Things have begun to change recently. A bookseller in my neighbourhood offered discounts on several books, among them Andrew Graham-Dixon’s Art: The Definitive Visual Guide. Despite my previous experience with art, I decided to buy it, mainly driven by the cheap price and the sympathetically high picture-to-text ratio.

The book turned out to be very good and it showed me that art can be highly interesting and enjoyable, which was a new experience for me. Much as Schubert and Mendelssohn awoke my interest in classical music, Graham-Dixon’s book raised my interest in art considerably.

Reflecting on this experience, two questions came to my mind:

1. Now that I know the arts can be enjoyable, what can I do to maximize this joy?
2. How can people who believe art is boring be convinced that it can be enjoyable (and therefore “tap a new source of happiness”)?

To find the answers, I first analysed why art can be enjoyable (i.e., in what ways it can give us pleasure). Based on this, I will try to come up with practical suggestions.
 

What Makes Art Enjoyable?

Here are some dimensions which play a role when enjoying art:

         1.)    Recognition

When walking in London’s National Gallery a couple of days ago, I was delighted to see Georges Seurat’s Bathers at Asnières from 1884…

… which I recognized from the book mentioned above. It wasn’t the beauty of the painting (I don’t think it is very beautiful), nor the atmosphere it creates or any reason other than  the fact that I saw something which felt familiar. Maybe the feeling of “success” played a role here as well: finally not everything in the museum is new to me.  

The importance of recognition becomes clear when we consider two different types of visitors. What a difference there must be between the uninitiated museum visitor who is overwhelmed by the number and size of unfamiliar paintings, compared to one who knows them all and perceives a leisurely stroll through the rooms as a nostalgic opportunity to catch up with good old friends.¹

2.)    Beauty

I used to think beauty was the only, or at least most important, criteria for evaluating works of art. Now I believe it is only one possible component (not even required to make art enjoyable) and the role it plays is far from the most important one.

That said, the beauty of some paintings is stunning and just looking at them brings joy that is reason enough to buy a copy and pin it up on a wall at home. Personally, I find paintings with a strong or interesting use of light beautiful (which is highly subjective, of course). For example, I perceive beauty in Bierstadt’s “Oregon Trail” from 1869:

I also enjoy Max Liebermann’s The Terrace at the Restaurant Jacob in Nienstedten on the Elbe from 1902 (sunlight filtering through leaves was one of Liebermanns’s favourite themes):

(By the way, if you want to buy these pieces of art (copies, I mean, unless you are filthily rich), OldMastersOnline.com seems to be an interesting source, although I have not tested it yet).

Beyond this rather superficial definition of beauty, there are other ways in which we can find beauty in art. For example, Rodin’s sculpture and masterpiece, The Kiss is beautiful, too, although in a slightly different sense than the pieces cited above:²

Art is capable of triggering positive feelings, all of which may be described as “beauty” in a broader sense.

3.)    Understanding / Empathy

Understanding a piece of art (in terms of when it was created, what the artist intended to convey with it, etc.) plays a fundamental role in our enjoyment. Maybe this is the most important way to enjoy art. But why is that? Let me list some hypotheses:

·         Firstly, when we understand a piece, we don’t feel lost, but rather more educated and knowledgeable, which is a good feeling in itself. 

·         Secondly, we are able to develop a deeper relationship with the work and with the artist. This is especially true when we can identify with the work, maybe because we have had similar experiences in our life.³

For example, I believe a melancholic individual longing for the good old days is capable of finding a strong connection to Turner’s Fighting Temeraire (1838)…

…which depicts a once successful battleship (literally a ghost of her former noble and majestic self) getting towed by a steam tug to its final destination to be broken up for scrap. Several elements of the painting transform the ship’s final journey into a mournful hymn for the passing of the great days of sail:⁴

·         A trail of fiery smoke from the tug’s funnel cuts dramatically across the Temeraire, symbolising the end of sail and the future of the steam engine.

·         The hull of the boat and the missing sails (in contrast to the full sails of a number of sailing ships receding into the distance, reminiscent of the Temeraire’s glory days) give the Temeraire a strangely skeletal appearance.

·         The viewer’s eye is drawn across the canvas in a way that creates a sense of forward movement, suggesting the Temeraire’s final journey towards the ominous, dark buoy and the setting sun on the right.

