When the best soccer player scores a magnificent goal, his team celebrates. However, the same goal that would be voted ‘Goal of the Season’ is met with pain and anguish by opponents. Perception definition in art takes the same form.
Perception in art is how a person understands art based on his background or bias. It is theoretical and defines the influence of personal experiences in the determination of an artistic piece as beautiful or otherwise. It is the reason one person will call an object beautiful while the other holds a contrary opinion.
What is perception?
A deeper look at perception will help you understand how it influences our view. Perception is a checklist that each person uses to judge situations. For instance, you can say that all catholic nuns are good or all footballers are strong.
The perception is built over time due to personal interactions and stories you have heard about other people. It feels like a commonsense understanding of a situation. For instance, you can claim that all parents are good on their kids. While it is true in most cases, children who have not had a good experience with their parents will disagree with you.
In a nutshell, perception develops over time and will result in a bias when looking at a piece of art. It results in a dynamic evaluation of artistic styles and classification as good, excellent, or bad. Because perception is subjective, the same art piece classified as bad in one context becomes the winner in another.
How does perception change our view of art?
It is possible to change your judgment of a piece of art. New information or looking at the piece of art from a different angle will change your understanding. Here are ways in which our view of art changes our perception.
Personal history and exposure
Every person comes to the judgment table with personal history. If you have interacted with art more, you have a better appreciation of artistic expression. It will also depend on how you interact with the art and the shape that art takes. By the time you are looking at new artistic forms, you have formed a perception of the art form and people. You have a preferred taste and preference.
The exposure shapes your appreciation and judgment of the art in front of you. People who have seen more art are lenient in their judgment. They give more room for personal expression, thus accepting what is placed in front of their eyes. If you have not interacted with much art, your perception is narrow. You will be more biased, resulting in extremely high ratings or low ratings.
Ignorance of details
Each art form has a story. For instance, music may be performed for an occasion. A sculptor could be imitating a person or an abstract idea. In other cases, each society has a different way of expressing its art. All these facts inform the artist but are not necessarily available to the consumer.
Without the appreciation of facts, you create a diminished perception that will be unfair to the art you are judging. Studies of perception in art history indicate that once you have full details, you get a eureka moment where the beauty of a presentation dawns on you. You can be more objective in your judgment in the process.
Art is not methodical
The biggest challenge with art is the lack of formula. Each person judges art based on personal preferences and history. If art had a template, it would have been easier to award marks uniformly. In the absence of a method, art has to be judged using perceptions.
The overriding question becomes what is perception in art and how does it affect our appreciation of the same? In the absence of a formula to judge art, we are left to use personal bias and the limited available information. The verdict is heavily influenced by personal opinion, resulting in multiple interpretations.
