it's like Ocean's 8 in here!", lol. And I was at least chill enough to look around at the lights and cameras and sensors and say "OMG, you're right!". Part of that chill was her natural effervescent personality and way of looking at things, and part of it was not feeling like I needed an Art Appreciation Card to be admitted. Only I didn't realize that it was these videos that gave me that feeling, until today. :)

We had So. Much. FUN.

There was a sculpture on the wall, and we started telling each other what we saw in all the various shapes. We ended up constructing a whole story about the boat and the person and the animals and the etc that we saw. We turned our heads this way and that, trying to find things to add to our story.

It's one of the best memories I have with her. I will never forget that sculpture.

You all snuck in there, with the "Art is what you experience, not what you think the artist is telling you to experience" thing. Like, it wasn't only ok to talk about what we saw and experienced - it's the whole point. And because I wasn't worried anymore about "seeing it right", I didn't start pressuring her to "see it right".

We just got to enjoy, or not enjoy, or laugh, or shrug our shoulders with "Meh" and move on.

Thank you so much Sarah, and the whole team! You gave us a wonderful experience. I now think everyone should take the kids in their life to art museums and galleries, so they can teach you how to experience them. And watch all The Art Assignment videos so you can have the chill to experience them like they do.

[luisfdconti]

“Sculpture is what you bump into when you back up to look at a painting.” Ad Reinhardt.
Thanks. Love it, will be using it.

[edwardbackman]

Guys they’re tricking us into actually appreciating it

[mimobase]

"just enjoy having thoughts and keeping them to yourself" 😂I love your humour it cracks me up every time.

[Leah-xhrc]

"They won't think you understand [thing] because they'll be too busy disliking you" is so spot on. You have to assume the other person doesn't already know what you're going off about and nobody appreciates that presumption, regardless if it's true.

[WelcometotheMuseum]

This video is living proof that we can learn from art two most important things: tolerance and empathy.
Thank you!

[SpinesAndSplines]

One time I took a photo of *my own work* hanging in a gallery at an opening, and it wasn’t until I looked at the photograph that I realised I’d made a blatantly obvious technical “mistake” in the image. I’d spent weeks making that etching plate, printed it about 50 times while editioning and hadn’t picked up on the error. Now I photograph everything I make as soon as I’ve made it and never underestimate the power of looking at something through the filter of a screen.

[RobertMilesAI]

This video made me realise some things about myself and perhaps the nature of the thing that's called 'privilege'.
I know very very little about art, but I enjoy visiting galleries. It never occurred to me to feel any anxiety about it, and I think that's partly because I've been going to galleries and museums since I was a kid, and partly because I've spent my whole life as a person who society as a whole values/respects/is 'set up for'. Like, of course I belong in this art gallery, why wouldn't I? Maybe I get something out of a piece, maybe I don't, and if I don't that doesn't mean there's something wrong with me. Maybe it's not good art, but more likely it's just saying something I'm not ready to hear right now, or I'm not the target audience, or I just don't know the context that I'd need, and that's all ok. I can have thoughts about the art, and those thoughts are worth something, at least to me. I wish everyone could feel that kind of confidence and comfort in a gallery.
I feel like a big part of what this video is saying, without saying it in these terms, is something like "If you want to experience some art, you are the right kind of person to be experiencing art. If you value art, then you are one of the people that art is made for. If you enjoy art, then you deserve to have that enjoyment. If you feel like walking into an art gallery, then you belong in that gallery. You belong in the gallery, and don't let anyone make you feel like you don't"

[jdbickel]

I've never actually commented on a YouTube video before, and probably won't again, but you just deserve to know how great this video is. It's a genius concept and perfectly executed. Required viewing for any aspiring human.

Thanks for doing what you're doing, and doing it so well!

[nurarihion]

One teacher gave me once the best advise in my life for visiting an art gallery, obvious as it may sound: just enter the space, look for what attracts you, what takes your attention, and leave the rest behind. There is an insistency on people to try to look at each and every piece with equal attention, like you must learn, understand, memorise and be moved by each one of them, but that's a total lie, specially on large exhibitions. Art must first be about connection, enter the space, look for what arouses you, what moves your curiosity, what attracts your attention right away, and follow that path. For this teacher it was more valuable to leave an art exhibition with two or three pieces stuck in your mind, which truly moved you in a meaningful way, than leaving the exhibition exhausted and trying to remember everything you saw.

[graphite]

Me entering Gallery
"I'm still processing."
Strolling through said gallery-
"I'm still processing."
Leaving the gallery-
"I'm still processing."
At restaurant looking at menu-
"I'm still processing."
Waking up at 3 am with existential fear and dread
"I'm still processing."
Thanks Sarah! My new life narrative condensed into 3 words!
( Karen from H.R.
do you understand what I'm saying in regards to blah blah blah....
Me : "I'm still processing.")

[rosevelasquez]

*"maybe even look at it through a camera if your internet-addled brain can't handle such sustained attention"*

the level of passive aggressiveness is what I strive in life tbh

[der]

"How to be a better human"
Thanks for the guide.

[clyn]

I was a little disinclined to click on the video because of the title, because "sounding like you" understand art is so unessential to understanding it, and it's honestly pretty classist to think you need a certain vocabulary or composure or something as prerequisite to understanding art. So at 12:21 it was good to hear so blatantly that this video was about feeling more confident and equipping you with tools you have to actually understand and experience art instead. I should never have doubted you, Art Assignment haha.

[finchhawthorne]

“Even if you are the worlds authority on Chinese video art” I may not know how to talk about art, but I do know what subtweeting sounds like.

[ChinLeeDrawing]

The best art assignment I've ever watched. It talks about the common problem modern people (especially who study art for too long and had already feeling numd) have while it comes to art. It helps me to open my senses again. Brilliant.

[antonius]

Every time I visit this channel, it feels like taking a tour in a gallery with the most witty and light-hearted companion. Love it!!

[lorenabpv]

"does a kind of anxiety wash over you?" me at all times tbh lol

I love this video and I also love to wander around on my own, even if I'm at museums with other people, which is one of my favorite ways to hang out with friends. Thanks for the tips and for making me smarter (and like, actually smarter, not just sounding smart) as usual.

[LuckyLifeguard]

"the meaning doesn't live inside the work" WOW so good so good so good

[megkaehler]

"The single most underrated activity of 2019" 😂😂😂😂