·         Thirdly, understanding pieces of art enables us to compare them and appreciate their context with each other, which further increases our joy. In other words, the more we know about art, the more enjoyable it becomes.  

If understanding plays such a crucial role, how can we achieve a state of knowledge quickly which allows us to understand the piece, put it into context and analyse it?

When reading the aforementioned book, it became clear to me that reaching such a state does not require as much effort as we may think (the book is not the answer, even though it does go very much in the right direction). If the information is presented well, reading it is fun and memorable. What might such a guide look like?

One important element, I believe, is a structured approach to show the dimensions in which art can be understood or analysed, and which different shapes exist within each of those dimensions. For example, the dimensions for paintings could be:  

·         What the painting shows/depicts (portraits, landscapes, stories, etc.)

·         How the object or scene is depicted (e.g., for portraits: frontal view, 3/4-view, etc.) and why

·         The “background” of the picture/story

·         Perspective of the viewer (from above/below) and why

·         What conclusions can be drawn about the artist based on how he or she presents the characters, etc.

·         Which colours are used, and how

·         Which materials were used to create the piece

·         What “atmosphere” is created

·         How the eye is led into the painting

·         Which epoch the piece belongs to

·         Etc.

With a bit of basic knowledge in each of those dimensions, even beginners can try to analyse formerly unfamiliar paintings, which should increase their joy considerably.  

In conclusion, recognition, beauty and understanding of a piece of art seem to be three important reasons why art can be enjoyable. They are not the only ones (for example, art can also provide inspiration), but for me they are on top of the list. Or have I missed other key points?

Practical Suggestions

1.)    Get a good teacher (or good books)

As with any other discipline, getting a good introduction is key. You can start with the book I mentioned above. If you find other books (or videos or other materials) of similar quality, please share that information below!

Even better, of course, is a real teacher who is an expert on the subject and can convey that expertise in an interesting way.

2.)    Don’t go unprepared to an art gallery or museum

Unless you are sure you’ll find a good teacher there (or a good audio guide, which is rare – see below), I would be careful about going to an art gallery and expecting to enjoy it right away.⁵ Most of the time, the way the art is explained is not sufficient to make it fully enjoyable for newcomers. At least, this has been my experience.  

It may be better to learn some basics about art (see above) and learn what pieces are on display before you go. Get some background information on the specific works and their context (e.g., epoch). With this preparation, you’ll almost certainly get more out of the experience.

3.)    Suggestion for museum directors: upgrade your audio guides

This is very important: If you, the museum director, want more people to enjoy art and visit galleries, help them find their path to it. Based on my experience, today’s audio guides are not as good as they could be, for two main reasons:

·         The content is too academic

Very often the audio guides aim to be academically correct, instead of raise passion in the listener. Consequently, the joy factor falls short most of the time. Many interesting or funny background details which a real guide would mention are often not mentioned on the audio guides.

·         The content is not conveyed passionately enough  

Also, the way in which the content is conveyed affects the listeners’ enjoyment. Often the monotonous voices on the audio guides lack passion. It appears as if a speaker reads the information off a piece of paper. This does not make the tour exciting.

Please, invest some money in making a really good audio guide. Collect all the interesting facts about the pieces which listeners would enjoy. Then record a compassionate and authentically excited (funny?) person delivering those facts. The money invested will almost certainly pay off in the long run.

4.)    Focus on specific epochs / types of art first

Art spans a very wide field, and any attempt to try to understanding all pieces at once is doomed to fail. Start with one specific episode or genre. Learn about it and, when going to an art gallery or museum, focus on that episode or genre first until you know it really well. Your interest in exploring other areas will grow naturally from there.

Where should you start? I suggest opening an art book (with a lot of pictures covering all epochs, if possible, such as the one recommended above) and browse it to identify the works that are most interesting to you. The works that first interested me were created during the epoch which is named romanticism, but everybody is different.

5.)    Try to analyse the work

After having prepared a little, try to analyse the art along the dimensions listed above. It can be exciting to discover things on your own and then compare then to the artist’s ideas when revealed.

6.)    Adapt the right mindset

Remember that art appreciation will get better and better over time (understanding breeds understanding). As with everything in life, it takes some investment at the start. Most of the time, however, you are more than compensated for your efforts.

