WEBVTT

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Is art, given its indisputable value,
accessible to us?

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How can we learn to perceive art?

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This is what I want to talk about.

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In the 1890s, Leo Tolstoy
wrote "What is Art?"

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where he came to conclusion
that it is extremely important

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to make art accessible
to the broad masses.

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He exchanged letters with Stasov,

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his friend and an art critic.

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Stasov wrote:

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“So many people say great
and clever things about art.

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But put them before a painting and they
won't be able to articulate two words."

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He was referring to an inability
to grasp a particular work of art.

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There is no doubt that knowledge
of history and culture

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is important for understanding art.

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But that isn’t everything.

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You might know the history
of Florence in depth,

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the life of Cosimo de’ Medici,
read Machiavelli,

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you might know by heart
whole passages from Vasari,

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about the Italian painters.

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But that’s not enough.

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Artistic image is something concrete,

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expressed in a specific work.

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This is the meaning of art.

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When you stand before the Florentine
church of Santa Maria Novella,

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here and now,

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something should touch your heart
and turn your soul over.

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The skill of perception

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augments our consciousness,

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the feelings we experience.

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It changes personality.

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A person becomes multidimensional

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and develops empathy:

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sensing and understanding another person,
connecting to another person's feelings.

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Every time a person stands
before a new work of art,

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it seems different,
unique, not seen before.

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A person hones this sense of empathy.

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Perceiving a work of art develops
one’s creative abilities.

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Our world faces many problems

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that require unusual approaches,

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require creativity.

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Our world needs creative individuals.

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Art is something important
for every person.

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Society today is convinced

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that art is secluded,

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that it's elitist.

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But art is a product of all humanity.

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It is fundamentally open to anyone.

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You just need to learn

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how to perceive art.

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Learn it just like we learn to write.

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How can we teach ourselves and others

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to perceive art?

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I had to answer this question
after graduating from university,

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when I started to teach.

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My students would readily learn facts

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about history and culture.

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They could name every element
in the classical order:

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architrave, frieze, cornice, entablement.

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But they were lost

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when confronted with a specific work.

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Its meaning eluded them.

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An image in art always arises

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from an emotional jolt.

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An artist experiences a vivid feeling.

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This feeling won’t release him
for a long time.

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He wants to share it with other people.

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That's when he looks
for a means to express it.

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Each form of art has its particular means.

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For music, it’s sound and rhythm.

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In dance, it's flexibility of the body.

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In visual arts, it is lines, color spots,
texture, proportions.

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Feelings can really be expressed.

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Take, for example,
the feeling of tenderness

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and the feeling of passion.

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The feeling of tenderness

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is expressed in bright, light tones -

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pink-salmon, light blue, grass green.

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Those tones convey
a sense of understatement,

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because tenderness contains
as an understatement,

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even timidness.

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Passion, though,

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is something different:

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contrasts,

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both hot and cold tones.

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A dark space

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is broken by bright flashes of lightning.

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One’s blood boils.

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Feelings can be expressed.

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In art, feelings aren’t expressed
in just one way,

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but in a number of expressive mediums.

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It’s a structure

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where all means of expression
are bound in a single knot.

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I knew well that I had to teach
how to see features,

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the differences between various means
of expressions and structures.

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I knew how to teach that.

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One had to develop a keen sense of sight

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and the eye of an artist.

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I had to teach people to see,

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to grasp the difference
between five shades of blue.

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To see the difference
between different structures.

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Making comparisons, that's the solution.

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But to grasp art, it is essential
for a person to feel.

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And how do you teach people to feel?

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That a line is not simply broken,

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it is nervous.

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That a line is not only solid,

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but also peaceful and calm.

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How do you teach people to feel?

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I didn’t know.

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I didn’t know how to teach people to feel.

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Then I asked myself,
how did it happen for you?

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That was my breakthrough!

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I realized that for me,
it happens through the body.

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When I stand before a Rublev icon,

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the golden tones ...

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immediately ...

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release all tension in my body.

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I breathe more easily.

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A sense of peace, even safety,

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fills my soul.

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But if recall Picasso’s Guernica,

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my whole being seizes up.

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My muscles are strained, 
I can hardly breathe,

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a feeling of horror sets within me.

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That is the feeling Picasso
wanted to convey.

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That's how I formed a method

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that I call “Deep Perception”.

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What are the most important skills here?

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First of all, it is seeing
and grasping structures.

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Not simply seeing disparate features

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but structural patterns.

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In this, my method is similar
to Rudolf Arnheim’s views.

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But if he thought that the eye
plays the main role in perception,

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my teaching practice

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showed that it is a multifaceted process

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in which a person
and his entire body are involved.

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That's where I faced great difficulties.

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With every new group of students,

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we struggle for half a year.

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We have to bring
their bodies back to life.

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Their bodies are static, or cold.

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Scary to say, sometimes
their bodies are simply dead.

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This is very difficult.

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When people live within a dead body,

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they live with a closed ego.

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They do not escape the bounds of the ego.

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They cannot appreciate art or even
the whole world around them.

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They react,

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but they cannot perceive it.

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And thus you get
these aggressive judgements,

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“That's the way I see it.

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I love this!

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I don’t like that!

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I don’t like Kandinsky.

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I don’t like the work 
of Natalya Goncharova!

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Of course, I don’t like mature Picasso,

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and I obviously don’t like Dali.

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Ah, I forgot!

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I don’t like Rubens and his 'big' ladies.

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I don’t like him.”

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You should ask yourself,
perhaps you just don't know how.

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Maybe you need to learn how to see

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and try to appreciate Rubens
for who he is?

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If we only try to do it,

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the history of art will open up to us.

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Not just as a set of historical facts,

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semantics, iconography,

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but as a history of feeling.

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A history of feeling.

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I also made a very important discovery.

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Deep perception could develop
one’s creativity.

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After lessons, my students
would come up to me

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and say their lives had changed.

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That was moving,

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but only to be expected,

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because perception is the flip side
of the creation of an image.

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An artist experiences a vivid feeling
and incarnates it in a structure.

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A viewer standing before the canvas

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should grasp the structure,

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respond with his body

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and feel inside the same feeling

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that inspired the artist.

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In fact, by perceiving a work of art
we give the image a new birth.

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We possess the same creative capabilities

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that the artist needs.

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Ancient Japan has a marvellous saying

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about the nature of art.

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They say,

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“When the soul of an artist

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is filled to the brim with inspiration,

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what overflows from the soul

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is a work of art."

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A filled soul is a requirement
for making a piece of art.

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And a filled soul is
a requirement for perception,

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deep perception of an image.

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If you live walled off

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inside the limits of your own ego,

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the world will be your enemy.

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You don't understand it,

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you’ll be scared by it and try 
to defend yourself from it.

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Art will teach you to overcome
these boundaries,

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perceive another person
and try to understand him.

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And then another person with different
character, different background,

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customs, culture

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will open up to you.

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A point will come when you feel

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that he is your own kin,

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and you will love him.

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That other person,
initially a stranger to you,

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is now here in your heart.

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This is so important in our world,

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with so many wars and conflicts,

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where there are nuclear weapons.

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It’s so important for us, women,

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as we’re always thinking about children.

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Art teaches us to be human beings.

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Mature, responsible human beings.

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Creative beings, the ones
that know and love the world.

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Art is waiting for you.

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Get started right away.

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(Applause)