Art As Therapy

Art galleries are peculiar places. People wander around enormous white rooms, staring solemnly at paintings, nodding thoughtfully at sculptures and occasionally pretending to understand something involving three bricks, a fluorescent tube and a statement about the human condition. Meanwhile, the artworks themselves remain magnificently indifferent to whether anybody is having a good time. Alain de Botton and John Armstrong, however, have a rather revolutionary suggestion: perhaps art is supposed to be useful.

Art as Therapy (2016), published by Phaidon, takes the refreshingly unconventional view that art should do more than decorate walls, impress wealthy collectors or provide academics with opportunities to use the word ’juxtaposition’. Instead, it argues that great works of art can help us understand ourselves, improve our relationships, confront our anxieties and navigate the bewildering emotional obstacle course generally known as life.

De Botton, the philosopher with a remarkable talent for making enormous existential questions sound like perfectly reasonable topics for conversation over coffee, joins forces with art historian John Armstrong to explore what paintings, sculptures and other artistic creations might actually do for us.

Their argument is delightfully straightforward. We are forgetful, anxious, impatient, lonely, confused and occasionally hopeless at appreciating what is right in front of us. Art, fortunately, has been quietly addressing these shortcomings for centuries, although nobody thought to provide an instruction manual until relatively recently.

Through a fascinating selection of artworks, the authors examine how beauty can restore our spirits, how images can encourage empathy, how artistic representations of suffering can help us confront our own difficulties, and how seemingly insignificant details can remind us that the ordinary world is considerably more interesting than we usually give it credit for.

Rather than asking whether a painting represents a particular artistic movement, the book encourages us to ask what it might teach us about courage, love, ambition, disappointment or the astonishing human ability to make a complete mess of otherwise promising circumstances.

Lavishly illustrated and beautifully presented, this is a volume that combines philosophical reflection with the visual pleasures of an art book. It is accessible, provocative and occasionally amusing, challenging the conventional notion that appreciating art requires either specialised education or the ability to stand motionless in front of a canvas for forty minutes.

Naturally, the idea that art might function as therapy raises an intriguing possibility: perhaps centuries of human creativity have been an extraordinarily elaborate attempt to make everybody feel a little better about themselves. Whether this makes a Renaissance masterpiece more effective than a reassuring cup of tea remains open to debate.

Condition: Very Good. This 2016 Phaidon edition is a well-preserved, previously owned copy, with only modest evidence of its earlier life. An attractive addition to the shelves of anyone interested in art, philosophy, psychology or the peculiar business of being human.

Offered by Crappy Old Books, where we cannot promise that purchasing a book will solve your emotional difficulties, improve your relationships or bring lasting enlightenment. We can, however, offer you a rather splendid volume suggesting that looking at beautiful things might help. And unlike conventional therapy, you get to keep the book.

Keep browsing: See more Art books Other books by Alain de Bottom and John Armstrong