Journal #2

I find the article to be very intricate and pretty interesting. One point that I find interesting is that we see things differently because of what we know and what we believe. I think that this is definitely a true statement. For example, if we see a gorgeous photograph of an actress that we hate, it does not matter how beautiful the image is, because we will not like it. This is just a simple example of the point. I love the pieces by Rene Magritte that deal with this concept. He is one of my favorite artists. I also love Manet and I feel that his paintings are definitely ones that are better when you know something about them. I had seen his paintings when I was young and just always thought that they were just classic paintings because I was viewing them in a modern day context. After taking art history and learning about other paintings and about what Manet was doing with his work, I realized what a rebel he was and I loved his paintings. Now when I look at his paintings I definitely see them differently than I did before, because of what I know and what I believe. My personal beliefs affect the way I see them as well as the information that I know about the paintings, because my beliefs allow me to respond to Manet’s paintings the way that I do. Other people may look at them and hate him, and think that he is a blasphemous artist. I think that it is a good thing to know some information about the art that we see because it changes the way that we see the images. It was interesting when we discussed Andy Warhol in class. Andy Warhol is so famous now and because he has this whole persona and his lifestyle is well known, this changes the context of the way we view his work. We have this whole image of how he produced his work in his studio with all these people surrounding him, and with all of his muses, and everything. I think that since what we know affects the way we see things, it is also important to think about how what we don’t know also affects the way we see things.