The Emotional Perception of Art

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The Emotional Perception of Art Art has a rare capability of evoking different emotions in different people. Two people can look at the same piece of art and see two images that are entirely dissimilar. What one perceives while looking at art depends on a person’s state of mind. If one is happy, he or she will find something cheerful and pleasing in the work of art. However, if one is depressed or going through a hard time, it will be as if they are looking at two paintings or two sculptures that are totally unalike. The artist’s purpose in creating his or her masterpiece is to create something that will make the viewer think and imagine what the piece of art is showing them. Malcolm Gladwell states in Blink: The adaptive unconscious is thought of as a kind of giant computer that quickly and quietly processes a lot of the data we need in order to keep functioning as human beings. When you walk out into the street and suddenly realize that a truck is bearing down on you, do you have time to think through all your options? Of course not. (Blink 11) When it comes to artwork, ones adaptive unconscious operates in a similar way. When one looks at an image he or she immediately sees their version of the image. Now, if one was shown a picture and then told—by someone else—what the picture was, and how the people in the picture were feeling, the person would not be able to relate to the picture and may dislike the image because they no longer see what they want to see. Instead, they now only observe what they were told to observe. Many emotions can be felt while viewing The Trapped Thief, which is attributed to Nicholas Van Galen. The work of art is an oil painting that was created sometime between 1620 and 1683... ... middle of paper ... ... Thief and Flemish Household, I was able to put the painting into a scene that fit what was going on around me. My mood reflected the way in which I saw the interactions within these two paintings. In general, art provides a method of escape for its audience; allowing its audience to go into their own world and showing them that there are others who are going through the same problems and circumstances as they are. Works Cited Adler, Sabine. Lover’s in Art. New York: Prestel Verlag, 2002 Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2005 “Maerten Van Cleve I.” Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press, 28 September 2006, http://www.groveart.com/ Robotham, Kate. “Art Talks: Artistic Violence.” The Artistic Forum 1 January 1999. http://www.artisticforum.com/TheForum9-99.html

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