Chagall

I do believe that to love visual art is something to learn. You cannot stand in front of a surrealist painting and just love it at first glance. You have to learn about it, you have to learn about art itself, you have to educate your taste in order to fall in love with artworks. When I first started studying art history, I hated the Contemporary Art period. It was complete hell to me to look at Picasso when I've been studying Vermeer paintings the last couple of hours in my Modern Art period class. And Chagall, dear Lord, I hated his work. It was too colorful, almost childish, almost nonsense. I couldn't appreciate it for a second, I would just criticize and criticize again, never finding a good point about it. I passed my Contemporary Art exam with a 5 on 6. I did learn my lessons, but never learnt to appreciate this art. The following year to was time for the Medieval Art period. Well, I found something that I disliked even more than Chagall, however it is not that which made me change my mind. 

For a year I had to learn about cubism, surrealism, and one day I went to a museum and saw a Chagall painting. It wasn't this one, but it already did strike me. For the first time in my life I valued it. Days after that I started to do some researches on Chagall artworks, and stumbled upon this "Married couple with the Eiffel Tower". I knew that a year before I would have hated it. But now I was able to find interest in it by myself, I had enough background to know what I was looking at, but also a mind enough critical to put the right words on it. Now I was moved, it did something to me, I liked it. However I cannot explain it. It was just an aesthetic experience, a loved who needed to be educated, a love that did start with hate, but that will for sure stay forever.

xo

Amy