Understanding Art

I was going through this tabloid kept in my friend's room when I came across a full page black and white cover of Mona Lisa in it. That led to the discussion about why the painting is the world's most famous painting, ever.

I don't get art. I don't have the eye for it. Still, Indra and I, started exploring the web for the most famous paintings and discussing what could be the possible reasons behind their immortal fame.

Pablo Picasso's paintings are uncanny and weird. For example following is a very strange but very famous work of art by Picasso called Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. It portrays a group of nude prostitutes none of them portrayed as conventionally feminine.

The Young Ladies of Avignon - Picasso

Picasso is said to be the pioneer of modern art. If I ever meet an art aficionado, I would love to have a discussion about Picasso's paintings.

Vincent Van Gogh's paintings on the contrary are more perspicuous and his brush strokes appealing even to the untrained eye. 

Starry Night Over the Rhone - Vincent Van Gogh

For me the above painting captures the serenity of the river, the reflection of the light on the water. I can understand why this painting is famous, it sort of speaks for itself. Apparently Van Gogh was intrigued by the challenge of painting at night. The choice of colors was the most important thing to him. Van Gogh described this painting to his brother as "The sky is aquamarine, the water is royal blue, the ground is mauve. The town is blue and purple. The gas is yellow and the reflections are russet gold descending down to green-bronze. On the aquamarine field of the sky the Great Bear is a sparkling green and pink, whose discreet paleness contrasts with the brutal gold of the gas. Two colourful figurines of lovers in the foreground."

Cafe Terrace at Night - Vincent Van Gogh

This is another very famous piece of work by Van Gogh. The depth of the painting is what I find the most striking. A bigger version of this would actually make you feel you are present in the cafe. This cafe has been renamed after the famous painter who captured it on canvas for eternity. 

Some other famous paintings (in case you, like me, were not familiar with them)

The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali

The Dream by Pablo Picasso

Luncheon of the Boating Party by Pierre-Auguste Renoir 

Garden at Montgeron by Monet

Girl with the pearl earing by Jan Vermeer

Coming to the painting which triggered this short foray into understanding art, Mona Lisa, the image so widely recognized, caricatured, and sought out by visitors to the Louvre that it is considered the most famous painting in the world .

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

This painting has intrigued me ever since I have heard of its fame. So much has been said and written about it. And all I would see is an ordinary woman staring at me. What is it that continues to enchant people all over the world. I stared at it for quite some time - noticed her eyes, the shades given to her face - the 3D contours mapped so well on 2D by the strokes. According to Wikipedia, and I guess I have to agree, 'The ambiguity of the subject's expression, the monumentality of the composition, and the subtle modeling of forms and atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the continuing fascination and study of the work.'

It is said that this painting creates an optical illusion of sorts, such that, whichever angle you look at it from, she appears to stare back at you. To check this for myself, I made Indra hold the tabloid page and fidgeted around it, with the deep ruminating look on my face. I don't know whether it was due to the idea in my head or not, but she did seem to look back at me with that furtive smile and mischievous look. It was eerie. I gave up. 

But I couldn't get her out of my head. She was haunting me. I thought about it some more. It was like she was hiding something. Something you want to know, but you can't. 

All of a sudden, it made sense.The painting has been haunting people ever since Vinci painted it the 16th century. It is all about the secret, I think.