When art surprises you

I am usually drawn to one type of art, scribbly marks, brushstrokes visible in blending paint, an intuitive feeling where you can feel the artist’s hand and energy. That is the way I like to make art and what I like to look at. I was delighted to be surprised by Terry Tsu’s paintings with geometric shapes, hard lines defining the edges and bright saturated colors. These are things that usually make me shudder or walk past but I an enchanted by these paintings! And I am doubly excited that I like something that I usually consider out of the realm of what I usually like.

Our tastes change as we grow, learn new things, get exposed to new ideas. we find new things we like and sometimes change our mind about what we like or don’t. I love being surprised when I find something I like that I had previously decided would be on the notlike list, like Terry Tsu’s hard lines and geometric shapes. I visited the Metropolitan Museum a few years ago and, getting lost, found myself in the byzantine art room. The madonna statues were so sublimely beautiful I gasped and stood with my mouth agape. And to think, when I was in college, I found them boring. What a dolt I was! I recently saw the Cezanne’s drawings exhibit at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Again, my witless college freshman self could not comprehend Cezanne and why my teacher went on rhapsodic about drawings and paintings that all looked the same to me. Now I stood in front of them and made the same gasp. How wonderful to be presented with evidence of our own growth! Thank you Terry Tsu, Paul Cezanne, unnamed Byzaantine artists and countless more to come (I hope!). What changes have you discovered in your likes/dislikes lists?