Art is a test we always fail.

O for a Life of Sensations rather than of Thoughts!  

                                                                              - John Keats

This is a sad story. It’s tragic. It’s about stories of love and death that will never be understood.

It’s about art galleries.

I can see you’re bored already. No, wait, I promise it won’t involve any painfully silent whitewashed corridors or musty smells or artistic concepts you don’t understand.

I study English literature, so I spend a lot of my time reading, looking at and thinking about art. Last time I was in London with my family, I fancied popping to see some Pre-Raphaelite paintings (sorry, I lied about the long words). There was just one problem. My Dad. He can’t stand art galleries. I watched as he moped around for a while, laughing at some paintings, staring dumbfounded at others, before stubbornly slumping into a corner, evidently waiting to leave. I am sure he is not the only one who, if they must go into one of those places, has this inevitable response. When I asked him why he didn't like art, his response was simple: I don’t understand it.

I’m sure all of us have experienced being dragged round these places on school trips when we were younger. The problem is, it has made us all think that art is a kind of test. When I see people walking round an art gallery, it’s less with an air of casual indifference, and more with a panicked determination to see, to know, to understand. What does it mean? What are they trying to say? I don’t know. I don’t understand. And art becomes a test we always fail. Many of us walk out of an art gallery feeling more stupid than when we walked in. And if this is true, art has failed.

I could write all day about the purpose of art. But one thing I believe about art is that it isn't a riddle that needs solving; there is no meaning to uncover or secret truth to detect. Anything we see in a work of art is brought by ourselves. When we look at a painting, we shouldn't strain to understand what the artist was trying to do, we should just pay attention to the way we feel. Enlightened, disgusted, sad, confused: this is all fine. Art is an experience, not a test. Don't be afraid of art, because art is only ever as good as its viewer, and if we cannot understand art, we cannot understand ourselves.