a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by AshShields
AshShields  ·  3807 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Our brains find certain shapes attractive

This is interesting, but not entirely relevant to contemporary art practice.

    Gary Vikan, former director of the Walters Art Museum and guest curator of the AAAS show, finds “Beauty and the Brain Revealed” to support Clive Bell’s postulation on significant form as a universal basis for art, as well as the idea professed by some in the field of neuroaesthetics that artists have an intuitive sense for neuroscience. Maybe, he claims, the best artists are those that tap into shapes that stimulate the viewer’s brain.

Interesting, but it does't pertain to a lot of art created today. A lot of art isn't concerned with beauty and aesthetic any more (but, in the same way, there is a lot that is exclusively is). Either way, interesting. Just that "best artists" comments doesn't sit right with me.