I don't understand fine-art

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Music, television, video games, books, etc. Those I totally understand.

Pictures, paintings, sculptures, etc. These give me trouble. Last year I took a trip to the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art) in NYC (hopefully I don't have to tell you what that one is) with a few co-workers. I looked around, and found myself completely uncaring of almost anything in the whole building. My co-workers described emotions that the art made them feel, but all I felt the whole day was hunger.

Meanwhile I've happily spent entire days in the American Museum of Natural History.

Does anybody else just not feel anything from fine-art?

I don't understand coarse art.

I probably don't understand much of fine art, either, but I like it. It just makes me feel any place with it is too classy for me to have any business being there.

I like art. You just need to learn how to understand it.

*just*

There's been about one hundred years of art evolving away from audiences, and while I'm all up for art history and contemporary art I can fully understand anyone not 'getting' fine art.

@ OP: if you actually want to understand fine art, I recommend starting with art history ca. 1850. Modernity. Impressionism, and move on from there.
Else, it's like a layman visiting CERN.
Apart from the architecture just not that interesting, if you don't know or care what a boson is... There's just a lot of ideas and concepts that build on each other, and on top of that, often an artist's personal tastes and private jokes.
If the MET doesn't speak to you, maybe find somwthing that does and read how it happened...

Bosons, CERN, etc. Those are the kinds of things that "speak" to me.

My family always described me as a "numbers" kid. I can look at a math problem or a puzzle and solve it in my head faster than most people can solve it on paper. And for some reason I get excited with numbers, puzzles, logic. But fine art...eh. I guess I'd get into it for somebody else, but I can't force myself to feel emotions about something like that as far as I know.

I think watching the last Star Trek movie is more enjoyable if you know enough about Star Trek to catch the inside jokes. For instance, did you know that the color of your shirt is really a life or death issue?

So that means you're one of the two kids in this painting.

I'm a puzzles person too, but I do love art. For me it's easier to recognise and feel emotion in art than it is in real people. To an extent you can learn to appreciate fine art in an academic sense, or perhaps in a biographical one. I have done this with a few artists I didn't 'get'; I still don't feel anything naturally when looking at their work, but I can try to understand it by learning about the artist's aims/context/character - actually this is a lot like my experience with real people lol ! No need to force it though, you have other passions so if you're not interested in art then that's OK too.

@ BTDT

*Slow Clap*

@ Rachey

Ok yeah, I do have respect for the fact that a lot of effort goes into art. And I respect the fact that it's something way out of my league.

But, for example, I went and saw the painting "The Starry Night" by van Gogh. I understood that this was a painting by somebody very famous who has influenced much of the modern art world. But the painting itself was...just a painting. You know what I mean?

I am very envious you got to see The Starry Night! Yes, I don't think I explained fully - the artist's 'context' doesn't quite cover what I'm trying to say; it's more than their era or (often posthumous) fame and influence.

So Van Gogh for example struggled with mental illness, depression, mania, frustrated talent, poverty; a fiery artistic temperament, but a fragility also... This is evidenced in his paintings; his dense and turbulent brushstrokes speak of his mental state, he uses strong and vivid colour to capture mood. Some people can get a sense of that just from the painting, but if you can't then perhaps reading into him would help you to connect with the artwork (Van Gogh's letters to his brother are an excellent read). It is a great feeling if you can get it naturally though; I'm not by any means moved by all works of art, but when you find something that really speaks to you it is incredible, pure emotion. I always find it interesting to learn about the artists behind works I admire; it's amazing how often you find commonality in your characters and experiences.

Beautiful puzzles and equations can be the same way though without a doubt. It's like something speaking to you, if that makes sense?

I actually really like "fine art", especially impressionism and cubism, but I think that some people can overplay it. Whether you like it or not isn't a judgment on you as a person. It's just what you prefer, and from what we know about the psychology behind enjoyment, people just kind of like what they like, often without much choice in the matter. Both of my favorite styles of fine art, while highly respected now, were seen as passing fads or worse when they were contemporary. Ditto for pretty much everything else like that. Art snobs gonna snob.

You don't have to

No, seriously. I actually appreciate art a lot and I can tell you, you're not missing anything. If it doesn't bring you pleasure, positive or interesting emotions and thoughts then it's just useless to you. Who knows, you might get a taste for it later in life, but otherwise, just enjoy what you really like and appreciate, not what others think you should.

And I can see why. I find most art of that period (modernity) endlessly boring.
Van gogh is historically important, but... It's 150 years old, and it shows.
If you want to see an artist suffer, I recommend viennese actionism. Those guys are still upsetting, 40 years later.

Van gogh, expressionism... all about feelings, which, you know, I don't have/ just don't translate like that.
But Dadaism is fun. Duchamp and oppenheim are brilliant.
Abstract minimalism is also interesting,- it is, at times, an attempt of reducing everything while still maintaing the feeling you get when entering a cathedral.

But really, I mainly enjoy the smart things that inspire thoughts I haven't had before.
That's why david shrigley is art. Not for his painting skills.

And some pictures, particularly hokusai and hiroshige, have an internal balance that transfixes me again and again. A bit like watching an intricate machine, all parts interlock and relate to each other - only it's just a handful of lines.
So... The artifice in the composition and in the way the lines connect to each other.