How art can change your life

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How art can change your life is a book by the team of authors Alain de Botton and John Armstrong, first published in 2013 in English in London. They describe how a viewer can approach all forms of art in a way that they support him in solving his everyday problems. In addition, they develop far-reaching proposals on how this “therapeutic function” of art (English title of the book: “Art as Therapy ”) can be better used in museums and in public. Every work of art should be approached with the question: "What lessons would you like to give us that can help us in our lives?" Consistently and paradoxically thought through to the end, they close their book with the sentence: "The ultimate goal of the art lover should be to build a world in which works of art are a little less necessary than they are today. "

The book is easy to read thanks to 141 mostly colored reproductions that directly illustrate the adjacent text, didactic repetitions, a list of the works shown, a register, and references to sources and photos. The team of authors proves to be very experienced in popularizing their ideas: de Botton, for example, has published a whole series of books and articles on questions of life today, is the founder of the School of Life with bases worldwide and is the managing director of the Living Architecture project in Great Britain.

The concept of art as therapy

Need for art

There is a great need to integrate art “therapeutically” into everyday private life; This is proven by the spread and expansion of the museum shops with their variety of posters, postcards and devotional objects . In this way, the objects with which we surround ourselves in a balanced way would be a medium for communicating something about ourselves and our surroundings. These premonitions and tests of one's own development possibilities presumably led to the different conceptions of beauty , the positive expression of the needs behind it.

Inspiration through art

 “Just like other tools, art is able to expand our abilities through what nature has given us from the start.” Art can compensate, direct, admonish, comfort and enable the viewer to “make the best of himself.” “Art is a picture of a goal - it shows us where we should go. "

Works of art are possibilities, suggestions, invitations or signposts, with the help of which every viewer can practice and realize an expanded view of the world according to their individual needs. The rusty steel wall Fernando Pessoa by Richard Serra z. B., with its dark size, shows the proportion of sadness in the course of life, whereas Ben Nicholons 1943 (painting) shows a trust in human planning with his balanced composition of colors and shapes.

The most important potential lessons of art are usually quite simple: patience, curiosity, resilience, transparency and a balance of optimism and pessimism. In particular, the art helps us to remember people and events, not to feel alone in our suffering, to sharpen our awareness of the undeveloped sides of our personality or for our changing moods, to become more agile through confrontation with the unexpected and disinterest as a result of Breaking the habit of emphasizing the everyday.

Academic abbreviation of art

This therapeutic function of art, which is relevant to cultural history, is neglected in modern art studies due to the focus on the investigation of artistic means or political and historical contexts. This academic preoccupation with art remains a meaningful preparatory work and a supplement to the connection between art and life sought by the authors - but it is only in this new perspective that the academic tradition is given its due place. From their premise of a therapeutic, i.e. healing and inspiring function of art, the authors also deduce the need for a whole series of changes - in the subject of artists and their role, in the function of galleries and museums, in urban planning and politics.

Life support for individuals

After their rather systematic explanations, the authors turn to two main problems of our existence, love and nature, in which they demonstrate the usefulness of their approach with several examples:

Since love also ages under the habits and stresses of everyday life, works of art can re-motivate attention, friendliness and tenderness in relationships, which the authors also illustrate with the description of works of art.

Through the many examples of close observation of nature, we too could learn from artists to see better and more and to choose from the offers of nature that which particularly touches us. The preoccupation with art thus becomes a school of seeing and living.

Therapeutic art in society

In the last two sections in particular, the authors examine the influence of money and politics on the production, distribution and presentation of art in society. They describe a paradigm shift in the appropriation of art by art lovers as well as universities and museums.

Social engagement of art

In history, art has represented the political standpoints of the weak as well as the strong - social commitment is therefore not alien to art. Only in the romantic ideal of genius did the audience say goodbye to their topic expectations. Analogous to the individual therapeutic function, the authors call for a healing art that faces the challenges of its time and that manages to respond to nationally relevant questions such as justice, cohesion and identity with works of art.

Therapeutic strategies of museums

To make this art more inspiring, both individually and socially, the authors propose other focal points for their acquisitions and exhibitions. Too often, purchases are based on the interests of their benefactors and founders, on ideologies and fashions of education, but not on the therapeutic function of art. The presentation of art is usually dominated by an abstract, scholastic arrangement of the objects according to regions, times, types of art, workshops and artists and thus alienated from the audience and their inner experience. There is usually no therapeutic presentation that would be more responsive to the audience's existential questions with psychological rather than art-historical explanations. Therefore, they propose a radical change in the arrangement of works of art according to emotional themes (suffering, compassion, fear, love, self-knowledge), but this would mean a restructuring of the institutions that administer the art.

