Cultivating greater enjoyment of the visual arts can profoundly change your life.
Art in general–from painting, sculpture and drawing to literature, music and movies–packs that degree of life-enhancing power. But while some people at museums can experience speechless awe when encountering a beautiful painting or sculpture, others can muster only enough enthusiasm to say: “There were some pretty pictures and nice statues.”
If your experiences with the visual arts are more like the latter, what steps could you take to make them more fulfilling? How can viewing paintings, sculptures and drawings generate the same goosebumps or emotional lumps in your throat as hearing your favorite song or watching a beloved movie?
When I was a teenager and wanted to take art more seriously, I bought a set of 21 picture booklets, each devoted to a celebrated artist, from Michelangelo to Monet to Modigliani. Yet virtually none of their artworks resonated with me—except one by Rembrandt. His Portrait of a Young Man I cut from the booklet and hung it on my bedroom wall alongside my Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith posters. Like me, the subject was male, young and had long hair, and he sported cool 17th-century Dutch clothes.
Rembrandt’s Portrait of a Young Man. Photo: Joseph Kellard
Decades later, I unexpectedly happened upon this portrait at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. I was awestruck. The original captivated me, radiating my favorite qualities of painting: rich, complimentary earthtones, the dynamic interplay of light and shade, and clarity so vivid that I felt like I could reach over the picture frame and feel the youth’s velvet cloak. The portrait in the flesh projected a living, breathing presence.
This was a soul-enriching experience that sparked intense emotions. I felt a mix of joy and nostalgia at rediscovering a favorite artwork from my youth, pride in my ability to identify the qualities in painting that ignite my passions, and reverence for any artist who exhibits such mastery.
If you desire to cultivate a comparable passion for the visual arts, whether you’re new to art or seek to derive deeper meaning and inspiration from its beauty, I recommend employing the following six strategies, which I’ve either adapted from others or discovered myself.
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1. Check Out Picture Books
Just as reading art booklets sparked my early love for painting, so you too can establish a deeper affinity for the visual arts by looking at art books. Although countless artworks are readily accessible online, I suggest buying or borrowing (from your local library) physical books and slowly leafing through them. I’ve found that physical books offer a more measured, intimate and contemplative experience.
Because the visual arts are rooted in sight and touch, unlike literature (which is more conceptual and cerebral), I recommend you avoid trying to analyze the artworks you see. Instead, look at them strictly for their overall visual impact, from colors, lighting and textures, as well as their subjects.
Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Raphael. Photo: Joseph Kellard
As art appreciation expert and author Luc Travers instructs, forgo reading anything about the works, including their titles, stories, or artists. Try to formulate your observations in your own words, and note any emotions, positive or negative, that an artwork evokes in you. Perhaps you’ll discover that paintings featuring harmoniously combined primary colors or ancient busts with gritty textures catch your eye and stir up certain emotions the most. As you explore more books with this approach, you will begin to tap into valuable clues and insights about your responses to art.
Marble bust of the emperor Hadrian by an unknown ancient Roman artist. Photo: Joseph Kellard
Lastly, file all of this data away for future investigation. As you observe increasingly more artworks, these factors will start to coalesce and guide you toward narrower, personal preferences in the visual arts, a key to cultivating spiritual experiences.
2. Contemplate Art at Museums and Galleries
After you’ve looked through several picture books, visit museums and galleries to observe original artworks firsthand. Go armed with a curious and adventurous mindset and anticipate discovering a painting or sculpture that stops you in your tracks.
Again, focus first solely on each artwork’s visual impact without using the museum’s headphones or reading the informational signs (which you can snap photos of to read later). Look at the artwork as a whole and give it a personal title. This is one of many techniques I use to engage and connect with art that I’ve adopted from various sources but primarily from Travers’s books Touching the Art and Stories in Paint. Then, scan the artwork for details that might provide clues and facts about the identity of its subject(s) and story, and adjust your title accordingly.
