Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Here's an interesting book. The author, nobel prize winner, (for fundamental work on memory), Eric H. Kandel, has written a fascinating new book, The Age of Insight. You can browse though some of the contents here. Kandel speculates we use the same neurocircuits for our entertainment by art we love as those used when we fall for a mate. It's a kind of risky exciting adventure with the daring view of soft breasts and beautiful gold giving us a dose of dopamine and the repeated decorative patterns lulling and soothing us with serotonin. Perhaps art is, in part, a way of training us for such experiences in real ife.
"At a base level, the aesthetics of the image's luminous gold surface, the soft rendering of the body, and the overall harmonious combination of colors could activate the pleasure circuits, triggering the release of dopamine. If Judith's smooth skin and exposed breast trigger the release of endorphins, oxytocin, and vasopressin, one might feel sexual excitement. The latent violence of Holofernes's decapitated head, as well as Judith's own sadistic gaze and upturned lip, could cause the release of norepinephrine, resulting in increased heart rate and blood pressure and triggering the fight-or-flight response. In contrast, the soft brushwork and repetitive, almost meditative, patterning may stimulate the release of serotonin. As the beholder takes in the image and its multifaceted emotional content, the release of acetylcholine to the hippocampus contributes to the storing of the image in the viewer's memory. What ultimately makes an image like Klimt's 'Judith' so irresistible and dynamic is its complexity, the way it activates a number of distinct and often conflicting emotional signals in the brain and combines them to produce a staggeringly complex and fascinating swirl of emotions."
In the review on The Daily Beast we're advised:
"Start at the end. My advice, if you were to find yourself with a copy of Eric Kandel's new book, The Age of Insight—and I recommend that you do—is to first read the acknowledgments, on page 511. For at the end of this handsome chunk of text come the most personal memories: "I was born in Vienna on November 7, 1929 … Near our house were three museums that I never visited as a child, but whose subject matter later came to fascinate me and that now assumed a significant role in this book. The first is the Vienna Medical Museum celebrating, among others, the pioneering work of medical doctor Carl von Rokitansky. The second is the Sigmund Freud Museum, which used to be the great man’s apartment. The third is the Upper Belvedere Museum, which houses the world’s greatest collection of the paintings of Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, and Egon Schiele. So arrives, in the autumn of a long and decorated life, The Age of Insight, which really is one continuous and loving acknowledgment—of the debt that Kandel owes to the ghosts of great figures."Source
I've ordered the book and will write more when I've read it fully. Meanwhile an opposing view from Raymond Tallis in the Wall Street Journal:
"Art is not merely, or even importantly, a stimulus, processed by evolved brains on the lookout for rewards that will confer evolutionary advantage. We enter a gallery to look, reflect, look again, reflect some more, to make connections and thereby to be enriched. The "beholder's share" is a deeply personal, socially shaped, active experience rather than the programmed response of brain circuitry that we share with creatures whose entire lives are subordinated to ensuring the replication of the genetic material for which they are vehicles. We need to look elsewhere, or more deeply, for connections between art and science." source
Still if you like Klimpt, as I do and have visited New York to see the original paintings, this book should be a fascinating read. but watch out, some pages may be not for a casual read on the bus as there could be some pictures that might be considered NSFW!
Asher