Art: a new perception | Lyubov Popova | TEDxSadovoeRingWomen

Can a line express a sense of serenity? And can the color represent a passion? Do the mussels in our body help to perceive a piece of art? Lyubov Popova is convinced that the answer to these questions is "yes". Moreover, this is where lies the key to the perception of art.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

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

How can we learn to perceive art?

This is what I want to talk about.

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

where he came to conclusion
that it is extremely important

to make art accessible
to the broad masses.

He exchanged letters with Stasov,

his friend and an art critic.

Stasov wrote:

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

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

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

There is no doubt that knowledge
of history and culture

is important for understanding art.

But that isn’t everything.

You might know the history
of Florence in depth,

the life of Cosimo de’ Medici,
read Machiavelli,

you might know by heart
whole passages from Vasari,

about the Italian painters.

But that’s not enough.

Artistic image is something concrete,

expressed in a specific work.

This is the meaning of art.

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

here and now,

something should touch your heart
and turn your soul over.

The skill of perception

augments our consciousness,

the feelings we experience.

It changes personality.

A person becomes multidimensional

and develops empathy:

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

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

it seems different,
unique, not seen before.

A person hones this sense of empathy.

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

Our world faces many problems

that require unusual approaches,

require creativity.

Our world needs creative individuals.

Art is something important
for every person.

Society today is convinced

that art is secluded,

that it's elitist.

But art is a product of all humanity.

It is fundamentally open to anyone.

You just need to learn

how to perceive art.

Learn it just like we learn to write.

How can we teach ourselves and others

to perceive art?

I had to answer this question
after graduating from university,

when I started to teach.

My students would readily learn facts

about history and culture.

They could name every element
in the classical order:

architrave, frieze, cornice, entablement.

But they were lost

when confronted with a specific work.

Its meaning eluded them.

An image in art always arises

from an emotional jolt.

An artist experiences a vivid feeling.

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

He wants to share it with other people.

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

Each form of art has its particular means.

For music, it’s sound and rhythm.

In dance, it's flexibility of the body.

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

Feelings can really be expressed.

Take, for example,
the feeling of tenderness

and the feeling of passion.

The feeling of tenderness

is expressed in bright, light tones -

pink-salmon, light blue, grass green.

Those tones convey
a sense of understatement,

because tenderness contains
as an understatement,

even timidness.

Passion, though,

is something different:

contrasts,

both hot and cold tones.

A dark space

is broken by bright flashes of lightning.

One’s blood boils.

Feelings can be expressed.

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

but in a number of expressive mediums.

It’s a structure

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

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

the differences between various means
of expressions and structures.

I knew how to teach that.

One had to develop a keen sense of sight

and the eye of an artist.

I had to teach people to see,

to grasp the difference
between five shades of blue.

To see the difference
between different structures.

Making comparisons, that's the solution.

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

And how do you teach people to feel?

That a line is not simply broken,

it is nervous.

That a line is not only solid,

but also peaceful and calm.

How do you teach people to feel?

I didn’t know.

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

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

That was my breakthrough!

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

When I stand before a Rublev icon,

the golden tones ...

immediately ...

release all tension in my body.

I breathe more easily.

A sense of peace, even safety,

fills my soul.

But if recall Picasso’s Guernica,

my whole being seizes up.

My muscles are strained,
I can hardly breathe,

a feeling of horror sets within me.

That is the feeling Picasso
wanted to convey.

That's how I formed a method

that I call “Deep Perception”.

What are the most important skills here?

First of all, it is seeing
and grasping structures.

Not simply seeing disparate features

but structural patterns.

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

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

my teaching practice

showed that it is a multifaceted process

in which a person
and his entire body are involved.

That's where I faced great difficulties.

With every new group of students,

we struggle for half a year.

We have to bring
their bodies back to life.

Their bodies are static, or cold.

Scary to say, sometimes
their bodies are simply dead.

This is very difficult.

When people live within a dead body,

they live with a closed ego.

They do not escape the bounds of the ego.

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

They react,

but they cannot perceive it.

And thus you get
these aggressive judgements,

“That's the way I see it.

I love this!

I don’t like that!

I don’t like Kandinsky.

I don’t like the work
of Natalya Goncharova!

Of course, I don’t like mature Picasso,

and I obviously don’t like Dali.

Ah, I forgot!

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

I don’t like him.”

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

Maybe you need to learn how to see

and try to appreciate Rubens
for who he is?

If we only try to do it,

the history of art will open up to us.

Not just as a set of historical facts,

semantics, iconography,

but as a history of feeling.

A history of feeling.

I also made a very important discovery.

Deep perception could develop
one’s creativity.

After lessons, my students
would come up to me

and say their lives had changed.

That was moving,

but only to be expected,

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

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

A viewer standing before the canvas

should grasp the structure,

respond with his body

and feel inside the same feeling

that inspired the artist.

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

We possess the same creative capabilities

that the artist needs.

Ancient Japan has a marvellous saying

about the nature of art.

They say,

“When the soul of an artist

is filled to the brim with inspiration,

what overflows from the soul

is a work of art."

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

And a filled soul is
a requirement for perception,

deep perception of an image.

If you live walled off

inside the limits of your own ego,

the world will be your enemy.

You don't understand it,

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

Art will teach you to overcome
these boundaries,

perceive another person
and try to understand him.

And then another person with different
character, different background,

customs, culture

will open up to you.

A point will come when you feel

that he is your own kin,

and you will love him.

That other person,
initially a stranger to you,

is now here in your heart.

This is so important in our world,

with so many wars and conflicts,

where there are nuclear weapons.

It’s so important for us, women,

as we’re always thinking about children.

Art teaches us to be human beings.

Mature, responsible human beings.

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

Art is waiting for you.

Get started right away.

(Applause)