A Dose of Beauty #1

There is a diverse group of paintings, sculptures and mixed media pieces that evoke in me a strong feeling of love. The response is not the same for each piece, but it is always love in some form, or a mixture of love, awe and desire. I thought I would share some of these with you over the coming weeks and months. Art to soothe the soul. 

Not long ago, there was a study at the University of London, conducted by Semir Zeki, Professor of Neurobiology, who scanned the brains of volunteers while they viewed 28 works of art. He explained, “We wanted to see what happens in the brain when you look at beautiful paintings.” The experiment concluded when you look at art, “whether it is a landscape, a still life, an abstract or a portrait—there is strong activity in that part of the brain related to pleasure.”  When viewing art they considered most profound, the volunteers blood flow increased in a certain part of the brain by as much as 10%, which is the equivalent to gazing at someone you love.

Here is a work by Kenzo Okada (1902-1982), Winter, oil on canvas, 56x32 in. Okada was a Japanese-born American painter and the first Japanese-American artist working in the Abstract Expressionist style to receive international acclaim. 

In this luminous painting, Okada evokes the aura of landscape by using neutral colors and abstract patterns hinting at rocks, trees and earth. My eye immediately falls on the dark, inky shape in the center but then quickly catches the light diagonal passageway that leads my gaze upwards. There, we meet two sweet, leaf-like shapes that point us further upwards, until we find the three beautiful linear verticals. The directional movement here is swift but gentle. Once we reach the top we can follow the composition around again, more slowly, and with closer observation of the whole. Overall, the sensitive color tonalities, the use of light and movement, unite to evoke a moment of quietude.