Giambologna’s Abduction of a Sabine Woman. Photo: Joseph Kellard
Another technique is “thought experiments,” such as imagining what the subject(s) of a painting or sculpture did before and after the moment in which they are frozen in time. You can also imagine contrasts. For example, consider if Rembrandt’s clean-shaven, brown-haired and alter young man, who looks poised to smile, were instead scruffy and graying, and his eyes and mouth were turned down. Rather than appearing fresh into his military career, he looks battle-worn and ready to retire. Consider how these experiments may help you to understand the choices artists make, or how they may change your initial response to an artwork.
Portrait of Young Woman in Red by an unknown ancient artist in Faiyum, Egypt. Photo: Joseph Kellard
Also, ask yourself imaginative questions and, as with the picture books, verbalize the visuals. When staring at a portrait or a bust, ask: “What might this person say to me if she were able to speak?” When I see John Singer Sargent’s portrait of a socialite titled Madame X, I imagine her saying, “Please, I have no interest in speaking with commoners.” More generally, note your emotional reaction to an artwork and ask: “What details or other factors made me feel this way and why?”
“The best way to experience more deeply what is happening to the characters is to empathize with them—to identify with them by calling to mind a similar kind of situation from your own life.”
These creative techniques encourage a more active, contemplative and personalized approach to engaging with art, helping to develop a richer comprehension and emotional connection to each work.
3. Learn About Art, Artists, and Esthetics
The pleasures and inspiration you experience from just contemplating paintings and sculptures can be enhanced substantially the more you learn about art, artists and esthetics.
First, learn more about the artworks that resonate with you most, including their subjects, stories, histories, mythologies and artists. Ask yourself if this new knowledge enhances or diminishes your initial response to the artwork. If so, why?
Photo: Joseph Kellard
Next, learn more about the evolution of art and artists through the ages. Sources for study could include sweeping histories of Western art, such as Ernst Gombrich’s classic Story of Art, or Sandra Shaw’s 2022 volume Windows on Humanity. You could also watch documentaries such as Kenneth Clark’s renowned Civilization series or browse online channels dedicated to art. Or, read a biography about an artist you admire. After I read Walter Isaacson’s 2017 biography Leonardo da Vinci, I became more interested in Renaissance art and traveled to Italy to see da Vinci’s work firsthand. That trip energized me to read dozens of books about da Vinci, and I became fascinated by his integration of science and art.
“Art is inextricably tied to man’s survival—not to his physical survival, but to that on which his physical survival depends: to the preservation and survival of his consciousness. ”
You can also reap enormous benefits from reading theoretical works. Ayn Rand’s The Romantic Manifesto profoundly shaped my artistic views. In addition to her clarifying definition of art, she showed me that artistic creation reflects an artist’s fundamental philosophical beliefs about human life and this world, and that art plays a vital role in providing the spiritual sustenance required for human flourishing.
Photo: Joseph Kellard
Early on, I also benefited greatly from the work of art writer Dianne Durante, including her book Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan and essay “How to Analyze and Appreciate Paintings,” which were instrumental in helping me apply Rand’s ideas to the visual arts and understand both better. Durante’s work also taught me a method for analyzing artworks, from the overall composition of a painting down to the subtlest chisel marks in a sculpture, to identify their underlying themes. When I analyzed Rembrandt’s portrait, I took into account everything from his facial expression and posture to the quality of his clothes to the effects of the lighting and colors. From that, I formed the theme: “A young man looks proud and poised to start his career as a soldier for the prosperous Dutch state.”
By delving into the stories of specific artworks and their creators and studying esthetics, you empower yourself to independently identify and understand the deeper meaning of a painting or sculpture. This leads to more fulfilling and prideful experiences when engaging with the visual arts.
4. Identify Features in Each Medium You Find Most Appealing
While analyzing paintings and sculptures, I began to identify the qualities distinct to each medium–from the techniques to the materials artists used–that an artwork must possess for me to consider it a favorite.
