How the brain interprets art

The Mona Lisa

CNN Health has a feature story of what neuroscience has to tell us about how our minds make sense of art such as line drawings and impressionistic rendering of light and shapes, and why we enjoy it.

 Pablo Picasso once said, “We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.”

If we didn’t buy in to the “lie” of art, there would obviously be no galleries or exhibitions, no art history textbooks or curators; there would not have been cave paintings or Egyptian statues or Picasso himself. Yet, we seem to agree as a species that it’s possible to recognize familiar things in art and that art can be pleasing.

To explain why, look no further than the brain.

To read the rest of the article, go to: CNN: What the Brain Draws From