Public function of art criticism

The authors call for a stronger public criticism of the taste disasters in buildings caused by rational planning and the influence of financiers, but also see the limits of public opinion to get involved and then also the orientation of art advocated by the authors to challenge the existential questions of the time. An enlightened capitalism , a general development of taste , however, also require committed art criticism , above all psychological advice for buyers of art from gallery owners , at least e.g. Sometimes the artists have a new role as “ choreographers ” of experiences as well as a censorship of the use of public spaces through urban planning committed to the ethical growth of society - this is where the elected bodies are in demand.

Reception and criticism

Several renowned museums were not deterred by this comprehensive program and sought contact: on the basis of their practical approach, the authors were able to hold exhibitions in three large museums in 2014 ( Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto ) help shape.

As expected, however, the scope of this radical reform program caused both severe criticism and approval:

  • In Psychology Today , Alexander Kluy describes the authors as "strollers without history" on the way to "soulful wellness measures". “The two don't write. They're chatting. Superficial, vain, oppressively banal ”. He accuses them of “many hair-raising mistakes” - but without naming a single one.
  • Florian Illies sees in Zeit-Online the “magical, almost sacred” of art, its “magic” being destroyed by grotesque therapeutic-pedagogical work. [1]
  • In the art history portal , Stefanie Handke, despite the "exciting approach", is overwhelmingly disappointed by general placements, paternalism and the subordination of art as a means of self-optimization.
  • Kathleen Hildebrand finds the approach “very convincing” in the Süddeutsche Zeitung , but criticizes the fact that de Botton got into the museum shop business himself with devotional items.
  • The internet journal Kulturbuchtipps.de , edited by Ralph Krüger, describes the approach of the two authors on several pages and rates the book as an “excellent publication”.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How Art Can Change Your Life. Translated from the English by Christa Schuenke . 1st edition. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-518-46801-2 , pp. 239 .
  2. ↑ Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How Art Can Change Your Life . S. 81 .
  3. ↑ Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How Art Can Change Your Life . S. 228 .
  4. ↑ Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How Art Can Change Your Life . S. 43, 135, 213 f .
  5. ↑ Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How Art Can Change Your Life . S. 29 f., 32 f .
  6. ↑ Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How Art Can Change Your Life . S. 5, 226 .
  7. ↑ Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How Art Can Change Your Life . S. 101, 134, 146 .
  8. ↑ Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How Art Can Change Your Life . 24 ff., 54 f.
  9. ↑ Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How Art Can Change Your Life . S. 8th ff., 80, 104, 142 f .
  10. ↑ Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How Art Can Change Your Life . S. 48 f., 60 ff., 78 f., 87 f. 91 .
  11. ↑ Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How Art Can Change Your Life . S. 94 ff., 124 ff .
  12. ↑ Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How Art Can Change Your Life . S. 154 ff., 190 ff .
  13. ↑ Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How Art Can Change Your Life . S. 60, 73 ff., 78 ff., 81 ff .
  14. ↑ Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How Art Can Change Your Life . S. 67 ff., 155 ff .
  15. ↑ Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How Art Can Change Your Life . S. 167 ff .
  16. ↑ Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How Art Can Change Your Life . S. 160 ff .
  17. ↑ Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How Art Can Change Your Life . S. 73 ff .
  18. ↑ Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How Art Can Change Your Life . S. 147, 177 ff., 195 f .
  19. ↑ Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How Art Can Change Your Life . S. 169 f., 215 ff .
  20. ↑ Uwe Justus Wenzel formulates a devastating criticism of the exhibition additions by the team of authors in the NZZ : He criticizes the simplicity of the information in the explanations of the pictures, calls the authors “life school teachers” and “institutional doctors” and classifies their approach as “life art kitsch” and “substitute religion” .
  21. ↑ Understanding Art Newly Psychology Today, accessed on September 21, 2019
  22. ↑ Stefanie Handke: Alain de Botton, John Armstrong: How art can change your life, Suhrkamp 2017 portalkunstgeschichte.de, accessed on September 21, 2019
  23. ↑ Lebenshilfe in Monty-Python-Style sueddeutsche.de, accessed on September 21, 2019
  24. ^ NN: Book Review , accessed September 21, 2019