By James Sam

It is a common idea to have that to escape the familiarity of our homes, we must seek novel settings. 

To bask in the presence of foreign flora and grand views, an adventure far beyond the borders of our homeland. But this is not the case. Confined within a frame, at times completely removed from reality, other times the spitting image of it, art has the power to transport its audience through an entirely new experience.

When an artist depicts a particular scene, in the case of realism, it is an attempt at a direct representation of that scene. The trees in his painting are meant to highlight the trees that exist in the world, which inspired him to create his art piece, and in a similar fashion the sun, the stars, and so on. These direct representations tell the tale of an existing place, expressed through art, and shared with the viewer. 

Upon viewing a piece of realistic art, the viewer becomes informed of a real location, with finer details known only to those who have seen the depicted scene. Imagine yourself on a dentist’s chair, anxious for an upcoming procedure. A painting of Rome’s famous Colosseum hangs on the wall before you and, as you pay attention to its many details, such as the hard stone and concrete foundations, the collapsed portions at the behest of natural disasters, you experience the Colosseum. Your sense of sight and the contents of your mind is of a scene thousands of kilometers away, yet here you sit at the local dentistry.

THE COLOSSEUM An elliptical amphitheater in the center of the city of Rome, Italy

Art, and what has come to be known as art, has largely changed over the years. Contemporary artworks, embracing the abstract and obscure, speak of more than the imagery of our world. Artworks far removed from any realistic depictions tell tales of emotion and experience. Take Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night, an oil-on-canvas painting depicting the view from his asylum room’s window at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Painted in exaggerated brush strokes, with a dark and surreal color palette, van Gogh’s artwork represents the contents of his mind and the emotions he felt. Certain aspects of his painting were constructed out of his desire to express an emotion or experience rather than to portray a real setting. Examples of this are the village under a swirl of the sky which could not have been seen from his eastward-facing window, and how although the painting is set at night, it was created across several sessions with different atmospheric conditions.

STARRY NIGHT Vincent van Gogh’s artwork depicting the window view from his asylum room’s window at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence

What van Gogh truly desired to express in his painting remains a topic for debate. Some interpretations describe the dark color scheme and swirled brush strokes as his deteriorating mental health, others identify the presence of light colors and orb-shaped stars in the dark as symbols of hope. As a viewer of his painting, one is forced to wonder why it was crafted in such a peculiar style and manner. Emphasis is placed on the how and why rather than the where and when of his painting.

The connection between artworks and their audiences allows for an experience far removed from where one stands. A person can see the world by means of an artist’s literal view or his internal experience, expressed through art. If you are ever seeking an escape from the comfortable and familiar, visit an art museum before you buy a plane ticket.