Opinion Sur Joven

Many times we mistake art museums for the places where learnedness or “high culture” would be found. An inaccessible place for most people. But we must have in mind that art, as a human expression, is can be found everywhere.

Not only do we find art in museums, but also on the streets or in churches, our homes, fairs, happenings, collective exhibitions, independent expositions, anywhere.

But we also bear in mind that in order to visit a museum we have to be duly prepared. Having some cultural knowledge, remembering the name of some famous author, being able to make a distinction between different movements or styles.

However, if we enter a classical art museum and have no knowledge at all about Greco-Roman culture, or if we enter a contemporary art museum and have no idea about the art pieces we’re going to see, we shouldn’t be afraid or feel unconfident.

As wisely advised by several experts and professionals in the subject, prejudice is the worst enemy when it comes to seeing art. “The best thing for people who lack knowledge about the subject is going to see and feel. Analyzing what feelings an artwork produces on them. They could be pleasure, acceptance or rejection. The important thing is what the spectators may feel”, the Argentine sculptor Lucy Mattos suggests.

In parallel, museologist Mabel Mikszo argues that “ everyone may enjoy art as long as they’re interested in it”. And she points out: “No man is born wise. In fact, you may not be interested in the matter. But go seeing games in a museum is art, go seeing paintings is art, go seeing sculptures is art, interacting in a museum is art”.

Where can we go?

For those who live in Capital Federal and its surroundings, there’s a wide and rich variety of cultural events. There is a large amount of shows, concerts, workshops, cycles, lectures and other activities to attend to and enjoy.

“At this moment there is a wide variety of events related to plays, music and also plastic arts. For example, museums are open every day”, says Eduardo Vázquez, director of the Museo de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires.

If we go for Latin American art, we may visit the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Malba), where we may find pieces by artists such as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo (Mexico); Joaquín Torres-García and Pedro Figari (Uruguay); Wifredo Lam and Amelia Peláez (Cuba); Tarsila Do Amaral and Cándido Portinari (Brazil); Roberto Matta (Chile) and Antonio Berni, Emilio Pettoruti and Xul Solar (Argentina).

“70% of the collection is on exhibition, chronologically organized. But, at the same time, the artwork distribution within the room allows visualizing dialogs between the productions of contemporary artists, who shared strategies and ways of expression”, tells us Cintia Mezza, coordinator of registration and documentation in Malba.

There’s another option: visiting the Museo de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, where we may observe this city’s history by means of its historical objects.

“It’s a customary museum, because the city is built by the people. The museum’s collection is totally heterogeneous. There’s a great amount of objects related to the architectonic aspect of Buenos Aires, and there’s also the graphic aspect. The oldest objects we have date from mid-19th century. There are posters and lots of photographs”, explains its director, Eduardo Vázquez.

But, before we continue, can we know what art is? Is there an exact definition explaining it? For instance, what does the stylized image of a bison on the wall of a cave in prehistoric periods have in common with Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel or Mondrian’s geometrical compositions?

What’s art??

Maybe the answer is the desire to communicate ideas and emotions through images, colors, sounds, textures or movements. Because, in spite of the formal differences, all artistic expressions aim at transmitting the same impulse: building a world by means of images, sounds or words, according to the discipline.

“Art is a creative form of expression, performed by a person who has the sensitivity to do it. We may all be that person with sensitivity to creatively express ourselves and make art”, Mattos points out.

Artistic expressions are meant to represent reality. Although they’re not a true and objective representation of the world around us, but artworks are meant to reflect the author’s sensations and points of view. Some examples: in Renaissance –a movement which took place in Western Europe during 15th and 16th centuries-, artists aimed at reincorporating and highlighting the importance of human values and actions in their works, a deep change generated by the rejection of the medieval idea of a world ruled by God and his indisputable word on earth, the Church. This is why such movement is closely related to humanism, for reestablishing man as a measure for all things.

On the other hand, in a different time and place, Andy Warhol would start to include representations of the classic “Campbell’s” soup tins or the actress Marilyn Monroe in his paintings. This American artist, a famous representative of pop art, would use classic objects of commercial and cinematographic industries in his paintings, thus provoking criticism towards the traditional standards in galleries and, what’s more, in the very same definition of art.

We may roughly infer that, no matter how distinct and different they were from each other, said artistic movements were searching for a type of representation of society and particularly of the world, and at the same time they established a point of view, an approach, in opposition to the established and consolidated forms of the past.

From the rock paintings in Altamira to Picasso’s abstractions, Caravaggio’s chiaroscuros and the Egyptian stylized drawings, we may observe that every representation is a way of seeing things. A position, a point of view related to its historic, social and political context.

Furthermore, in “Art for Beginners” Dani Cavallaro gives some basic recommendations when it comes to appreciating a work of art. “We tend to grasp the general effect without paying much attention to the details in the image. The general effect is fundamental in generating pleasure or disgust sensations, but the images speak to us in a subtle way through the interaction of multiple elements”, he writes.

Also, let’s take into account Pierre Bourdieu’s contribution, a French sociologist who states that, by means of the symbolic capital, middle and high social classes have the possibility to establish their judgments and truths over the entire society.

For example, the notion of taste, as a construction, shows us that the person who understands art –who has knowledge on the subject and is able to interact within the artistic environment more easily than others- has said knowledge because he or she had the opportunity to learn about it.

People in lower classes are in a totally different situation, because they had incomplete education and their leisure places aren’t museums or exhibitions, but -for example- a football stadium, a bar or, moreover, the room of their homes where the TV is.

Visiting a museum shouldn’t be an unpleasant experience. It shouldn’t be a sacred experience either. Museums are not shrines where people worship works of art. The sculptures, the paintings, the facilities and the carvings are there for us to “talk” to them. They’re living works, they’re not dead.

Because artworks are trying to talk to us, and in many languages. If we are open to listen to them and let them impact on our bodies and souls, we may reach new horizons.