Judith Benhamou-Huet has been asking artists, collectors, directors, and creatives about the art that makes them feel good. A worthy conversation during these, as she describes it, Covidian times. Below, she shares the reason for the curiosity, as well as a few answers by video.
“In our new experience of the relationship between art and the internet, the online world has won. The sensation produced by the phone or computer screen almost always predominates over the sensation of the art itself meant to be displayed on screen. Paintings always look flat, as do sculptures, even when we can see them from different angles.
However, whenever we watch someone talking about art via the medium of a screen, it is the idea expressed by the person that dominates the screen. For as Leonardo wrote about drawing, art is a “cosa mentale”. The spirit takes over the medium. This is where things become wonderful: when it is between human beings.
This is why, during these rather gloomy Covidian times (there’s no time like the present to start inventing new words), for the readers of JBH Reports and for myself, I wanted to breathe some beautiful cerebral energy into our relationship to art, within the limits of public health regulations and the vast network of communications at humanity’s disposal today.
Oscar Murillo ( Choice of Hélène N’Guyen Ban)
Since our spheres of interest have been pathologically refocused onto only ourselves and our neighbors I have decided to throw open the virtual windows to invite people who I like, whether they are nearby or very far away, to talk about the crucial subject of “art that makes us feel good”.
We have all, at one time or another, come away from an exhibition or experience of the visual arts feeling reassured, feeling more alive, or feeling as though we had a better understanding of things within us that had never been expressed. These are not commonplaces; they are profoundly intimate experiences.
Cara Chan ( Choice of Kenrick McDowell)
I have therefore contacted forty or so people from around the world with greater or lesser success. This initiative was not meant to be representative in terms of sex, ethnicity, culture, or skin color. In the short timeframe that they were given, each person responded in their own way, positively or negatively too, of course.
The journey through the world of “art that makes us feel good” is very, very diverse. In certain cases, in certain parts of the world, it has dramatic tendencies and in others it verges on humor or the deliciously absurd. This exploration is divided into two episodes.”
—From Judithbenhamouhuet.com
