What Is Good Art?
My grandfather, a banker and woodworker, walks into a gallery to find some art to hang on his wall. He knows nothing about art. All he knows is that he wants a painting and he needs to know that it’s "good". He's not interested in the investment value of the painting. He just wants to enjoy some nice art in his home. By the way, he's also color blind.
This is a man who doesn't make assumptions. If it comes with a manual, he'll sit back with a glass of scotch and read it from front to back, then go on to learn the history of the product before taking anything else out of the box.
On this day, he's seeking the help of an expert on art. He enters the gallery, glances around, then walks straight to the dealer:
"I'm looking for some art for my house."
Dealer: "Great. What are you looking for?"
My grandfather replies, "I don’t really know what I’m supposed to look for."
Dealer: “Well, what do you like?”
My grandfather pauses, a bit confused, then reiterates, “I don’t know anything about art, so I don’t know what’s good and what’s not good.”
Dealer: “Okay, well let’s take a look and see if anything speaks to you.”
As they walk together through the gallery, the dealer gives a brief explanation of each piece. My grandfather notices that the dealer isn’t telling him which pieces are the best. He seems to be treating them equally. My grandfather begins to realize that maybe this isn’t the same as buying a new lawnmower.
The dealer talks about each artwork in a totally different way without comparing them with the others. He mentions the incredible technical challenges of one piece, the cultural significance of another, and the creative use of color in another. Unfortunately, my grandfather thinks most of these are weird and downright ugly. Discouraged and a bit intimidated, my grandfather continues to follow the dealer to see if they can find the right piece for him.
As they continue through each work, the dealer notices he’s having a difficult time holding my grandfather’s attention as he keeps peaking over at a piece on the other side of the gallery. It’s a piece that actually caught his eye when he first walked in but he didn’t know whether that was a good one or not.
The dealer says, let’s take a look at this one over here. They walk over to the one my grandfather had his eye on and as they got closer his disposition started to change. He began to smile and his cheeks turned red. There was a glow on his face and a warmth in his heart that radiated throughout the gallery.
Taking note of my grandfather’s physical response, the dealer asks, “What do you like about this one?”
My grandfather says, “It brings back fond memories of my childhood and, to be frank, I don’t care whether this is considered good or not. I want to take it home.”
Beautiful!
Beautiful story.