If you enjoyed reading this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed or email newsletter! This post is part of the series “Tapping New Sources of Happiness” in which one other topic has been discussed so far: A Guide to Enjoying Classical Music.

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1) Inquisitive readers may go one step further and ask why familiarity is capable of creating a positive feeling at all. My hypothesis is that this may have its roots in humans’ core need for security. (Security is fundamental in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, although I believe this pyramid needs to be updated based on our advances in the past 70 years – the subject of a future post).

2) This is a different sense of beauty as it requires more interpretation than the instant, more superficial beauty described above. Perhaps it can be called “secondary beauty” (without prioritizing it).

3) This may also be the reason why experienced (i.e., elderly) people are more capable of enjoying art. The probability that a painting conveys emotions they have experienced is higher, because they have presumably experienced more. Does an empathic viewer find access to art easier for that reason?

4) The following description of the painting is quoted from the aforementioned book by Andrew Graham-Dixon.

5) Keep your expectations low: The Role of Expectations in Being Happy

A lot has been said and written about money’s relationship to happiness. The following two statements are made most frequently in this respect:

1. Money cannot buy happiness directly and
2. Money may be required for happiness up to a certain amount (so that we can fulfill our basic needs), but its impact on happiness thereafter is very limited or does not exist at all

While these statements certainly have a great deal of truth in them, the question which arises is how much we should actually strive to acquire significant wealth. Does the second statement above imply that we should slow down our drive for riches once our basic needs are satisfied?

The answer to this question will, I believe, be different from person to person, as substantial wealth comes with several new elements that may have potentially good or bad impact on our happiness, and depending on how susceptible we are to every one of them the conclusion will go one way or the other.

This article aims to initiate a discussion towards a more comprehensive picture showing how money may have an impact on how happy we are.

Risks and drawbacks of being significantly wealthy

Before I get you hyped up with the advantages of being wealthy, causing you to stop reading this article, throw your laptop into the corner of your room and run out and search for money, let’s have a look at money’s potential drawbacks first.

1. Killing our drive / losing our task / not knowing what to do with the freedom 
   Money is very often a key goal of our efforts, but we should remind ourselves the path to the goal is as important as the goal itself. Having a goal in mind gives us motivation, energy and a positive spirit, all crucial ingredients for happiness. Once we’ve achieved the goal, however, we risk losing these benefits, and need to find new goals that fulfill this role to the same extent.

   How difficult this can be is something I am observing now with friends of mine retiring, which is a comparable situation; the challenge to fill the gap for a new task may be too big, causing substantial unhappiness.
    

2. Things money can buy are no longer special
   The pleasure of saving money for something which we would really like to have, the anticipated joy of having it (which is just as real joy as any other joy, a subject to be dived into more detail in future posts), then actually buying and being happy with it, is heavily reduced once we could have it immediately. Unlimited wealth to immediately purchase material goods may look like a shortcut to happiness from the poor man’s perspective, but the rich guy knows it’s not.
    
3. Disappointment that money cannot buy happiness
   Despite knowing on an intellectual level that money cannot buy happiness, emotionally we still often tend to believe otherwise. Once we are rich we also “emotionally discover” that this is not the case, the disappointment of which can lead to unhappiness or at least substantially reduced happiness. The effects of expectations on happiness is a very interesting subject in itself, which will be addressed in one of the future posts of this blog.
    
4. Unfavorable change in personality
   Wealth may lead to a change in personality, or buoying of negative character traits to the surface, such as feelings of superiority, enhanced level of greed etc. This can lead to unhappiness, both for the wealthy person as well as the people around him or her. A Chinese proverb goes “gold is tested by fire and man is tested by gold”, which I believe has a lot of truth in it.
    
5. Fear of losing it again
   Those who climb high can fall deep, and this is also true for the very wealthy. The rich have to look after more assets, potentially raising the feeling of risk of losing it again, which may have a negative effect on happiness.
    
6. Outside threats / theft
   People who are well-known to be wealthy have to take special security measures to ensure that they will not be victims of theft, kidnapping or similar. Even if it never happens, the protection shield that needs to be set up is real, and can have a substantial impact on the lifestyle, mostly not for the better.
    
