This site provides many quick, easy-to-get-with examples of what a work of art is. I have just discovered the best written description I’ve ever seen that communicates this — without the use of examples. It is by the great poet, Walt Whitman. Here it is: The land and sea, the animals, fishes, and birds, the sky of heaven and the … Read More
Vivid Emotional Insight from Willa Cather
Here is another great example of how a work of art communicates something that can’t be communicated intellectually. There’s no communication of information only, that can convey what this so vividly conveys. It’s from a novel by Willa Cather that is often found on lists of the greatest novels of all time—”Death Comes for the Archbishop.” Set in New Mexico … Read More
From GATSBY—Fastest Example Yet of What a Work of Art Does
I was having lunch a couple weeks ago with two business colleagues. I was trying to express to them what it is that a work of art communicates. I tried this Robert Frost poem, but it didn’t “connect.” Then I tried the last line of Gatsy – one of the most famous sentences in the history of the novel: So we beat … Read More
Hamlet is a Huge Personality
I was reading Hamlet recently. You know the story – he comes home from studying at university on the occasion of his father’s funeral, only to find that his mother has already gotten remarried to Claudius, the brother of Hamlet’s father. And as if that isn’t bad enough, the ghost of Hamlet’s father appears and tells Hamlet and two of his … Read More
What a Work of Art Communicates: Example from “Moby Dick”
Here’s the paragraph that introduces Stubb, in Herman Melville’s MOBY DICK. Stubb was the second mate. He was a native of Cape Cod; and hence, according to local usage, was called a Cape-Cod-man. A happy-go-lucky; neither craven nor valiant; taking perils as they came with an indifferent air; and while engaged in the most imminent crisis of the chase, toiling away, … Read More
Amazingly Vivid Characters in “Jane Eyre”
An illustration from the Book Jane Eyre is Reading in Chapter 1, “Bewick’s History of British Birds” Here are the very first paragraphs of “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte. There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there … Read More
Emotional Insight About the Quest for Beauty in Life, from Painter Jan Van Eyck
For me, the way into the appreciation of this painting is through the faces. Chancellor Rolin is on the left. He’s the wealthy and influential minister who hired Jan Van Eyck to paint this. He’s gazing at the supernatural visitation on the right with a severe and attentive look. To me it feels as though the world of the holy … Read More
Cezanne’s Breathtaking Painting, “Lake Annecy”
This one goes out to my Twitter friend @KnitSix, who also likes Cezanne. This Cezanne painting is breathtaking, even as an image on a web page. You feel exactly the beauty of seeing that same scene for yourself. Cezanne painted the view from his hotel room. What’s so fascinating, of course, is that you could take a photo of the same … Read More
“Acquainted with the Night” – Big Emotional Insight from Robert Frost
This one goes out to my Twitter friend @TeresaFederici, who also likes Frost. As regular readers of this site are aware, one thing I do here is to search out big, easy-to-get-with examples of emotional insight in art – examples you can look at briefly and immediately say, “Wow, I get that. It has a huge meaning to me that … Read More