Soothing art

Today’s blog arose from an email sent to me by Ros Jonas.  On the BBC News App she came across an article about how David Hockney is faring in the coronavirus crisis.  Hockney is in lock-down in his house in Normandy with his dog and two longstanding assistants.  He continues to draw on his iPad and spends most days in the garden using the spring blossoms for his inspiration.  As you will remember from his exhibition ‘Current’ at the NGV in 2016, Hockney thrives on the immediacy, vitality and renewal of nature.  He is finding his current art a ‘great respite from what is going on’.  The tagline from the article by William Gompertz describes Hockney’s paintings as ‘soothing’: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-52109901

The notion of the healing power of gardens is also discussed by Jenny Uglow in her article Garden of Painterly Delights in The New York Review of Books, March 16.  The article reviews the exhibition ‘Sanctuary: Artist-Gardeners 1919-1939’ which is on view at the Garden Museum in Lambeth, London: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/03/16/garden-of-painterly-delights/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NYR%20Artist%20as%20Gardener&utm_content=NYR%20Artist%20as%20Gardener+CID_a77527f4104835bc765da9ea2035946e&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_term=Garden%20of%20Painterly%20Delights. The exhibition explores a time when an exceptional number of artists turned to gardening, and took gardens and flowers as the subject of their art. Gardens were sanctuaries that promoted friendship and collaboration, they allowed personal control and creativity, and the connection with nature recognized resilience and regeneration – especially important after the devastation of the First World War and Spanish Flu pandemic. The catalogue for the exhibition is online at: https://www.lissllewellyn.com/pdf2016/web/viewer.php?file=SANCTUARY-Artist-Gardeners-1919-39.pdf

What makes a painting soothing? In thinking about this I was reminded of the project undertaken by the Russian-born, but American-based, conceptual artists Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid between 1994 and 1997.  ‘The People’s Choice’ series sought to discover what people wanted to see and didn’t want to see in art, with the aim of creating the ‘most wanted’ and ‘least wanted’ paintings in 11 countries – ranging from America to Europe to Africa.  To establish this, the artists (sponsored by the Chase Manhattan Bank) commissioned marketing firms to poll populations which provided data for the creation of art.  People were asked to respond to 42 questions which included many questions on art (ranging from style to composition) and the results are interesting and remarkably uniform across the world. In general, most people prefer traditional art in the ‘European style’ featuring outdoor scenes during either spring or autumn with rivers or lakes and the inclusion of a few people and animals and with the predominant colours being blue and green. These parameters allowed the artists to create ‘The Most Wanted Paintings’ for various countries.  While there are many critiques of the project: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-komar-melamid-americans-painting-thought-wanted, the paintings, while whimsical pastiches,  are nevertheless thought-provoking.

The elements delineated by Komar and Melamid also relate to the images that neuroscientists and psychologists have demonstrated promote relaxation.  These include: green landscapes, seascapes, trusted or cute animals, patterns in nature (known as natural fractals), curved lines, the colour blue and traditional art. These images have been utilized with great effectiveness in guided imagery exercises and visualization relaxation techniques for many years.  Remembering these may prove helpful in these challenging times. In this context, it is interesting to reflect on which works of art in the NGV collection might be considered ‘soothing’. ‘Spring’ by Arthur Streeton and ‘Field naturalists’ by Jane Sutherland are clear examples in the Australian collection.

As a follow on from ‘The People’s Choice’ in painting, Komar and Melamid were approached by the American composer and performer, Dave Soldier (aka David Sulzer, neuroscientist) to sample people to determine which musical elements were most wanted and unwanted in songs. The survey of approximately 500 people revealed that the themes, instruments and other aspects that people least wanted to hear included bagpipes, accordians, tubas, drum machines, children’s voice and the styles of cowboy and rap music, opera and advertising jingles. In contrast, ‘The Most Wanted Song’ featured guitars, piano and drums, bass, and lyrics about love – a style of music described as ‘Celine Dion-esque’.  You can listen to the song created on youtube: http://: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McIfIx29tSg. You will probably agree with neuroscientists that this song is not as relaxing as ‘ambient music, ‘whale music’, the sound of the sea or even carefully modulated white noise!