The Appeal of Art – What and Why

This answer is different for each of us.

My answers is here:

The type of art that appeals to me has revealed itself to me over the years. Across the hundreds of pieces seen, rejected and the few dozens selected, I have been able to construct a definition of the type that appeals to me.

A Visual Appeal that arrests the vision with its beauty

An intellectual appeal that holds the thought and captivates the mind with its mystique.

The piece must tell stories at many levels.

A story about its connection to history.

A story about the user and their culture.

A story about its usage that makes this category special and uncommon.

A story about components and materials that are no longer common.

These criteria became clear to me as I look at the paintings that have appealed to me.

INDIAN MINIATURE PAINTING FROM BUNDI DEPICTING JANMASHTAMI

INDIAN MINIATURE PAINTING, RAJASTHAN DEPICTING SRINATHJI AND BRAHMANS

COMPANY SCHOOL MINIATURE  PAINTING ON MICA – DEPICTING A WEDDING PROCESSION

Each of these makes me want to know more  and wish that I could participate and be there. The activity, the dynamics between the subjects draw my mind in and excite the imagination.

It is not the ‘style’ or school of painting or art that appeals. That is too superficial a criterion.

It is the story within that captivates me!

jm

December 2013