Brycen recently asked whether people are so attracted to art because it is mysterious without a definition. I'm not sure that that's the only reason people are attracted to art, but it's an interesting thought. An air of mystery is usually seen as an attractive quality in general. I hate to seem like I'm saying the same thing two entries in a row, but I think Edvard Munch's painting, Ashes, has a beautiful quality of mystery to it. What is the source of the figures' distress? What happened before this scene? When I look at this image, I take in the picture as a whole, and then the details, and my mind starts trying to answer the questions it asks. I want to know the artist's intention, but I also want to keep it a mystery. There is a part of me, I think, that wants to fill in the blanks myself; there is a part of me that cannot help doing just that. Maybe that is why people are attracted to art: the mystery seems to leave room for the observer to see herself in the artwork.
Do you think people enjoy art more when they can relate to it?
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