For example, Rembrandt’s portrait radiates my favorite qualities of painting: color, lighting, and clarity. Perhaps you’ll recognize that your favorite paintings all feature blurred backgrounds that accentuate the subject in the foreground, or the sculptures you cherish most are marble carvings of nude lovers.
Adoration of the Child by Gerrit Van Honthorst. Photo: Joseph Kellard
After identifying your favorite qualities in both mediums, reflect on why they especially stir your passions. I particularly respond to vibrant colors that lend greater life to a painting, lighting and shade that evoke a welcoming warmth or heightened drama in a scene, and clarity that makes everything appear more real. The qualities that make sculpture my favorite medium are its three-dimensionality–in which the subject(s) share your physical space–and features that give the appearance of movement or action.
Three Dancing Maidens by Walter Schott. Photo: Joseph Kellard
I have identified that the sum of these qualities is that they make the subjects and scenes appear more lifelike. And when I asked myself why I’m most drawn to “lifelike” effects, I discovered that they make an artwork’s abstract values and themes appear more concrete, authentic and attainable to me.
Among the many potential benefits of these kinds of introspective ruminations is that they help you to connect artworks to your values, revisit personal experiences and reveal existing needs and desires.
5. Take Guided Tours
Jean-Léon Gérôme’s Pygmalion and Galatea by. Photo: Joseph Kellard
As you keep visiting museums, consider joining group tours led by knowledgeable guides. The best guides can introduce you to undervalued artworks, reveal overlooked details in familiar pieces, and offer fresh perspectives and insights on the subjects and artists.
With interactive tours, you can ask experts burning questions that went unanswered in books and documentaries. You’ll also get to share your experiences and knowledge with other art enthusiasts, bounce ideas off of each other, and connect over common interests and values.
One of my favorite guides from years past, art historian Lee Sanstead, led lively tours of the Metropolitan Museum, and his effusive enthusiasm for the artworks he showcased was incredibly inspiring. Also, Durante’s tours through the Met, Central Park and other areas of New York City with outdoor sculptures were highly informative and enlightening, often focused on specific themes such as innovators in painting and sculpture and historical figures such as Alexander Hamilton.
“[K]nowing biographical details about the subject tends to influence how you see the sculpture.”
These tours broadened and deepened my experiences, in part enabling me to observe firsthand how art invigorates others. My passion for painting and sculpture soared thereafter. I often revisited and took photos of the artworks that impacted me most during these tours. Afterward, I would research and write articles about these and other artworks for publications or my website.
The best tour guides can help facilitate for you a comparable love of the visual arts.
6. Surround Yourself with Inspirational Art
Because art is essential for our psychological and spiritual well-being, it is crucial to engage regularly with some form of art, whether music or poetry or movies. The visual arts are distinct in that they physically display in our living and work spaces, always present and ingrained into our everyday lives.
My work desk at home. Photo: Joseph Kellard
For these reasons, I recommend that you invest the time, money and effort required to display artworks, whether originals, copies or prints, especially in your home.
At my home desk, I have a display of multiple painting and drawing prints and a miniature version of Michelangelo’s David on the wall. When I’m sitting there struggling to write an article, perhaps an essay about art, I sometimes take a break, lean back in my chair, and gaze at my print of Vitruvian Man, da Vinci’s iconic sketch of an ideally proportioned man standing in a perfect circle and square. Strategically mounted in the middle of the wall, this image reminds me that I live in an orderly world with man at its center, a thought that reorients, reassures and refuels me to soldier on with my writing.
My experience is just one of many ways in which surrounding yourself with inspirational visual arts can provide spiritual nourishment to bolster your everyday activities, help you overcome challenges and otherwise enrich your life.
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By adopting the six steps I’ve outlined here, you can dramatically elevate your understanding and enjoyment of the visual arts, increase your potential to have profound spiritual experiences viewing paintings, sculptures and drawings, and, most importantly, fuel the pursuit and achievement of your most cherished values.