I didn’t “get” abstract art as a young adult – which was the time I knew a lot more than I do now. Anybody could do that, I thought. The New Yorker and Atlantic Monthly had funny cartoons about it.
As I aged and started to know less, I was exposed to deeper thinking and more museums. One day really not that long ago, I unintentionally watched a documentary about art, and it was a show on PBS called “Rothko: Pictures Must Be Miraculous” Blurry rectangles, nice colors.
Then I looked a long time at a picture of a Mark Rothko painting, long enough to be mesmerized, and long enough for the dialog in my head to shut up. And not to be too twee about it, I felt myself getting emotional and for my breath to be taken away.
“If you think it is simple, you should try to do it yourself,” one of the interviewees on the show said. So, try it I did. I’m no Mark Rothko, but wow, has working on abstract art made me see things differently. And I truly love looking at abstract art by other artists.
I know that not everyone can stop the internal critic, the long-running prejudice: I’m not judging that. But I hope that even if you think it’s dumb, stop, look hard at it, and be quiet in your head. Give it a chance to shake you.