7. Friends and other people behaving differently
   Due to the special status of wealth in society, people may behave differently towards wealthy people, even if the latter have not changed their behavior in any way. This may lead to unfavorable consequences, such as disturbing effects on the “chemistry” in relationships between people of different wealth, in the worst case leading to end of long-term friendships, which can have a substantial negative impact on happiness, as relationships are a key element of happiness.

Beyond these points there are several more potential drawbacks, such as a feeling of burden (e.g. responsibility which comes with wealth) and others, but the 7 points above should cover the main bulk of it (they don’t? Please add a comment below!).

Advantages of being wealthy

1. Freedom & independence
   To me, one of the greatest advantages of having a lot of money would be (you’ve noticed the subjunctive… sob) that I could freely chose on which activities I spend my time on. Instead of selling my time, arguably one of the most precious goods there is, to my employer 60 hours a week; I could think and write about happiness the whole day , spend time on personal development or pursue other projects that I find interesting.

   I am sure the same is true for many people; provided, of course, that there are other fulfilling activities in which we would find a challenge, and not fall into a depression with no mission or task, as mentioned above.

2. Capability to do good
   Money is power, and we can use this power to help other people. Doing good this way is very rewarding and it’s no wonder that philanthropy among the rich is on the rise, even though there might be a short dip due to the financial crisis. The best ways on how to spend the money in order to maximize happiness is another interesting topic to look into (philanthropic giving is becoming more professional already, but there is always room for improvement).

3. Capability to buy material goods that give us pleasure
   Buying goods directly instead of saving for them also has drawbacks as mentioned above, however there are also things we could have never afforded otherwise as they are prohibitively expensive. In those cases money could give us more pleasure (of course, there again the counter-effect that we kill our dreams of what still may come, may reduce happiness again).

   However, this source of happiness seems to be short-lived. Apparently there is a clear limit of how much we can positively influence our happiness from “outside” by material goods.

4. Status symbol
   To some, wealth is a form of status in society, and therefore may be important with respect to happiness. I believe that the underlying concept of this view also has substantial risks due to its superficial nature, but there do seem to be people for whom the status effect does have a substantial and enduring positive impact on their happiness.

5. Security
   Wealth may lead to new security concerns as mentioned above, however it can also give us the feeling no matter what happens, we are far away from suffering and will never have to be concerned on how to get our next meal. Also, in case something happens to us where we need considerable amounts of money to “fix” it (e.g. expensive medical operation) we know that the chances are better if we had the required money on the bank account than otherwise.

Beyond these advantages actually materializing, another level of benefit can be thinking about or being consciously aware of these advantages, which could give us pleasure in itself.

These are the main advantages of wealth of which I am aware. Again, if you can think of others, please add your comments below.

Conclusion I (if you are not wealthy)

Assuming that money’s advantages outweigh its disadvantages for you (however, there are certainly people for whom this is not the case, I propose an honest self assessment) I suggest that you make wealth generation a key goal, while keeping in mind that wealth does not solve all our problems by far. It comes with serious traps and provides new challenges, towards which it is important to pay enough sincere respect.

It may be worthwhile to point out that just like with happiness, acquiring wealth most often does not come by thinking about it directly (“How can I be happy now? Happy now! Happy now! …” is certainly not the route to happiness) but through activities that you enjoy doing and where you think you can add value to society, thereby laying the foundation for earning your reward.

Also it may be good to mention that this article mainly dealt with the comparison of the states “being averagely rich in a western society” with being “filthily rich”. If you are reading the article now, it means that you are both literate and have access to a computer and internet, which puts you way ahead of the 1 billion+ people who live with less than 1 dollar a day. From the perspective of many people who inhabit this planet today, you are indeed rich. Everything is relative; sometimes it is important to remind ourselves of that.

Conclusion II (if you are wealthy)

If you are rich, be thankful for being in a state that so many people covet and strive to achieve throughout their entire lives, most of them unsuccessfully. Appreciate the circumstances that have lead to your privileged situation which enables you to access all of money’s advantages. Maximize those advantages, e.g. by tapping the rewarding experience of using money to do good to other people. Limit the risks and drawbacks by being fully aware and developing the right plan on how to deal with every one of them.

That’s it for the moment, please review my thoughts critically and share your views!