The Groove 159 - How Art Helps Heal
HOW ART HELPS HEAL
The world is in a painful and dire state and sometimes I feel helpless. Helpless to bring about solutions or effective actions to circumstances that are way outside my scope of control.
But I always find some solace in art. Probably you do too. I’m lucky that my job entails looking at art and beautiful things. I can also say that because of art I am more understanding of other people’s sorrows, plights or points of view, no matter how different they are from mine.
Today I want to invite you to look at art with the specific intention of bringing some healing, and to build a bridge to learn things that you may not know or fully understand. I’m not talking about art-making here, which is absolutely therapeutic - I am talking about the more universal art-watching experience at galleries and museums that almost anyone can do.
Art as a Spiritual Experience
I took this picture last week at the Mark Rothko retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. I don’t know who this person is but I do know that he was transfixed.
Last week I was in Paris and went to see the incredible retrospective of Mark Rothko at the Fondation Louis Vuitton. I have seen hundreds of Rothkos in my life and even visited the Rothko Chapel in Houston this past summer. But there was nothing like seeing the 115 canvases put together in this show.
As I moved from the lower floors towards the upper ones, the mood of the works became more somber. The pieces went from atmospheric reds, yellows and greens to heavy dark browns and grays. People were very chatty on the first floor but profoundly silent by the time we reached the fifth. We were all transfixed. I left the building with a reverence for humans, their creations and life that I can’t find the right words to express.
Rothko wrote of his work: "I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions, and the fact that lots of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I communicate those basic human emotions. The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them.”
Was Rothko able to transmit to the spectators his own feelings and ideas even 54 years after his death? Given what I felt and saw others do, the answer is an unequivocal yes. Viewing art created by others with such a level of poignancy can help us relate to the artist's emotions and connect with our own.
Art as an Aid in Healing
An onlooker in front of The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli at the Ufizzi Gallery in Florence. Photograph: Alberto Pizzoli.
Looking at art has the remarkable ability to heal the mind and nurture emotional well-being in various ways. This therapeutic effect can be attributed to the power of aesthetics, self-expression, and the human connection to artistic creation.
We have heard many times the phrase that “art heals”. It almost sounds cliché but as science confirms, it’s not.
A landmark study showed that hospital patients who have window views of nature often recover faster than those who don't. Since having a window overlooking trees isn’t feasible for everyone, researchers began measuring the impact of healing in a room with art and found that the effect is the same.
In hospital settings, the objective is to take the patient’s mind away from the disease or condition and replace the thoughts with some beauty. Patients with post-traumatic stress disorder and generalized anxiety disorder reported the most significant positive improvement in mood.
But you don’t have to be in a hospital to benefit from this. In a series of pioneering brain-mapping experiments, Professor Semir Zeki, a neurobiologist at the University College London, scanned the brains of volunteers as they looked at 28 pictures, which included “The Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli, “Bathing at La Grenouillere” by Claude Monet and John Constable's “Salisbury Cathedral”. His findings tell us that viewing art triggers a surge of the feel-good chemical, dopamine, into the orbito-frontal cortex of the brain, resulting in feelings of intense pleasure.
If this can happen to patients in hospital beds and to people looking at pictures on a screen, how many more benefits can we get when we step out to a gallery or museum and confront the art in person?
Art as a Tolerance Tool
Sometimes I’ve found myself criticizing people’s behaviors without fully knowing what their reasons were; at other times I’ve found myself feeling distant and confused about why people act the way they do. Art has helped me bridge that gap and find tolerance and empathy for others.
A group of researchers from the University of Arkansas conducted surveys of 10,912 students and 489 teachers at 123 different schools who had gone on field trips to art museums.
Overall, the students and teachers improved in their levels of critical thinking, historical empathy (the ability to understand and appreciate what life was like for people who lived in a different time and place), and tolerance of other opinions and points of view.
The invitation to contemplate art, slowly and deeply, helps us gain insight into the artist's perspective and can build patience with those we don’t fully understand. This can foster empathy, build better relationships and enhance our ability to navigate the complexities of human interaction.
In the realm of human experience, art stands as a beacon of both healing and tolerance. It has the power to mend fractured minds, ease anxiety, speed up healing and offer solace, inspiration, and a respite from the pressures of daily life. Simultaneously, art encourages a profound sense of understanding among individuals from diverse backgrounds, fostering unity in a world often divided by differences. This dual role of art as a healer and a bridge-builder underscores its enduring importance, not only in enriching our lives but in shaping a more compassionate, empathetic, and harmonious society.
I hope this week you can step out and see some art.
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